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Summary
Summary
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Isle of the Lost, Alex & Eliza and Something in Between comes a powerful story about learning to love yourself.
Olivia "Liv" Blakely looks like she is living the perfect life. She's caught the attention of her teen TV-star crush, started rubbing elbows with the popular crowd, and her dad is running for governor. There's a lot to Like.
But the outside world never sees the full story. With all the good fortune piling on, Liv has been feeling the pressure, too: pressure to maintain that perfect image for her family, her new friends and the public, who love to find fault on social media. Behind Liv's sunny, charming facade is a dark inner voice that will settle for nothing less than perfection--no matter the cost. Soon Liv's struggle to shine in the spotlight becomes a daily battle with self-doubt and bulimia.
As the high price of perfection puts her in danger of real bodily and spiritual harm, Liv will have to learn that there is no one out there worth loving more than she loves herself.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-On the outside, Olivia Blakely's family seems perfect. Her father is the Speaker of the House, her mother is the perfect wife, and her two older brothers are successful adults. But Olivia is not perfect. She believes she is fat, disgusting, and unlovable. Art is the only thing she remotely feels good at. To help herself cope with her imperfections, she binges, purges, and self-harms. De la Cruz presents several heavy topics facing teens including drug use, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, relationships, immigration/deportation, and handling family pressure. Due to the number of topics covered, such as sexual assault, not all are given the resolution they deserve. Self-love and acceptance succeed as overlying themes that don't feel didactic. Despite Olivia's increasing romantic feelings for her best friend, the protagonist ultimately decides that getting help for her problems and learning to love herself are her primary priority. Like the real world, some characters participate in risky behaviors and face no consequences. Use of alcohol and other drugs make this a title best suited for older teens. VERDICT Paired with resources on how to get help with eating disorders, anxiety, and depression, this book is a welcome addition to any library that services teens.-Ashley Leffel, Griffin Middle School, Frisco, TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
What people see when they look at 16-year-old Liv Blakely: the slim, pretty, and artistic daughter of a California congressman. What Liv thinks they see: a fat, unlovable screwup who doesn't fit in with her family or at her posh Los Angeles high school, which is filled with models and actors. Since the part that seems easiest to fix is her weight, Liv fasts, binges, and purges in secret. When her controlling father announces that he's running for governor and her handsome actor crush starts noticing her, the pressure amps up, and her life gets even more out of control. De la Cruz (Alex and Eliza) has a good handle on the details of eating-disordered behavior, particularly the disjunction between mindset and reality and having to hit bottom before getting help. Other plot points, though, particularly Liv's inspirational chance meeting with her favorite artist and her relationship with a boyfriend who veers from unbelievably perfect to unbelievably awful, end up feeling more contrived than realistic. Ages 13-up. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Olivia Blakley just wants to be away from her family and classmates to work on her own interests. But when her father decides to run for governor of California, there's little chance of that happening, as she's forced into the spotlight. In attempts to deal with that spotlight, and to maintain a perfect public image, her bulimia worsens. It's not until she reaches a breaking point that she begins to realize that she's got something to live for and to love. Perennially popular de la Cruz is back with a novel reminiscent of Alexandra Ballard's What I Lost (2017), with de la Cruz ably depicting anxieties that most teens deal with on a daily basis: romance, school, family, and futures. She allows readers to dive right into Olivia's first-person journey toward learning to love herself. Filled with a great deal of teenage angst, this tale will be relevant to many young adults trying to survive daily pressures. De la Cruz might be best known for her fantasy work, but her realist work is strong as well.--Patterson, Savannah Copyright 2017 Booklist
