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caffeineaddict980's review
5.0
'Magic isn't real. Pain is real.'
Dell is from a dysfunctional family and is used to everything going completely wrong. She's overweight, her best friend doesn't understand her, like everyone else.
Getting kicked off the team is the start of it all, then more and more problems begin piling up until something major happens.
Something that changes her entire life.
Wow.
I've never read something more emotionally harrowing before. The ending was shocking and kept me on the edge of my seat.
Dell is from a dysfunctional family and is used to everything going completely wrong. She's overweight, her best friend doesn't understand her, like everyone else.
Getting kicked off the team is the start of it all, then more and more problems begin piling up until something major happens.
Something that changes her entire life.
Wow.
I've never read something more emotionally harrowing before. The ending was shocking and kept me on the edge of my seat.
nagam's review
4.0
[Originally posted on Rather Be Reading]
Adelle (Dell) is an obese girl who has lost everything – her father (to an affair), her softball team (she’s been cut because she can no longer play well due to her continuously increasing weight), her mother (to working too much and having a pill addiction), and is soon to lose her best friend, Cara (to the popular crowd). The only light amidst all the darkness is her baby sister, Meggie, who she helps care for after school, and the food she continues to sneak behind her mother’s back.
Dell is bullied at school and neglected by both parents. No one listens to her or asks how she is. She tries to deflect the ridicule of her peers and join in on the laughter, but inside she’s a girl breaking into a million pieces. She makes self-depricating jokes to make people laugh with her instead of at her, but she continues to turn to food to take the focus away from her pain. Many, many times I just wanted to say Put the food down. Don’t make jokes about yourself. Don’t care what they think. She needed someone to let her guard down with.
Dell has a crush on popular boy, Brandon, and there’s a very awkward (and disturbing) situation that happens with him. This was the point that I began to realize that Dell’s story wasn’t going to be a happy one. With no one to turn to and gossip spreading like wildfire about her, Dell’s downward spiral begins. No one ever takes the time to uncover her side of the story — not even Cara, who chooses to believe what the popular girls say about Dell. (There were bits of this twist in the story that sometimes had me wondering how they could believe the rumors, but I think it’s important to remember that people will believe what they want to hear. And teenagers don’t always make the most logical, sensible decisions.)
Empty is a fast-paced, absorbing story. It was a very difficult read for me because it’s most certainly not about a girl who learns how to cope and seek out help. I feel I must emphasize that this is not a happy story. (If you want a realistic, happy-ending story about an obese girl, read Skinny.) I feel, however, that my expectations for Empty were a bit skewed upon reading the summary of the book, or maybe I assumed this would be about a girl with anorexia or bulemia, but that wasn’t it at all. It’s full of sadness and grief, and ultimately, loss. It’s about being unloved, depression, and the affects of bullying.
K.M. did a phenomenal job tapping into the mind of a very lonely, dejected girl. So many people are facing different forms of bullying each day and we’re allowed to witness the huge risk K.M. takes by showing us the detrimental effects of that on a person’s life.
Adelle (Dell) is an obese girl who has lost everything – her father (to an affair), her softball team (she’s been cut because she can no longer play well due to her continuously increasing weight), her mother (to working too much and having a pill addiction), and is soon to lose her best friend, Cara (to the popular crowd). The only light amidst all the darkness is her baby sister, Meggie, who she helps care for after school, and the food she continues to sneak behind her mother’s back.
Dell is bullied at school and neglected by both parents. No one listens to her or asks how she is. She tries to deflect the ridicule of her peers and join in on the laughter, but inside she’s a girl breaking into a million pieces. She makes self-depricating jokes to make people laugh with her instead of at her, but she continues to turn to food to take the focus away from her pain. Many, many times I just wanted to say Put the food down. Don’t make jokes about yourself. Don’t care what they think. She needed someone to let her guard down with.
Dell has a crush on popular boy, Brandon, and there’s a very awkward (and disturbing) situation that happens with him. This was the point that I began to realize that Dell’s story wasn’t going to be a happy one. With no one to turn to and gossip spreading like wildfire about her, Dell’s downward spiral begins. No one ever takes the time to uncover her side of the story — not even Cara, who chooses to believe what the popular girls say about Dell. (There were bits of this twist in the story that sometimes had me wondering how they could believe the rumors, but I think it’s important to remember that people will believe what they want to hear. And teenagers don’t always make the most logical, sensible decisions.)
Empty is a fast-paced, absorbing story. It was a very difficult read for me because it’s most certainly not about a girl who learns how to cope and seek out help. I feel I must emphasize that this is not a happy story. (If you want a realistic, happy-ending story about an obese girl, read Skinny.) I feel, however, that my expectations for Empty were a bit skewed upon reading the summary of the book, or maybe I assumed this would be about a girl with anorexia or bulemia, but that wasn’t it at all. It’s full of sadness and grief, and ultimately, loss. It’s about being unloved, depression, and the affects of bullying.
