Author: Julia Keanini
Genre: Contemporary, YA
Pages: 258
Series: The first of six books
Publisher: Pickled Plum
Rating: 5 stars
Lacey Steele knows all of life's hardships, her mother's disapproval, her classmates' disdain, and her own lack of self-esteem would be fixed if only she were thinner. With her friend Ashley, they create the Future Goddess Girls Club. All it will take to lose the future? Drop the extra pounds plaguing them.
As the number on Lacey's scale decreases, the more she feels empowered and the faster she wants results. Extreme calorie cutting may be a bit much, but at least it isn't a real eating disorder.
Lacey and Ashley's shortcut seems to good to be true, outfits they only dreamed of wearing now fit perfectly and boys they'd longed for, now can't help but turn their heads.
But just as life seems to become exactly what they want, the shortcut reveals its price, one much too high to pay.
Skinniness is Next to Goddessness? Lacey's Story takes on a dark subject in a brighter manner combining the difficulties of body image and eating disorders with hope, love, and eventual acceptance.
The Goddessness? books are stand-alone and can be read in any order, but each contain mild spoilers for any previous books in the Goddessness? series.
Its rare but it has happened - I awarded 'Lacey's story' 5 whole stars! This book was totally amazing, as you will see by how much I am about to rant and rave about it. (sorry in advance)
This has to be the first book I have been asked to review that is written in such a fantastic style with a plot that perfectly balances its various twists and suspense in each chapter, meaning I actually couldn't put it down and ended up pulling an all-nighter. (Kind of sad that most people my age are pulling all nighters at parties and such in comparison to mine, which consist of reading). The fact that I was gripped throughout and couldn't get it out of my head even after putting it down is always a sign I've read something really really good.
The writing style was perfect for its genre: conversational, not repetitive, no inappropriately fancy vocabulary and such, but not simple and babyish either. The characters were all written well and maybe could have done with a bit more description as I found a few hard to picture, however, this does allow the reader to come up with their own interpretation of the characters.
The message behind the story and the story itself was my favourite part about 'Lacey's story'. Keanini managed to completely capture the mind of most teenage girls, especially those who struggle with body image or eating disorders, which is an alarming amount in this day and age. it was scary how from a readers perspective it was so easy to see eating behaviour as poor or irresponsible, however, reflecting on it there are times where I know many girls and boys (myself included) have had similar thoughts or feelings to those in the book who have a bad relationship with food and it shows how easy it is to fall into bad habits.
I thought not only was the book funny and well written, but the romance in it was spot on. teenagers have this habit of sort of averting the topic of liking someone and waiting for them to figure it out even when it is blindingly obvious it is meant to be. Keanini let this happen and made the characters more real and more relateable. Nobody was special or out of the ordinary and it made one relate easier to characters especially Lacey herself.
Overall a really great summer read and would recommend to anyone!
Happy Reading,
Hebe x
