By Amanda Posted on

[REVIEW] Landwhale

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This Advance Reader Copy of the book is courtesy of NetGalley and the book’s publishers. I am not receiving any financial or additional benefit from either group for posting this review other than the opportunity to read this book before it’s released publicly. 

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tl;dr Review:

A funny and honest memoir of learning to love who you are and overcoming the bullsh*t.

Full Review:

As a writer and someone who struggles with her own body issues, reading Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass by Jes Baker was like sitting down for drinks with a close friend.

While the publisher describes the book as follows, I didn’t feel like it captured the warmth the book actually held.

Jes Baker burst onto the body positivity scene when she created her own ads mocking Abercrombie & Fitch for discriminating against all body types–a move that landed her on the Today Show and garnered a loyal following for her raw, honest, and attitude-filled blog missives. Building on the manifesta power of Things, this memoir goes deeply into Jes’s inner life, from growing up a fat girl to dating while fat. With material that will have readers laughing and crying along with Jes’s experience, this new book is a natural fit with her irreverent, open-book style. A deeply personal take, Landwhale is a glimpse at life as a fat woman today, but it’s also a reflection of the unforgiving ways our culture still treats fatness, all with Jes’s biting voice as the guide.

I loved her hilarious stories about blogging and related to them all too well. Her descriptions of her emotional trauma were poignant and touching, and her acceptance and f*** it attitude coming out the other end was empowering.

Was it some deep, philosophical tome on the societal issues of shaming and policing women’s bodies? No.

But I wouldn’t have wanted it to be. It was exactly what I needed at the time I read it – it made me laugh, it made me think, and it left me feeling good. And I wouldn’t have wanted anything more.

I give it 4 out of 5 thumbs up.