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19th out of 106 books
—
239 voters
Massive
"I'm fat," I hear myself saying. I look in the mirror. My face has gone hot and red; I feel like I'm going to explode. "I'm fat." It sizzles under my skin, puffing me up, pushing me out, making me massive.
Weight has always been a big issue in Carmen's life. How could it not? Her mom is obsessed with the idea that thin equals beautiful, thin equals successful, thin equals t...more
Weight has always been a big issue in Carmen's life. How could it not? Her mom is obsessed with the idea that thin equals beautiful, thin equals successful, thin equals t...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
December 27th 2005
by Simon Pulse
(first published September 6th 2002)
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Some books are so good, they make you angry. Massive, by Julia Bell, is one of those books.
Set in England, Massive is the story of a teenager girl, Carmen, whose mother suffers from an eating disorder–one that she is slowly forcing upon her daughter. She’s moody, paranoid, and slowly unraveling at the seams. Honestly, sometimes you really want to punch this woman for what she’s doing to her daughter. And that’s part of the power of the book: hating Carmen’s mother while at the same time feeling...more
Set in England, Massive is the story of a teenager girl, Carmen, whose mother suffers from an eating disorder–one that she is slowly forcing upon her daughter. She’s moody, paranoid, and slowly unraveling at the seams. Honestly, sometimes you really want to punch this woman for what she’s doing to her daughter. And that’s part of the power of the book: hating Carmen’s mother while at the same time feeling...more
Incredibly pissed. Surprised that I even got myself to finish this. Can't decide if I'm mad at the characters themselves, or at the author for creating shallow and contrived personalities. I just don't get why the story will end up like it did. It seemed absurd to me, and so stupid on so many levels that people in this story will act and think like that.
Then again, I may be wrong. After all, I've never been in this situation, and have never known anyone repulsed by food. I do realize that for s...more
Then again, I may be wrong. After all, I've never been in this situation, and have never known anyone repulsed by food. I do realize that for s...more
Carmen is a ----- year old girl forced to live with her controlling weight obsessed mother. All the while, Carmen is struggling with her own weight issues. Her mother, being the diet crazed woman she is, believes Carmen will never be thin and has no problem sharing her thoughts about it with Carmen. When Carmen's mother decides to move to Burmingham, England, Carmen's weight anxiety takes a turn for the worst. At first, Carmen does not fit in with the girls at her new school, but once she become...more
well -- there's some hamfisting to the writing. this took me unusually long to read, i think because there's little joy or humor to the story, and the narrator is unobservant, has a feeble voice. carmen's situation is maddening - her anorexic mother is basically forcing her to starve herself. not to mention silence herself: carmen is never listened to or really seen. it takes a long time for carmen to assert herself, but when finally she begins to, the book gains more momentum and becomes more a...more
Perhaps I am simply very lucky in that I have never actually had eating disorders touch me or anyone I know, but this book was disturbing and eye-opening. Told from the perspective of a young woman whose mother is an extremely controlling anorexic, Carmen soon develops her own eating disorder as her body image is influenced by her mother's perspective. Many of the scenes, from Carmen eating a lot of junk food as a response or the induced vomiting scenes, literally caused me to feel sick to my st...more
After moving to Birmingham, England with her severely anorexic mother (Maria), 14-year-old Carmen becomes trapped in a self-destructive cycle of dieting, exercising, and purging.
Bell's novel doesn't offer any easy answers, and I appreciate that---because anorexia is, in itself, a complicated question mark. What I found to be noteworthy here is that this novel captures the long-term effects of the illness. Massive is Maria's story as much as it is Carmen's. It is not merely a novel about a teen g...more
Bell's novel doesn't offer any easy answers, and I appreciate that---because anorexia is, in itself, a complicated question mark. What I found to be noteworthy here is that this novel captures the long-term effects of the illness. Massive is Maria's story as much as it is Carmen's. It is not merely a novel about a teen g...more
WARNGING: This book WILL make you mad. I am not sure if I am mad at the charcters in this book for being so shallow and unsophicated or at the author, Juila Bell, for creating such characters.
Carmen's life is spinning out of control, her mother (whose idea of being beautiful equals being thin) moves Carmen and her into a small apartment away from Carmen's father. As the story unfolds, Carmen's mother is unhappy even after the move and becomes obsessed with both her and Carmen's weight and looks...more
Carmen's life is spinning out of control, her mother (whose idea of being beautiful equals being thin) moves Carmen and her into a small apartment away from Carmen's father. As the story unfolds, Carmen's mother is unhappy even after the move and becomes obsessed with both her and Carmen's weight and looks...more
Jun 09, 2009
Meryl
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who like reading about troubled teens.
I like reading about kids with problems and this one really fit. There's just something so cruel yet compelling about the story behind a kid who's worse off than you... and I like! Ha, it's about an eating disorder! Yay, tragedy!