K.M. did a phenomenal job tapping into the mind of a very lonely, dejected girl. So many people are facing different forms of bullying each day and we’re allowed to witness the huge risk K.M. takes by showing us the detrimental effects of that on a person’s life.
sleepygirlreads_'s review against another edition
3.0
More like 2.5 stars. Shallow characters, too fast paced, over exaggerated. I don't recommend it.
liviaelle's review
4.0
This was a beautiful book with highs and lows. It took a while to get connected to the characters and there were moments where I wasn’t sure what was happening which is why I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5. The ending was abrupt, but I suppose that’s the reality of death. The moment you die there are no more thoughts, no more words, and I believe Walton captured that in the ending. This book discussed the realities being a teenager dealing with divorce, binge-eating, and rape. I appreciated that Walton didn’t sugarcoat the issues and instead attacked them head on emphasizing the severity of these topics. Finally, I wish there had been an epilogue included to show how Dell’s family and Cara felt following her death.
nikkihrose's review
3.0
Walton definitely steps outside the typical boundary of Young Adult novel when she dives into the mind of teenager Dell Turner, a troubled girl struggling with a family that is falling apart, an eating disorder, being abandoned by friends, being constantly bullied, and overall trying to make it seem like she is above it all – or more so, that she cannot be bothered by the thoughts, words, and snickers of those around her. But she does. Dell does care. And it hurts her. Every. Single. Time.
Walton writes this novel as a way to spread awareness, and she does a fantastic job at just that. A chance to see the ramifications words can have in person, online, and the the indirect impact that our actions have on others even when not intended. Definitely a novel to read to understand the inner workings of a teenage mind, but also one to experience to understand the world that we currently live in today.
Walton writes this novel as a way to spread awareness, and she does a fantastic job at just that. A chance to see the ramifications words can have in person, online, and the the indirect impact that our actions have on others even when not intended. Definitely a novel to read to understand the inner workings of a teenage mind, but also one to experience to understand the world that we currently live in today.
pikasqueaks's review
1.0
Books involving fat protagonists are an incredibly hard sell for me. I've never read a YA book that got it right without sensationalizing it, or grossly exaggerating some of the more "disgusting" details just for shock value. Empty's one of those books, and it made me vaguely uncomfortable the entire time I was reading it. Not the "good" sort of uncomfortable, where you want to keep reading and be unsettled, but the bad kind of uncomfortable, where you can tell you're reading a book by someone who doesn't get it. If you spent your teenage years (or any years) being fat, I think you might understand. The way it's portrayed across the board is frustrating and makes you wonder if the people responsible have ever spent any time with someone that's fat.
It's hard not to look at books a little personally when they're on things that you've experienced. For me, Empty didn't feel real. At all. Dell's attitude and character was completely wrapped in the the fact that she'd gone from a size 10 to a size 24 in a short time, and her every waking second was consumed by the experience of being fat. There seems to be nothing else in Dell's life other than her god-awful attitude, her shallow emotions, and oh, right she can sing. Because Dell fits right into the mold of countless other weak YA books in which the character is defined by two things:
1. Their "issue"
2. Their one hobby
It happens in books all the time, and it's something I've grown wary of over the years. It feels like they're produced on an assembly line. Take some issue that teenagers can relate to, and pick one thing they can be good at. Mix together some emotions, and you've got a protagonist who doesn't reflect either with any accuracy. The "issue" seems wooden, and the "hobby" comes off planned, expected even. Teens are not defined by their issues, and I wish that books would stop letting this happen. They're not defined by their one or two hobbies (unless those hobbies are really that they're elite gymnasts or Olympic-level athletes, and even then, Lauren Tanner liked scheming as much as she likes gymnastics).
Dell has gained a significant amount of weight, and her parents are horrible to her. Dad abandoned her, and Mom is more interested in her pills than her daughter. But they both have plenty of time to snap at their daughter and remind her that she's fat. Really, everyone is horrible to her. Being fat has stripped all of Dell's self-confidence, her voice, her ability to control her emotions and her physical nature. Being fat takes up all of Dell's life and time, being fat takes up every page of this book. It takes up emotional space, it takes up all of the conversations she has, it weighs on Dell's mind every second of every day -- and that's not supposed to be a cute joke about being fat. There is nothing to her character the doesn't revolve around it, and we're reminded all the time.
That's not how being fat works. Even for a teenage girl. It's like the book is about Dell's fat, rather than Dell. I'm not griping because it's not sending the right "message" to readers, I'm bothered because it's an inauthentic portrayal of a young girl that creates a wall between the character and the reader. If K.M. Walton wanted to tell the story of a bullied, misunderstood, broken young girl as she states in her saccharine author's note, she failed. She told a story about a teenager's fat body, and how it ruined everything.
We have a plot to the story that will remind the avid YA reader of several other books that came first. Dell is sexually assaulted by her friend's boyfriend. The second people find out, they turn their bully radar to her and make her life a living hell. To that note, what I did like about this book is that we are reminded, finally, that survivors of these types of assault are not just one type of person -- despite what TV and movies and other books would like us to believe, it happens to any kind of person, not just "the beautiful people." I think that if the author had focused more on that than the other things I've talked about, this book would have been so much stronger. If Dell was given a character, rather than an issue, it could have worked.
