Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah MoskowitzMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Etta is tired of dealing with all of the labels and categories that seem so important to everyone else in her small Nebraska hometown.
Everywhere she turns, someone feels she's too fringe for the fringe. Not gay enough for the Dykes, her ex-clique, thanks to a recent relationship with a boy; not tiny and white enough for ballet, her first passion; and not sick enough to look anorexic (partially thanks to recovery). Etta doesn’t fit anywhere— until she meets Bianca, the straight, white, Christian, and seriously sick girl in Etta’s therapy group. Both girls are auditioning for Brentwood, a prestigious New York theater academy that is so not Nebraska. Bianca seems like Etta’s salvation, but how can Etta be saved by a girl who needs saving herself?
The latest powerful, original novel from Hannah Moskowitz is the story about living in and outside communities and stereotypes, and defining your own identity.
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So, I'm a bit conflicted in how to review this book. From a craft point of view, it's amazing. The narrative voice is so strong and characterisation is especially good. The writing is addictive and flows well. I read it in two days, and I couldn't stop thinking about this book.
Yet, for me, it also had some pretty big issues. As other reviewers have noted, lesbians don't come off in this book particularly well. They're presented as a cult and called 'the Dykes'. They're also the violent bullies in this book. I feel if we'd just had one lesbian character who wasn't like this, then that would've solved a lot of the problems. But this representation made me uneasy.
And then there's the eating disorder stuff. I'm studying eating disorders in YA fiction for part of my postgrad work. The representation of the actual eating disorder is well-done. It's not romanticised, and it feels real. It's also great having a character who's already in recovery, who's gained weight, and is doing well in the general lay-of-the-land type of thing, but who we also see still struggling. Because those thoughts don't just go away. I could relate to this a lot.
But I had an issue with race representation in this book. As part of my postgrad work, I've been looking specifically at BIPOC representation in eating disorder YA fiction. Traditionally, EDs have always been seen as a white woman's illness, so BIPOC rep is important--especially when in the medical field many doctors still expect Black women to be bigger and more comfortable with being curvier than white women and therefore getting diagnosed with an eating disorder as a Black person is arguable harder, according to interviews/research. There are many memoirs from BIPOC authors about how race doesn't determine whether you get an eating disorder, or how disciplined you are in the eating disorder, but that race does prejudice some doctors against you if you're BIPOC, making it harder for you to seek help. And unfortunately, for me, this novel sort of conformed to some of the stereotypes. Etta is constantly described as 'chubby' and someone who doesn't look like she has an eating disorder--which is fine and true for many people with EDs, but this novel only has Etta, the Black character with an ED, presented in this way. All other characters with EDs in this are white and are presented as much thinner, as they have the discipline to starve themselves in a more superior way.
This novel is own-voices for eating disorders and bisexuality, but the author is white (she describes herself as a white Jewish girl), and I couldn't help but think that some of the bias and constructs around race and biological determinism have influenced her as she wrote about a Black ballerina with an ED who's 'chubbier' than the white girls with EDs. Given that there are so few books out there about BIPOC girls with eating disorders, (and there really should be more!), I worry that this one could reinforce stereotypes in some readers who just won't question it and believe that race does determine how you'll experience an ED.
But this is a great novel.
View all my reviews
So, I'm a bit conflicted in how to review this book. From a craft point of view, it's amazing. The narrative voice is so strong and characterisation is especially good. The writing is addictive and flows well. I read it in two days, and I couldn't stop thinking about this book.
Yet, for me, it also had some pretty big issues. As other reviewers have noted, lesbians don't come off in this book particularly well. They're presented as a cult and called 'the Dykes'. They're also the violent bullies in this book. I feel if we'd just had one lesbian character who wasn't like this, then that would've solved a lot of the problems. But this representation made me uneasy.
And then there's the eating disorder stuff. I'm studying eating disorders in YA fiction for part of my postgrad work. The representation of the actual eating disorder is well-done. It's not romanticised, and it feels real. It's also great having a character who's already in recovery, who's gained weight, and is doing well in the general lay-of-the-land type of thing, but who we also see still struggling. Because those thoughts don't just go away. I could relate to this a lot.
But I had an issue with race representation in this book. As part of my postgrad work, I've been looking specifically at BIPOC representation in eating disorder YA fiction. Traditionally, EDs have always been seen as a white woman's illness, so BIPOC rep is important--especially when in the medical field many doctors still expect Black women to be bigger and more comfortable with being curvier than white women and therefore getting diagnosed with an eating disorder as a Black person is arguable harder, according to interviews/research. There are many memoirs from BIPOC authors about how race doesn't determine whether you get an eating disorder, or how disciplined you are in the eating disorder, but that race does prejudice some doctors against you if you're BIPOC, making it harder for you to seek help. And unfortunately, for me, this novel sort of conformed to some of the stereotypes. Etta is constantly described as 'chubby' and someone who doesn't look like she has an eating disorder--which is fine and true for many people with EDs, but this novel only has Etta, the Black character with an ED, presented in this way. All other characters with EDs in this are white and are presented as much thinner, as they have the discipline to starve themselves in a more superior way.
This novel is own-voices for eating disorders and bisexuality, but the author is white (she describes herself as a white Jewish girl), and I couldn't help but think that some of the bias and constructs around race and biological determinism have influenced her as she wrote about a Black ballerina with an ED who's 'chubbier' than the white girls with EDs. Given that there are so few books out there about BIPOC girls with eating disorders, (and there really should be more!), I worry that this one could reinforce stereotypes in some readers who just won't question it and believe that race does determine how you'll experience an ED.
But this is a great novel.
View all my reviews
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