Review: Big Girl Small, by Rachel DeWoskin

Think you have issues surrounding your body type?  Meet Judy, teenage girl, amazing vocalist, new student at the local exclusive high school for the arts, and three-foot-something Little Person, whose journey into mortification is chronicled by writer Rachel DeWorskin in the quick read, Big Girl Small.

Despite her parents' best efforts to give her as 'normal' a life as possible, it is obvious from the beginning that Judy's life has taken a very atypical turn, as the story is told by Judy from the confines of her seedy motel hideout, where she is cloistered not from a crime, but from some humiliation so great that she has run away from her life to hide from it.  The novel is told as a reflection on the recent events, with several short jaunts to her present situation.  In the past year, Judy has walked away from her friends and comfortable public school into a program for those exceptionally talented in the arts; this is her first time truly striking out on her own into new territory, and she is determined to re-create her life, making new friends, coming into her own musically, and, of course, falling for the most handsome boy in the school.  She confronts her fears head-on, proving that she belongs where she is, and eventually winning the attention of Handsome Boy, Kyle.

Needless to say, things begin to go downhill from this point for Judy, and the knowledge that there's been a Horrific Event, combined with the unexplained attentions of the cinematography-obsessed Kyle, quickly lead the reader to conclude what has happened well before Judy herself reveals the truth.  The reader then spends the rest of the novel waiting for the inevitable.  Granted, this is technically a YA novel, so younger adults may not have quite the sense of what's coming that a more seasoned reader would have, but it's pretty plain that this story is following a well-travelled path of female victimization that I find distasteful and tired.  How many books about girl-has-sex-and-is-humiliated-publicly do we need?  Judy's LP status serves only to add another layer of 'of course', insofar as characters with physical disabilities are typically targets of victimization in film and literature.  What would have been more interesting and original would have been presenting Judy's character instead as Jude, a male travelling the same path.  DeWoskin's telling comes off as the older, sexier sister of the Afterschool Special so many of us grew up watching.

Lest I sound completely down on the novel, I need to make a few critical points.  DeWoskin does a supurb job of raising the level of diction typically found in YA novels.  Judy is smart, and DeWoskin expects the readers to be smart as well; this is a blessed relief from the vast majority of YA offerings, and is what kept me glued to the book.  It is also refreshing to read Judy's perspective as a LP, which is decidedly not self-pitying; while her character's eventual humiliation does as first blush seem to be dependant on her status as 'Different', by the end of the novel, this is shown as less the case, thus in a roundabout way making Judy less 'Different', at least in the physical sense.  Judy's parents are very well-created, as well; they are loving without being the overprotective, shrill dunderheads typically seen in YA novels in particular.  The resolution of the plot is simultaneously realistic and somewhat unsatisfying, because reality, and real people, are often supremely unsatisfying.  In the end, Judy is still the mistress of her own future, and the reader has gained insight into how an intelligent young woman can make the same mistakes in judgement, succumbing to the same twin pitfalls of inexperience and insecurity, as any other young person.

This novel is rated YA, but the writing and topic are definitely skewed to older YA readers.  Several and various sexual acts, along with drug and alcohol use, are described in the same analytic and intelligent voice as the rest of the novel, meaning they are not pornographic, but are very concisely described.  These events do not take place until near the middle, but things go downhill quickly to the Main Event.  For that first half, I was solidly planning on handing this one over to my younger-YA daughter, but the explicit nature of the book, no matter how strong of a warning-tale this might be, had me changing my mind midstream.  Read this one first before passing it on to your own kids, and make the decision that is right for your family.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.  An eloquent tale of warning, and strength of spirit, voiced by a realistically created character.