I enjoyed this and think it will help many young teen (gurls especially) to love themselves for who they are and accept their bodies.

16-year-old Bluebell or 'BB' as she's know to friends and family is fat, and she's pretty okay with this. BB loves her food, really loves it and she also loves herself and her body -however issues arrive after BB has an asthma attack during school exams and is instructed to keep a food diary by her doctor, which turns into a bit more an everyday diary as BB talks about her experience living in a bigger body in a world that has been programmed to think thinner is better.

This is a book I honestly wasn't sure about when I started it as I think I felt a little overwhelmed by Bluebelle's personality at the beginning of the book - there was definitely a personality clash but the more story went on, and the more the reader saw the softer, quieter and more insecure sides of BB than than public persona she parades around in, I liked her a lot more.

This is a book I wouldn't recommend reading if you're hungry or if you're dieting as there are so many food descriptions from yummy shepherd's pie with cheesy mash on top, to mushy, vinegary chips, YUM. There are also some gross food descriptions I could have done without to be honest as well, and there were times BB ate or thought about eating some things that really made me wonder.

I love BB's body confidence and how beautiful she knows she is. She does tend to focus on other people's size, especially if they are smaller like her sister Dove and her manager Alicia - she uses descriptions like bony and sharp to describe these people to over emphasise how thin they are in comparison to her. I was a bit iffy about her lackadaisical attitude towards exercise and her overall health, especially given her asthma, but I'm glad this was sorted by the end of the book and we see BB find joy in moving her body in different ways alongside joy of her curves. As someone who generally hates exercise, I understood her reluctance about it but have to admit that some kind of movement most days is better for us in the long run - and you can be fat and fit!

One of the things I loved most in this book was BB's relationship with her little sister Dove who is very opposite of BB in many ways. The way they looked after each other and had little moments together in sisterly companionship was just very nice, and every time I think of Bum Tills now I will probably laugh out loud.

The book was good. It’s not going to win awards for the best storyline or well written book but there was enough in there to keep me reading and a few places had me chuckling and agreeing in equal measures

Can see what Dockrill was trying to do here by dispelling the whole fat+eating bad food stereotype, but I think the format of a food diary is just a bit too triggering even when trying to use it in a positive light.

I reall wanted to love this book, being a plus size girl myself. I found some of it very true to life. Constantly thinking about food but i found it didnt seem a body positive as i was expecting it to be,

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

Bluebell Green is 16, and she's decided she's had enough of school. Rather than worrying about her GCSE results, she's going to get an apprenticeship at her weekend job - if she can convince the manager that is. When her mam drags her to the doctors following an asthma attack, the nurse tells her she needs to lose weight, and keep a food diary over the summer to track what she's been eating. She knows she's fat, and she doesn't care, but in order to placate her mam, she'll go along with it, and will even get a gym membership if she has to. But then her younger sister is injured, and BB loses her love of food, and starts to think that maybe she should make a change to her life.

I hated this book. I'll just admit it, and honestly, if I didn't want to clear it from my TBR, I would've DNFed it extremely early on. BB as a character was extremely immature - I'm not saying that as an adult complaining about a teenager being a teenager, but she didn't act like a sixteen year old, and there were far too many scenes and chapters that I would say was more like a 12 year old. She also had a horrendous relationship with food, and I'm all for being body positive, but she went around it the wrong way. It was like she wanted to shock people - especially the nurse - and would do it in any way possible. And then there was the whole plot line surrounding Dove's accident. BB acted like Dove being in a wheelchair - temporarily - was a death sentence, and the end of the world, and it was extremely ableist, and obnoxious. She also tried to make Dove's accident all about her, when really, it wasn't. Such a disappointing book!

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

I wanted to love this book more than I did. It was well intentioned, with a good premise and started off ok but just never seemed to go anywhere.

I loved BB as a character, but I was left underwhelmed. It wasn't as fat positive as I expected it to be sadly.

Bluebelle, aka Big Bones, loves food. Every chapter of this book has a food theme, starting with one of my personal favourites - crumpets! This is the food diary that Bluebelle was encouraged to keep following the appointment with the nurse that her mum dragged her to.

