By Sweeney Boo
Eat, and Love Yourself (ARC Review)
Eat, and Love Yourself is a short, and somewhat simplistic, yet gorgeous graphic novel centering around discussions of body dysmorphia and eating disorders.
The story follows Mindy who, by chance, purchases a chocolate bar called Eat, and Love Yourself, not knowing the new perspective it will give her on her life and her past.
When I say this book is really beautiful, I mean it. If Eat, and Love Yourself was a movie, it would win an Oscar for color grading. The amount of aesthetically pleasing, perfectly color-schemed pages in this short novel is astounding.
But the plot beneath the beautiful appearance is a bit one-dimensional.
This book is basically a parable. It shines a light on the very important topics it’s trying to tackle in a thorough and graceful, yet quite obvious, way. More obvious and simplistic than was necessary even for the YA audience it was intended for. Just from reading the synopsis, it’s pretty clear what will happen in the story and how it will end up.
It’s hard to really connect to a character, even when she is incredibly relatable, who is so clearly the means to an end and I felt a certain lack of emotional investment to the characters and the overall story, which was unfortunate considering what emotional ties would have added to this novel and to a topic that is so emotionally driven.
I rated Eat, and Love Yourself 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Boom!box for the early copy in exchange for an honest review!
Body shaming, body dysmorphia, depression, and eating disorders.
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