Hannah Moskowitz

Auditioning for a New York City performing arts high school could help Etta escape from her Nebraska all-girl school, where she is not gay enough for her former friends, not sick enough for her eating disorders group, and not thin enough for ballet, but it may also mean real friendships.

Not Otherwise Specified

From the award-winning author of Break and Teeth comes a raw and honest exploration of complicated identities in a novel about a girl living on the fringe of every fringe group in her small town. 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; 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 might be Etta’s salvation…but can Etta be saved by a girl who needs saving herself?

Flavia Louise

This is a book I've been wanting to read for a long time. However I actually didn't fully know what this book was about and I was very pleasantly surprised.

Luisina Rivoira

Bi black protagonist with an eating disorder? And MUSICALS? Sign me up!
Raw, real, and freaking fantastic! Do yourself a favor and read this book.

 Bruna Acioly Leão

This book was so, so good. I had so much fun reading it and at the same time it had really interesting and important discussions on race, sexuality, eating disorders and bullying.

The narrator is Etta Sinclair, who is black, sort of rich, bisexual and struggling with an eating disorder that is kind of like anorexia, but not otherwise specified. She also struggles with her ex group of lesbian friends who ditch her after she goes out with a boy and start bullying her at school on top of it.

Luckly, Etta has made a new friend from her eating disorder support group and has an actual chance of leaving her small town and pursuing her passion for teather.

3 Things I Loved:

Etta's character and voice - she is a really strong character. Despite everything that she is going through and certain moments when the bullying and her eating issues get her down, Etta is usually happy and she tries hard to stay that way. It can be difficult to get out of that being sick mindset and she can snap back sometimes, but bottomline she is trying. I also really like her narrator voice and she can be really funny at times. Which brings me to:

The writing style - I feel like the author really captured the voice of Etta's character and her writing style is really funny and straight foward in a really great way. I’m interested in reading more of her books, because style is a big thing for me, and usually if I like the writing style of an author, chances are I’ll like their other books regardless of plot. I should probably mention that the plot in this book is interesting, but it’s not the main focus here, since it’s very character driven. But I believe that plot should come from characters anyway, and this book is a great example of that.

The characters - There are some you love, some you hate, but they all feel real and fleshed out, thanks to Etta's narration of them. I loved how female-female relationships both romantic or not were developed. There were some mean girls bullying Etta, but that doesn’t mean all girls are like that. She has lots of meaningful relationships with other girls. I think it’s an important thing in a girl’s life, to have female friends and to understand that all women are different, and that it’s not hard to have friendships with girls; that girls aren't all catty and not good friends to each other, like some young people are inclined to think.

We live in a society were male is the norm and the female experience needs to be learned, it’s supposedly this difficult and mysterious thing, when it’s actually the reality of more than half of the world’s population. We are raised to believe that boys become true friends with each other while girls are always jealous of each other. And it’s not that these things don’t ever happen, but it’s not always the case. That’s why I think books that discuss female friendships are important. Even complicated, dysfunctional relationships like on this one.


And one thing I didn't like:

The abrupt ending. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but honestly I just wish there could have been mooore. It just didn’t feel like an ending, it could have been wrapped up better and I wish I had a clearer notion of the future. I like open-ended endings, but this one was a little too much. Nevertheless, the book is still totally worth the read. Despite this issue, it still was a favorite of mine, and it would have ranked even higher had the ending been better.

*Favorite*

Not Otherwise Specified

Reviews