13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl

By: Mona Awad
 
Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks. Even when she starts dating guys online, she's too afraid to send pictures: she knows no one would want her if they could really see her. So she starts to lose. She counts calories consumed, miles logged, pounds lost, raw almonds eaten—she even undertakes an epic battle with a von Furstenberg. But no matter how much weight she loses, will she ever see herself as anything other than a fat girl?

In her brilliant, hilarious, and at times shocking debut, Mona Awad simultaneously skewers the body image-obsessed culture that tells women they have no value outside their physical appearance and delivers a tender and moving depiction of a lovably difficult young woman whose life is hijacked by her struggle to conform.

As caustically funny as it is heartbreaking, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl doesn't ask whether beauty really is in the eye of the beholder—it shows what we see when we stop thinking of women's bodies as something to behold.