Bluebelle is a body confident 16 year old who has a very close bond with her sister and thinks she knows what she wants to do in life. She has just finished her GCSE Exams and wants to start an apprenticeship at Planet Coffee rather than stay on at school. This may (or may not) have something to do with Max who also works there. Dove her sister is the complete opposite of BB. She does not sit still and loves free running/parkour. Somehow Dove manages to eat what she likes and stay slim.

When a family tragedy strikes it prompts BB to reassess her relationship with food and start taking more care of her health.

I really enjoyed reading this warm and funny book. Bluebelle has such an honest voice (it is possibly too honest in places!) There were some moments where I genuinely laughed out loud. I still wonder where the author got the idea for bum tills…

This book will really appeal to teenagers who like reading humour/contemporary fiction.

I’m so surprised that Big Bones managed to get shortlisted for the YA Book Prize, because it’s highly damaging. Bluebelle is an overweight character who loves herself and doesn’t care about her size (something I would normally applaud in YA, as embracing yourself for who you are is an extremely important lesson to teach teenagers) but so much of this book is handled terribly. The first thing that springs to mind is the overly detailed description of how to make yourself be sick, as it would have caused me a lot of problems if I’d read this book at a younger age while I was struggling with my weight. Bluebelle’s general selfishness got on my nerves, and I was very close to DNFing it but I thought something redeeming must happen to merit that shortlist appearance. Sadly, I was wrong.

Whay can I say abouy Bluebell? Her story is brilliant and her attitude is just amazing! Her relationship with food and with her oen body is refreshing and I think a lot of young women could learn from BB. This book was funny, sweet and fast moving. Loved it!

This book started well as BB was a lively character but the story ended up being less fat positive than I could have hoped for..

A well-intentioned novel about a fat girl, not quite as body positive as it might have been, but written with humour and kindness.

Laura Dockrill never fails to impress. Her books always stand out as funny and incredible and beautifully written. The book left me feeling very hungry afterwards so I suggest reading with snacks!

A refreshing, honest and funny read that made me feel represented from the start. This is the sort of book that should be made into a Netflix Original as soon as physically possible.

Hilarious! Books like this would not have existed even ten years ago. I'm glad to see honest characters giving more representation to society. Even if you cannot relate to the main character, you learn to empathise and experience for a few hundred pages what is like to live as a fat person is today's society. I think all the supporting characters are magic too.

This is unlike any book I'd previously read and it was incredibly refreshing. In a world where it feels like we are constantly talking about weight and obesity, this book had a really positive attitude towards food and BB, the protagonist, was inspirational and easy to relate to. She loves her body and she loves her food and is not about to change for anybody. Dockrill also had a sensitive and encouraging approach to BB's health issues linked to her weight. I particularly appreciated the non-Hollywood ending. I would definitely recommend this book.

Bluebelle, a.k.a. Big Bones, wants to leave school and get an apprenticeship. In order to do this, she's made keep a food diary and join the gym. Instead of just documenting what she eats, BB uses the food diary to as a general diary and writes not only about the food she loves and hate, but also about her life, her job, her crush and her family.

I was excited to read the book going into it, I thought it would be full of body positivity and about being yourself. Instead most of it is BB talking about food. Which I got why she was doing this (fat people are allowed to enjoy food and talk about enjoying it and shouldn't be judged in doing so) but it slowed the book right down and the plot dragged. In fact, there wasn't much a plot as it was mainly about food, something that felt cliched at times in a 'of course the only thing fat people think of is food' kind of way. Two thirds of the way through the book changed, there's a big life event and it causes BB to reevaluate herself and she starts going to the gym and losing weight. Which again, I can understand (growing up, taking responsibility for yourself, not giving up etc), but it also left me a bit confused. Bluebell is this fiery, in your face, take it or leave it character who doesn't care if you think she's fat but she ends up losing weight at the end of the book. It felt a bit cliched, a fat girl losing weight. Though like I said, I can also see that the message was about Bluebelle growing up and taking responsibility for her health and well being. Overall, it wasn't for me on a lot of levels, it was promising but fell flat

I've been looking out for more YA contemporary books about fat girls... Or even girls who aren't comfortable with the size of their body or how they look. Because, I'm one of those girls, so I'm always on the lookout for good representation of this in YA. I'd heard a lot about Big Bones throughout the blogosphere and I was interested to see whether it was the type of book that I was looking for, so I decided to request a copy and see what I thought.

