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lorien13's review against another edition
3.0
This book...was painful to read. Reading someone destroy themselves is so hard to read. And it's so hard because it's so REAL. Maggie has anorexia, where she starved herself to lose weight, regardless of the fact she was a size 6 or 8 to begin with, which is petite. Very petite. And then to go to a size 2...
This book is Maggie losing weight to deal with her broken family that refuses to admit it's broken. The climax comes when everyone finally admits there are a lot of problems, and at the very end fo that, Maggie releases she has one too. I hope to see her healthy and ready to face her darkest self, and then see the light in her last journal.
Once I find somewhere to buy it.
(I did skip about 26 or so pages, I just couldn't take it).
This book is Maggie losing weight to deal with her broken family that refuses to admit it's broken. The climax comes when everyone finally admits there are a lot of problems, and at the very end fo that, Maggie releases she has one too. I hope to see her healthy and ready to face her darkest self, and then see the light in her last journal.
Once I find somewhere to buy it.
(I did skip about 26 or so pages, I just couldn't take it).
amandadelbrocco's review against another edition
3.0
I felt like this was tied up in too neat of a bow for a story about anorexia.
finesilkflower's review
3.0
Maggie has an eating disorder.
Maggie is recording her food intake and weight, trying to lose weight although her friends all insist she looks fine. It's summer, and she's working in her dad's Hollywood office until she quits to work for an animal shelter, causing her dad to criticize her as a quitter. Maggie freaks herself out gearing up for a date with her crush, Justin, who's trying to join her band. Meanwhile, her Maggie's mom refuses to admit her drinking problem, frustrating Maggie.
I have to give this book credit for two things: one, it seems pretty true to life and to character. Two, they don't take the easy way out and rehash the usual anorexia plot points (collapse, hospital, rehab, etc.); instead, it's a more subtle, internal story.
But it's boring. I know it's probably super boring to BE a person who obsessively counts calories, tries to find the hidden slight in every social interaction, and constantly brings herself down with negative self-talk. But it is also boring to read from that person's perspective. Maggie is so reserved/self-involved/depressed that she doesn't have deep relationships with the other friends in the group, and it's really the relationships (and the presence of Sunny) that make the other books sing.
Author Gratefully Acknowledges: Jeanne Betancourt
Timing: June 13 to August 2
Revised Timeline: Summer one year after graduating college. Everyone in this book has a summer job, which certainly makes it ludicrous that this is all supposed to be happening to 13-year-olds (I was 13 in 1998, so I'm familiar with the working rules then: in most states, kids couldn't legally work until age 16, although a few could get special dispensation to work in family businesses before then.) The fact that many things are set at work make it easier to pretend that these are adults. Sure, 23+ year olds should have all-year-round jobs, not just summer jobs, but young people often change jobs frequently. Anyway, the series does still have to at least pretend that they go to school the rest of the year. We can use their summer job choices to inform our ideas about what we pretend they do the rest of the time:
MAGGIE - Worked in her dad's Hollywood office, but quit to work in an animal shelter.
SUNNY - Daddy's bookstore
DUCKY - Sunny's dad's bookstore
AMALIA - Ice cream place
DAWN - ??? (She's in Stoneybrook over the summer)
I previously theorized that everyone worked for a tech company, but I think these jobs actually work fine. Sunny working for her dad's store also explains why she still lives at home and has such a strained relationship with her dad. (Dawn can still work for a tech company. Or a company that manufactures eco-friendly raincoats or something.)
Maggie is recording her food intake and weight, trying to lose weight although her friends all insist she looks fine. It's summer, and she's working in her dad's Hollywood office until she quits to work for an animal shelter, causing her dad to criticize her as a quitter. Maggie freaks herself out gearing up for a date with her crush, Justin, who's trying to join her band. Meanwhile, her Maggie's mom refuses to admit her drinking problem, frustrating Maggie
Spoiler
and leading her to eventually confess her eating problem to her little brotherI have to give this book credit for two things: one, it seems pretty true to life and to character. Two, they don't take the easy way out and rehash the usual anorexia plot points (collapse, hospital, rehab, etc.); instead, it's a more subtle, internal story.
But it's boring. I know it's probably super boring to BE a person who obsessively counts calories, tries to find the hidden slight in every social interaction, and constantly brings herself down with negative self-talk. But it is also boring to read from that person's perspective. Maggie is so reserved/self-involved/depressed that she doesn't have deep relationships with the other friends in the group, and it's really the relationships (and the presence of Sunny) that make the other books sing.
Author Gratefully Acknowledges: Jeanne Betancourt
Timing: June 13 to August 2
Revised Timeline: Summer one year after graduating college. Everyone in this book has a summer job, which certainly makes it ludicrous that this is all supposed to be happening to 13-year-olds (I was 13 in 1998, so I'm familiar with the working rules then: in most states, kids couldn't legally work until age 16, although a few could get special dispensation to work in family businesses before then.) The fact that many things are set at work make it easier to pretend that these are adults. Sure, 23+ year olds should have all-year-round jobs, not just summer jobs, but young people often change jobs frequently. Anyway, the series does still have to at least pretend that they go to school the rest of the year. We can use their summer job choices to inform our ideas about what we pretend they do the rest of the time:
MAGGIE - Worked in her dad's Hollywood office, but quit to work in an animal shelter.
SUNNY - Daddy's bookstore
DUCKY - Sunny's dad's bookstore
AMALIA - Ice cream place
DAWN - ??? (She's in Stoneybrook over the summer)
I previously theorized that everyone worked for a tech company, but I think these jobs actually work fine. Sunny working for her dad's store also explains why she still lives at home and has such a strained relationship with her dad. (Dawn can still work for a tech company. Or a company that manufactures eco-friendly raincoats or something.)
sammah's review
4.0
I never read this one as a kid, and I'm not sure why I didn't? I guess I was sort of phasing out of this reading age by then and moving on to other things. In the first book featuring Maggie it did hint at her weight loss issues and a possible eating disorder. I did read the second Amalia book, where this is talked about a LOT, so it wasn't a surprise. Still it did make it rather hard to read. Ouch.
This book delved a lot more into her family life, and how dysfunctional it truly was. Her mother has a hardcore drinking problem, and is shirking her responsibilities off on 13 year old Maggie. Her father, who isn't parent of the year either and piles too much onto this kids shoulders, is the only one in the house who seems to notice or care that she's not eating right. Well, besides the maid, Pilar. That's pretty sad.
It was nice to see her relationship with her little brother Zeke though! It was a bright spot in this pretty sad story. I need to read the third journal of Maggie's now, to find out if she started to get well or not.
This book delved a lot more into her family life, and how dysfunctional it truly was. Her mother has a hardcore drinking problem, and is shirking her responsibilities off on 13 year old Maggie. Her father, who isn't parent of the year either and piles too much onto this kids shoulders, is the only one in the house who seems to notice or care that she's not eating right. Well, besides the maid, Pilar. That's pretty sad.
It was nice to see her relationship with her little brother Zeke though! It was a bright spot in this pretty sad story. I need to read the third journal of Maggie's now, to find out if she started to get well or not.
xtinamorse's review
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/california-diaries-8-maggie
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