Say No To The Dress by Keren David is a short, relatable, easy to read book for young readers. It is told from the perspective of a fourteen year old Miri, who suddenly got hit with puberty, which led to changes in her body that made her less confident. And then she finds out that her two siblings are getting married and she is going to be a bridesmaid in both the weddings which leads to a whole lot of other things. It explores themes like body image issues, changing friendships, acceptance, puberty, jealousy, family and weddings. It also touches upon growing up during covid a little. I really liked how all of this was addressed from a young person's perspective.

I felt that the book was a little rushed. It could have been much better if everything was developed more & explored in a detailed way. The themes explored are great and i am glad that the author targeted it at a younger audience. I am sure many people would be able to relate to it.

Rating: 3.5/5

I really enjoyed this super cute short story! I'm getting married next March, so the timing for me was perfect!
I love the fact that the main Character, Miri, is a plus sized gal. I also like that she has real life insecurities about her body. What makes that even better is that she is starting to love herself and her body at the end of the story.

It took me a bit to get what the title had to do with her story, but I halfway feel it now. Perhaps the title could be edited??

I definitely would recommend this book to someone who wanted a super fast read, or someone that is looking for something light1!

A novel I wanted to like, but found far too unsubtle. Puberty hit our heroine Miri like a rock, and now she looks like one – or at least that's what she might say, in embarrassment at her new body shape and how dresses look nothing like they should on her any more. With a choice of T-shirt and jeans or some old, old, riding-up shorts for her birthday, she finds her BBQ party ruined anyway when her step-sister brings an ageing hipster type to it, declaring they're going to get married in the summer, only for her step-brother to drag his fiancee along too – who so happens to be the older sister to her school's bitchy beauty queen type.

What this all means, then, is not one but two bridesmaid dresses are called for. What it results in is a comedy of embarrassment, a social commentary on how body obsessed the world is – with her future step-half-mother-to-be-in-law-once-removed (or whatever) manically trying to get everyone to have personal trainers, lipo, fat freezing and hen dos in spa resorts left, right and centre. And I know this is a book designed to be readable for older tweens with less than perfect reading ability and experience, as it's from Barrington Stoke, but I found the whole mix of adults being inane and how thuddingly obvious it all was, well, rather childish and inane.

Not for the first time I longed for Louise Rennison to still be with us, an author who could bring so much more realistic comedy and joie de vivre to material like this. I mean, it has things that are definitely interesting – the fact one of the weddings is to be Jewish, and some flash of theatre improv games – but the whole is done with the very broadest of strokes. I suppose I should be grateful that the concluding scenes are more of the heartwarming type than yet more body obsession, but by then the damage was done.

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

Miri has had to deal with quite a lot recently. Being a teenager during covid wasn't easy, especially as she caught it and has developed long covid, as well as being hit by all that puberty can throw at you. So when her two half-siblings both announce they are getting married this summer, and want her to be a bridesmaid, she is horrified. Having to wear dresses, and go through all of the wedding chaos is a nightmare, especially as one of her fellow bridesmaids will be her archnemesis, Tiffany.

This was a really quick read, one I think would be perfect for the younger YA audience. I liked Miri, and she seemed really relatable, and like teenagers I see today. The story was good, and I liked seeing how different wedding traditions were explored, and we saw from different family dynamics too. The only real issue I had with this book was how quick it was. It's only 128 pages, so I felt like there wasn't enough time to explore all of the plot points, so some felt rushed, or under-developed. All in all, though, a decent YA read.

A cute, fun read. Accurately details the thoughts and feelings of a young teen girl, struggling with her self-image among people she believes have it all together. It takes two engagements, one wedding, two almost-weddings, a panicky, controlling neighbor-mom, and an unlikely friend to convince her she's just fine the way she is.

„Say No To The Dress“ is a fun and realistic book for young readers!

The book is about the fourteen year old Miri. During her puberty her body changed and isn’t any longer the small on and she doesn’t know how to deal with it. And now she is the bridesmaid for two of her siblings but for her it doesn’t feel right to wear fancy dresses.

I really enjoyed the book and it felt really realistic to me. A lot of teenager grow during their puberty and this book shows that it’s okay and that you don’t have to be ashamed by it.

But sadly the book was a bit short for my liking. Between the two weddings didn’t happened a lot which was a bit sad because in the beginning I thought that it would happen a little more. In general the ending felt very rushed. I would have liked it a bit better if more happened between the two weddings or if something else happened after the second wedding.

This is a book I really would have loved with fourteen! Now I am slightly older but I still really enjoyed and I think it’s a really nice book for young and old readers.

I want to thank Netgalley and Barrington Stoke Publishers for providing this ARC to me for an honest review.

Thank you, Barrington Stoke, for the advance reading copy.

I would say the book is a crazy entertaining book which deals with chaotic family members but also focusing much on the insecurities and taboos of body image from a younger character's perspective.

The writing is fun and easily accessible. I would say it's perfect for beginners as well as for the young readers.

As it is a book from the perspectives of younger characters and fitting them more in the scenario, I can understand that most parts of the book talks about what these characters feel and say rather than what the other older characters have to do or say.

However, I still wanted more involvement of the adult characters as the later half of the book deals more with planning weddings and such.

I wanted a better closure of the main issue of the main character regarding her thoughts on their body image. As much as the ending does a fairly good job on it, it felt a little rush considering the insecurities expressed by the character in most parts of the book.

Overall, a good fun short read.

This was a wuick and easy read that I whizzed through in just over an hour. It was engaging and gripping and an important book for everyone to read but especially tennagers as it deals with self-confidence and other issues that all teenagers go through on a regular basis. I know i certainly did and in some ways still do so this was a really relatable read.
It was well written with characters that were well developed and a good storyline. Perfect for people who want a good read that wont take a long time to read. I really enjoyed it.

This was a very quick and enjoyable read, the story surrounds Miri a fourteen year old who is struggling with self confidence, body image, friendship jealousy but then she forced into becoming bridesmaid for both of her siblings weddings.
The story itself is very relatedable to the struggles that teenagers face during puberty and the pressures that they face during this time. However, I feel like the story would benefit from having the characters being more fleshed out as they do feel a bit 2d which does disconnect the reader from the character. Also some of the struggles that Miri faces feel like they are glanced over then suddenly solved a little bit too quick which makes it feel a bit unrealistic.
I do understand that this book is edited in a simplistic way to be more inclusive for all readers and I applaud the author and publishers for this as reading should be accessible to all and I hope others will follow in your footsteps.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Barrington Stoke Publishers for providing this ARC for review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are completely my own.

A really sweet story about blended families, being more confident in yourself and giving people a chance. I really enjoyed it.