Really, I liked this book very much. I didn't realize it at first, but it takes place somewhere in the UK. I liked the characters, and the binging-and-purging was something I'd never read about before. Carmen is greatly pressured into being some skinny hoe, just like her...more
Really, I liked this book very much. I didn't realize it at first, but it takes place somewhere in the UK. I liked the characters, and the binging-and-purging was something I'd never read about before. Carmen is greatly pressured into being some skinny hoe, just like her...more
I wanted to like "Massive," since I've always had a particular soft spot for characters with eating disorders, but there was something so bleak about the lack of character development here that I really can't say I enjoyed it. We see snippets of a severely disordered mother, passing along her anorexic/bulimic ways to her young teenage daughter, but it's all so heavily mixed with random scenes that nothing feels accomplished. I either want to have great character development or a great plot line,...more
Massive was a really good book. It was sad to read, but it shows that you should be who you are without anyone telling you who or what to be. Cameron is a strong character, even though her mom is a little bit on the crazy side, she can cope with all the bad things in her life. After reading Massive, I thought about the people who have problems like Cameron’s. If everyone accepted who they are, I think the world would be happier. Over all, Massive was a great book. Like I said, it was sad, but yo...more
This book is about a teenager named Carmen who is forced to move with her weight-obsessed mother to Birmingham,England. This move, however does not improve the sad situation of her depressed mother, and she soon becomes obsessed with her and Carmen's looks. This pressures Carmen to diet, along side her mother. Pretty soon the diet is taken too far and becomes a case of bulimia, and then anorexia.
I found this book to be somewhat hard to read because it shows how easy a teenage can be put under p...more
I found this book to be somewhat hard to read because it shows how easy a teenage can be put under p...more
The book is categorized under fiction, & I do hope that is the case & that it is not semi-biographical. The mother in the book sickened me---in fact when reading this book it constantly brought back to mind Julie Gregory's "Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood" (which is sadly, an actual memoir).
It is bad enough to set such a poor example to a child, but to inflict the same on them by means of verbal abuse is inexcusable.
The book seems to end in an odd way until one...more
It is bad enough to set such a poor example to a child, but to inflict the same on them by means of verbal abuse is inexcusable.
The book seems to end in an odd way until one...more
I really really disliked this book, it's very dark and disturbing!, now don't get me wrong I like dark and disturbing books because I myself can get dark at times, just like everyone can!.. It's just there was something off, about the caractors, that just really put me off....
This book is about carmen, she's fourteen and lives with her septdad and her serverly anorexic mother who tries to control carmem and what she eats..she eventually moves to burmingham and gordon a down ward spiral; bulliein...more
This book is about carmen, she's fourteen and lives with her septdad and her serverly anorexic mother who tries to control carmem and what she eats..she eventually moves to burmingham and gordon a down ward spiral; bulliein...more
The theme of Massive by Julia Bellis to be happy with your self no matter how you look on the outside because its only hiow you look on the inside. Also if you can accept your self then many others will be able to accept you as well. The main character Carmen mother is obsessed with her and carmens looks.
Her mom has just came back from the hospital for an effect of bulimia and goes right back on her diet. She convinces her daughter Carmen that she is fat and needs to lose weight because in order...more
Her mom has just came back from the hospital for an effect of bulimia and goes right back on her diet. She convinces her daughter Carmen that she is fat and needs to lose weight because in order...more
God, this book was like watching a particularly awful train wreck -- just couldn't pull myself away, but also repulsed and wanting to look away the whole time. It's actually quite similar in style to a crappy short story I tried to write in an intro to Creative writing class in college.
From paragraph to paragraph, there's some sort of time-skipping element that is abrupt, nonsensical, and arbitrary. The pages are full of hateful words from mother to daughter about weight and food, and they are...more
From paragraph to paragraph, there's some sort of time-skipping element that is abrupt, nonsensical, and arbitrary. The pages are full of hateful words from mother to daughter about weight and food, and they are...more
This book is about the relationship between some one who is mentally ill, and that of an unbalenced person, and how easily the unbalenced person can get pulled into that illness. This premis is really interesting, but the execution was unbelievable. The mother, the severely ill character, has the worst case of anorexia ever. It's really unbelievable. I liked her daughter, the main character, though; but she was underdeveloped. But it's always nice to read a novel with a bit of British slang in i...more
I've read many books about this disorder and to be honest, I found myself more annoyed with the mother than anything else. It's a bit like watching the movie Tangled only instead of keeping her child in a tower for her own use, the mother starves her child and calls her terrible names. I just found this to be a hard read as everyone I know with this disorder is kind to others and horrid to themselves. I don't feel like this book has shown the typical attitude of an Anorexic, it's just made a ste...more
i thought it was a good book because the main character Carmen reversed her mothers thoughts on weight and how it is unacceptable to be fat . when a boy says that he likes his girls bigger she gets the idea that being fat only draws more attention to herself , so she starts to try and make herself skinnier so that she can be like everyone else. meanwhile her mother is getting sicker because of her crazy dieting practices and her new mid-life crisis.