As much as that might have been important for the author to get out in the open, it's hidden under miles of things that make Dell, and the story, completely unlikable. There's a talent showcase, Dell's supposed to sing for it. Her best friend's on the verge of ditching her for the popular crowd. Because we are firmly in YA land, where this happens to every other girl. It's not just Dell whose character suffers. Her best friend is portrayed as weak-minded and vapid, like so many other "best friends" before her.
Empty is at its core, a story that pulls the melodramatic bits and pieces from other books, and attempts to make them its own. This can work. Unfortunately, the writing is not strong enough to make this one stand out, the wooden characters are effortlessly forgettable, and the ending? Yeah, the title is rather accurate.
It's hard not to look at books a little personally when they're on things that you've experienced. For me, Empty didn't feel real. At all. Dell's attitude and character was completely wrapped in the the fact that she'd gone from a size 10 to a size 24 in a short time, and her every waking second was consumed by the experience of being fat. There seems to be nothing else in Dell's life other than her god-awful attitude, her shallow emotions, and oh, right she can sing. Because Dell fits right into the mold of countless other weak YA books in which the character is defined by two things:
1. Their "issue"
2. Their one hobby
It happens in books all the time, and it's something I've grown wary of over the years. It feels like they're produced on an assembly line. Take some issue that teenagers can relate to, and pick one thing they can be good at. Mix together some emotions, and you've got a protagonist who doesn't reflect either with any accuracy. The "issue" seems wooden, and the "hobby" comes off planned, expected even. Teens are not defined by their issues, and I wish that books would stop letting this happen. They're not defined by their one or two hobbies (unless those hobbies are really that they're elite gymnasts or Olympic-level athletes, and even then, Lauren Tanner liked scheming as much as she likes gymnastics).
Dell has gained a significant amount of weight, and her parents are horrible to her. Dad abandoned her, and Mom is more interested in her pills than her daughter. But they both have plenty of time to snap at their daughter and remind her that she's fat. Really, everyone is horrible to her. Being fat has stripped all of Dell's self-confidence, her voice, her ability to control her emotions and her physical nature. Being fat takes up all of Dell's life and time, being fat takes up every page of this book. It takes up emotional space, it takes up all of the conversations she has, it weighs on Dell's mind every second of every day -- and that's not supposed to be a cute joke about being fat. There is nothing to her character the doesn't revolve around it, and we're reminded all the time.
That's not how being fat works. Even for a teenage girl. It's like the book is about Dell's fat, rather than Dell. I'm not griping because it's not sending the right "message" to readers, I'm bothered because it's an inauthentic portrayal of a young girl that creates a wall between the character and the reader. If K.M. Walton wanted to tell the story of a bullied, misunderstood, broken young girl as she states in her saccharine author's note, she failed. She told a story about a teenager's fat body, and how it ruined everything.
We have a plot to the story that will remind the avid YA reader of several other books that came first. Dell is sexually assaulted by her friend's boyfriend. The second people find out, they turn their bully radar to her and make her life a living hell. To that note, what I did like about this book is that we are reminded, finally, that survivors of these types of assault are not just one type of person -- despite what TV and movies and other books would like us to believe, it happens to any kind of person, not just "the beautiful people." I think that if the author had focused more on that than the other things I've talked about, this book would have been so much stronger. If Dell was given a character, rather than an issue, it could have worked.
As much as that might have been important for the author to get out in the open, it's hidden under miles of things that make Dell, and the story, completely unlikable. There's a talent showcase, Dell's supposed to sing for it. Her best friend's on the verge of ditching her for the popular crowd. Because we are firmly in YA land, where this happens to every other girl. It's not just Dell whose character suffers. Her best friend is portrayed as weak-minded and vapid, like so many other "best friends" before her.
Empty is at its core, a story that pulls the melodramatic bits and pieces from other books, and attempts to make them its own. This can work. Unfortunately, the writing is not strong enough to make this one stand out, the wooden characters are effortlessly forgettable, and the ending? Yeah, the title is rather accurate.
reisemel's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jen_robins87's review against another edition
Seriously if I could give this book negative stars I totally would. The constant reminder of Dell's fat was just stupid. It became the entire focus of the book. It really could've been written much better.
l_musto's review
4.0
I really liked but I wish there was an epilouge- I want to know who found her and if Meggie remembers her...
dawnreaderone's review
I'm unsure of my rating as of right now. I think this book was a great read until the last few pages. I had hoped for a different outcome for Dell. I think the ending was a cop out, and it should have ended with a different option. I am not sure I will let my daughter read this one, as I don't want her to think Dell's final decision is an acceptable one in any way. I cried because my heart broke for the little girl, and her feelings of aloneness. I just don't know what to think about this novel at this point. Its a good thing I read Cracked first instead of this one, otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked it up.