Sure there could have been more development within the side characters and more added to plot trajectory, but overall Ellie captivated me and pushed this book into awesome territory. This book makes me want to give a hug to Ellie and it reading it felt like receiving a hug. In this free-verse novel, Fipps is laceratingly authentic about the kind of ‘teasing’ and ‘help’ that Ellie is constantly subject to, and the family dynamic, wherein her father dislikes her mother’s treatment but rarely intervenes, is sadly believable. I loved Ellie’s journey and the growth mixed with reality. While the events in this book seem outlandish, they are truths that I have also experienced. Ellie, the 11-year-old Texan narrator of this novel in free verse, doesn’t have a problem with her. When Ellie starts a friendship with new neighbor, Catalina, and she begins going to a therapist, she starts to find her true worth and begins standing up for herself. In her debut novel, Starfish, Lisa Fipps confronts diet culture and fat phobia head-on. Ellie has three main enemies at school, each of whom take every chance to put her down. Ellie’s mother is the worst bully of all, she posts articles about diets and bariatric surgery. Most people in her life body shame her, except for her father and her best friend, who is moving away. Ellie has rules for being a fat girl, the only thing that will help her survive.
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