Being sick for weeks does have one advantage; you get to READ! Sorry reading buddies, this books release date is not until August.
A good book is one that embraces the reader and never let’s go; it is a book that you are connected to long after you finish the last sentence. Good Luck With That, by Kristan Higgins not only embraces you, but infiltrates your essence.
Emerson, Georgia and Marley are three teenage “fat” girls that meet at a summer camp for overweight teens. Each girl is from a different background, but they form a tight bond that last well beyond that summer. The girls that summer compile a list of what they would like to experience once they are skinny. Years later,when Georgia and Marley receive notice that Emerson is in the hospital, they are shocked to see a woman in the hospital bed whose body has become a considerable size and is obviously dying. Emerson kept “the list” and extracts a promise that upon her death Georgia and Marley would experience the innocent items on the list: get a piggyback ride, hold hands with a boy in public, or tell off someone who criticised you constantly, ect. We discover who Emerson is through her diary entries, and we walk beside Georgia and Marley as they discover themselves and encourage the reader to take the journey with them.
There are many book reviews that slam this book for being insensitive, for singling out Emerson, the grotesque “fat girl”. I just want to applaud Kristan Higgins for not being politically correct and addressing honestly how we should view ourselves with acceptance, love and value; while also addressing the pain and insecurities all of us who binge or suffer from other eating disorders incur.
This is a novel that makes you Feel and I’m still feeling the effects long after I finished reading.
Thank you to the publisher for an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.