Good Luck with That

June 1, 2018
Two friends who have fought weight issues their whole lives must decide how to move forward when another friend dies after reminding them of a list of "someday" tasks they created as teens to help them appreciate their lives.Georgia, Marley, and Emerson met as girls at Camp Copperbrook--a summer camp where they were sent to lose weight--and have remained friends since. When Emerson summons Marley and Georgia, they are stunned to learn she is morbidly obese and dying of a variety of ailments, including a blood clot in her lungs. "Why hadn't she told us? I knew the answer: shame." With her last breaths, Emerson hands them an envelope which contains a list of "Things We'll Do When We're Skinny" that they created at camp years ago. The two friends agree to follow the list. Obviously, Emerson's goal for Marley and Georgia is to build lives that make them happy, since their unhealthy obsession with being physically smaller has diminished them emotionally. Georgia, who's left a law practice to become a nursery school teacher, must re-evaluate difficult family relationships and try to keep her beloved and emotionally vulnerable nephew safe while revisiting the end of her marriage. Marley's unresolved issues include a twin who died very young and the man she's been involved with for five years, who treats her like a booty call. Higgins explores a very complicated emotional landscape through the lens of three friends who've endured society's hateful attitude toward heavy people. Emerson, the largest and most besieged, tells her point of view through diary entries leading up to her death. The ending is uplifting, but the book may be a difficult read for women who routinely live through such judgment and hostility.Higgins' astute, perceptive eye to the best and worst of human nature enhances the poignancy of a sensitive topic, which she navigates with humor and grace.

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June 15, 2018

On their last day of "fat camp," best friends Emerson, Marley, and Georgia list things they'll do when they are finally thin--eat dessert in public, hold hands with a cute boy, other activities they feel their weight prevents them from doing. Now in their 30s, all three still struggle with weight. When Emerson dies suddenly, Georgia and Marley are left with her final wish--to fulfill the list they made as teenagers. As Georgia and Marley set out to complete their tasks, they learn what is really important for finding happiness. Georgia must come to terms with her disapproving, fat-shaming mother and brother, revisit the reason for her divorce, and face a lifelong eating disorder. Marley, seemingly the most well-adjusted of the three, works toward grieving losses, loving herself, and accepting love from others. Both find that the list made by naïve teenagers takes them to healing and self-acceptance. Higgins (Now That You Mention It) writes with her trademark heart, humor, and emotion, addressing the serious and somber subject of body image and how weight has become the obsession of many women and how all too often judgment reigns supreme. VERDICT Highly recommended for all popular women's fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, 2/19/18.]--Brooke Bolton, Boonville-Warrick Cty. P.L., IN

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 13, 2018
Higgins (Now That You Mention It) writes with uncommon grace and empathy about a fraught topic for many people: weight. Marley, Georgia, and Emerson meet as children at a camp for overweight teenagers. Fast forward to adulthood: Emerson dies young—and makes Marley and Georgia vow to relish every moment of life, starting with the “things we’ll do when we’re skinny” list they composed one summer at camp. Told in alternating first-person chapters, the story follows Marley and Georgia as they learn their value and their own beauty, while Emerson’s interspersed journal entries address a dream version of herself. Higgins doesn’t pull any punches as she starkly illustrates how the judgmental attitudes of even close friends and family—brilliantly illustrated by Georgia’s cruel and overbearing brother and her brittle, skinnier-than-thou mother—can caustically eat away at self-worth. The author provides sharp psychological insight into her characters, such as when Georgia thinks, “Life was kind and full of chances. Sometimes we didn’t take them. Sometimes we hid our truth and acted out of fear. Sometimes we turned away and closed the door.” This novel is a winner.

July 1, 2018
Emerson, Georgia, and Marley met at weight-loss camp when they were teenagers. When Emerson dies, she leaves behind the to-do list that bonded the girls together as they worked to lose weight, including things like riding piggyback on a boy and eating dessert in public. Georgia, now thinner and experiencing unexplained stomach pains, and Marley, carrying extra weight, decide to take Emerson up on her last request and complete the list. Higgins (Now That You Mention It, 2017) uses a comfortable, conversational style to delicately tackle the much-talked-about issue of female body image with this compassionate story of two friends with varying struggles regarding their weight. The alternating perspectives between present-day Georgia and Marley, and via Emerson's journals, will take readers on a journey from Georgia's toxic-mother issues to Marley's self-acceptance to Emerson's all-encompassing body struggles. The list was only the beginning in this heartbreakingly gorgeous story of female friendship and what it takes to feel comfortable in one's own skin.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from June 15, 2018

On their last day of "fat camp," best friends Emerson, Marley, and Georgia list things they'll do when they are finally thin--eat dessert in public, hold hands with a cute boy, other activities they feel their weight prevents them from doing. Now in their 30s, all three still struggle with weight. When Emerson dies suddenly, Georgia and Marley are left with her final wish--to fulfill the list they made as teenagers. As Georgia and Marley set out to complete their tasks, they learn what is really important for finding happiness. Georgia must come to terms with her disapproving, fat-shaming mother and brother, revisit the reason for her divorce, and face a lifelong eating disorder. Marley, seemingly the most well-adjusted of the three, works toward grieving losses, loving herself, and accepting love from others. Both find that the list made by na�ve teenagers takes them to healing and self-acceptance. Higgins (Now That You Mention It) writes with her trademark heart, humor, and emotion, addressing the serious and somber subject of body image and how weight has become the obsession of many women and how all too often judgment reigns supreme. VERDICT Highly recommended for all popular women's fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, 2/19/18.]--Brooke Bolton, Boonville-Warrick Cty. P.L., IN

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.