*The book discussed in this post was gifted by Macmillan Publishing*
No Big Deal has been on my radar for quite some time now, and i was absolutely thrilled to find out that Bethany Rutter would be attending YALC this year, giving me the perfect excuse to pick it up. I made sure that No Big Deal was high up on my priority for my YALC TBR so i could get around to it ASAP.
No Big Deal is centred around Emily, a college student who is getting ready to start University and also dealing with the minefield of dating, especially as someone who is fat. Her mother has been on every diet under the sun and is constantly trying to persuade Emily in to doing the same. Emily loves her body and tries to promote body positivity, however with her friends getting boyfriends and her being left behind, it makes her start to question things a little bit.
I knew from the start that this would be sort of a rom-com, love story type of thing. Which i was completely down for. As long as you know that it’s going to be a contemporary romance going in, then i’m pretty sure you’ll love it. The story itself is a lot of fun and quite realistic. A lot of Emily’s feelings towards her friends, her family and her situation felt incredibly realistic. Such as her being jealous of her best friend once she loses some weight and gets a boyfriend. Those are things that everyone’s felt in those situations and i think it translated really well in the way Bethany wrote the book.
The characters were quite well rounded and well written in my opinion. I adored Emily’s sister and mother, who were supportive and a little overbearing but truly wonderful characters. I didn’t love Emily as much as i expected that i would, but i think a lot of that was to do with her childish manner sometimes, and me shouting at the book not to do something or don’t be so stupid. With relationships, admittedly she’d never been in one before, she seemed incredibly clueless throughout the majority of the book, even as it was written clearly something was off. It threw me and kind of made me frustrated with her character.
There is a lot of body representation in No Big Deal which is as to be expected. Mostly it’s very positive and sheds a lot of light on to what it is like for a teenager to be overweight. I personally was an overweight teenager and i felt a lot of the things that Emily felt. It’s all discussed really well and in a positive manner. However, there were a couple of things i just wasn’t too sure on, some ways bodies were being discussed and eating habits were being discussed might be a triggering for some people, so definitely keep that in mind.
I didn’t really get the cute romance that i wanted from No Big Deal, but there were some wonderful characters and it was incredibly written and a lot of fun to read. If i need a quick read with some great diversity and good messages, i’d definitely pick this up again!
The Little Contemporary Corner 