A heart-warming teen story from the unique voice of Laura Dockrill, about Bluebelle, aka BB, aka Big Bones - a sixteen-year-old girl encouraged to tackle her weight even though she's perfectly happy, thank you, and getting on with her life and in love with food. Then a tragedy in the family forces BB to find a new relationship with her body and herself. Moving, memorable and hilarious.

To be honest, I have no idea what I think of this book. Part of me thinks that it was an enjoyable read, but then part of me thinks that it was just strange and it did take me a very long time to read. This is actually quite strange for me because contemporaries take me a matter of hours to read, but I think that I was reading this for about a few weeks? Or something like that, anyway.

When I was talking about this book in one of my wrap up videos, I felt like I couldn't explain my thoughts about this book in a very cohesive way, and I think that's because I liked it... And I didn't like it...



“I don't mean to scare myself but leaving school is like leaving the womb for the second time.”

― Laura Dockrill, Big Bones



As aforementioned, this book is about a girl who identifies as fat. One day, she goes to the doctors for her monthly weigh-in, and the doctor says that Bluebelle has to lose some weight and really look after herself. Bluebelle then strikes up and agreement with her Mom. Her Mom says that is Bluebelle goes to the gym and keep a food diary for the doctor, then Bluebelle can drop out of school and start an internship.

The concept of the book is very interesting, but I don't think that it was executed in a particularly amazing way. During the first.. 10% of this novel I really wanted to DNF it. For the first 70% of the novel, it was just Bluebelle keeping her food diary and not really doing anything exciting. It wasn't until AFTER this 70% point that she started looking after herself. There was also the problem with the CHARACTER of Bluebelle. She she was funny at first because she was so confident in who she was and she didn't care what other people thought of her, but then as the story carried on, she started to become really annoying and I found her to be quite unlikeable.



“People look at bigger people and assume we shouldn't feel the need to ever get hungry because we have enough fat stored up to last us until our dying day. As if we can nibble off our sides like we're made of peach.”

― Laura Dockrill, Big Bones



On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Dove (Bluebelle's sister), who is just amazing. She does parkour and is so brave. She has brilliant banter with Bluebelle which gives them such a nice relationship to read about, and I just think that she's a much more interesting character.

One of the positives about this book was that, even though Bluebelle had to keep a food diary, she treated it like a PROPER diary where she would be telling the doctors about her day and her crush on a boy... her personal feelings... So technically, this whole novel IS her food diary, and I thought it was such a unique way of telling the story, because it fitted in with what the character had to do in the story but then also acted as the way of telling the story. Bluebelle loves herself, she loves her fat, loves her food and she's proud of it. She shows us that it is okay to love food, to love to eat, and to try and feel comfortable in your body and to not feel pressured by society to look a certain way. However, she also teaches us that even though you might be overweight, you still have to take care of yourself and your body. It's such an important message to add and it's what made this book so special to me.



"If they don't want to be skinny, that's just as offensive as calling somebody fat. Funny how people think it's rude to go round calling people fat but not skinny. Skinny people get self-conscious too."

- Laura Dockrill, Big Bones



As for the actual content: it broke my heart at times. Some situations, memories, trains of thought were so familiar to me as for 10 years, I have suffered with anxiety about my body.. It reminded me of everything I had to go through. I do love how there isn't any actual mention of bullying in Big Bones since it isn't only the bullying you struggle with when you're overweight. It's so much more than that.

Overall, Big Bones was an ok read. It wasn't ground-breaking. But, there was something there that made me feel emotional, and even thought the story didn't start until 70% of the book, it was enjoyable.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Trigger warnings: fatphobia, anxiety, weight struggles