A young girl has to be witness and victim to her mother's eating dissorders, which eventually take them back home to where they both began. A sad bird's eye view of the sickness of anorexia and binging and purging.
The author did a great job of telling the story, right up until the end. Then the last few paragraphs are just weird (or more weird than the rest of the book). Almost like she just flipped a switch and said, "Enough."
The author did a great job of telling the story, right up until the end. Then the last few paragraphs are just weird (or more weird than the rest of the book). Almost like she just flipped a switch and said, "Enough."
A girl's mother is ALWAYS dieting, she trys to avoid it... until her mum whisks her away from her home and back to where she grew up. Then things go downhill, she gets into the diets and her mum gets wrose, thinner by the hour.
The first chapter of this book was interesting, then all it was, was moaning. "I'm too fat, Mum's too thin, I can't see Lisa" Annd oooonnnn aaannnddd oooonnnnn it went. The ending was also an extrem dissapointment!
The first chapter of this book was interesting, then all it was, was moaning. "I'm too fat, Mum's too thin, I can't see Lisa" Annd oooonnnn aaannnddd oooonnnnn it went. The ending was also an extrem dissapointment!
No, just no.
What makes a good book for me is: good characters, and a good plot. This book had neither.
The characters were horribly boring and shallow, and I made no connection with them at all- in fact they were irratating, to say the least.
There was nothing new or interesting about the plot. Extremely cliche and predictable.
This book might have been done well in another author's hands.
What makes a good book for me is: good characters, and a good plot. This book had neither.
The characters were horribly boring and shallow, and I made no connection with them at all- in fact they were irratating, to say the least.
There was nothing new or interesting about the plot. Extremely cliche and predictable.
This book might have been done well in another author's hands.
Massive read much like a UK version of an afterschool special.
This story covers a year or so in the life of the main character, a young, teen-aged girl torn up and messed up by her parents recent divorce and an upbringing of being taught how to eat (and what not to eat) by someone tormented by their own food issues and body dysmorphia.
And while I appreciated the UK location and the accented dialogue the most with this book ... honestly, content wise it was about as useless as ... oh, I don't k...more
This story covers a year or so in the life of the main character, a young, teen-aged girl torn up and messed up by her parents recent divorce and an upbringing of being taught how to eat (and what not to eat) by someone tormented by their own food issues and body dysmorphia.
And while I appreciated the UK location and the accented dialogue the most with this book ... honestly, content wise it was about as useless as ... oh, I don't k...more
I thought Massive was going to deal with weight issues - eating disorders and body image. However, it's really a book about family and how some families can be destructive for those in them. I found Massive to be really dark and disturbing. I'd like to say it was unrealistic in that I can't believe that none of the family members saw what was happening and stepped in. However, I do know that in life those closest to a bad situation often turn a blind eye. I had trouble connecting to the characte...more
Astoundingly good and a must-read for teen girls and their mums. It's very raw and the voice of the protagonist, Carmen is so well written that it resonates from page to page. Her loneliness is haunting.
I loved this little book, it's not the most astounding of reads, but it was unputdownable. Read it at one go.
I loved this little book, it's not the most astounding of reads, but it was unputdownable. Read it at one go.
Carmen's whole life has revolved around food. Her mother is stick thin and pushes her 14 year old daughter to be the same. This book is filled with abuse of food, children, and friends. The dialect is British, so some slang and such might make this a harder book to read. I enjoyed the different culture.
i cannot believe myself for nearly leaving "massive" on the shelf. i loved every bit and just when i thought the mother was getting better because of all the food she was buying. BOOM! shes in the hospital. and Billy being Carmen's father? who would have knew? i mean it was pretty obvious but surprising!
This isn't an uplifting book, and it's even very bleak at times. It's also very realistic, and even if the characters aren't particularly likeable (her mother, my god!), they're very compelling. This book won't make you happy, necessarily, but it is an excellent depiction of eating disorders, bullying, and simply being a teenager.
The story was good- a mother struggles with an eating disorder and we see the affect it has on her daughter. However, the ending is really predictable and boring. Its almost like the author couldn't think of anything else to write so she just stopped.
I really don't feel that this book focused on the actual issue. It seemed like the author gave up and rushed to finish. Eating Disorder is a very common theme among young girls and after reading this book, I can't say it opened my eyes at all.
I had high hopes when I bought this, but they fell through. It starts out with a likable character and good descriptions of her eating issues, but gets fairly gross and unpleasant and hard to follow by the end.
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I was born in Bristol but raised in Wales (I can speak Welsh!) and have published two novels for young adults - Massive and Dirty Work, both published by Macmillan in the UK. In the US Massive is published by Simon and Schuster and Dirty Work by Walker Books. Massive has also been translated into ten languages, including Thai! I also wrote and co-edited the bestselling Creative Writing Coursebook...more
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Nov 30, 2010 05:18pm