Author: Tara St. Pierre
Page Numbers: 306 pages
Publication date: May 31st, 2015 by Createspace
Synopsis:
All Carrie Roberts wants is to be a little bit smaller.To fit into the perfect dress for the Valentine’s Day Dance. To look beautiful for her boyfriend, the school’s star basketball player. To keep his jealous ex-girlfriend, a rival cheerleader, away from him. And to be noticed by her classmates.
Exercising and dieting don’t work, but an advertisement for weight loss pills promises a quicker solution to her problem. As time runs out, she takes more than the recommended dose until she’s just a few inches slimmer. Heads turn when she arrives at the dance, and the wonderful night with her boyfriend is beyond what she dreamed it would be.
Days later, Carrie discovers that her body is changing in ways that should be impossible. While her doctor searches for a cure, she desperately turns to her friends and family for support. Everyone is noticing her now whether she likes it or not, and even the media is intrigued by her incredible story. Getting everything she once wanted has created new problems—problems that are growing more terrifying every day. Because Carrie Roberts is shrinking.
My Review:
I received a copy from the author to read and review in return.
Once I received Tara St. Pierre's review request of her newest novel, Just a Few Inches, the title intrigued me immensely. I read the synopsis and it immediately struck me as a book where loads of us, young and old, can learn a lot from. This book is not just simply a YA fun book to read, it is a book which carries a strong and meaningful message, something which I personally can still learn a lot from. And of course, it also carries along an abundance of humor, romance and definitely loads of suspense and mystery. I was consistently compelled by the book's story-line, and I always had to know what would happen next, so leaving my kindle alone was not an option. Well, let's not wait any longer and dive into the details.
Just a Few Inches is a story revolving around a self conscious girl named Carrie Roberts. From an outside perspective you would think she has it all: tall, slender but not too slim, an athletic cheerleader and is dating the star player of the basketball team. But what many girls now a days are struggling with is Carrie's problem too, which is her distorted perspective about her weight.
Carrie feels the need to lose a few inches to fit in that perfect red dress, which she specially bought (initially too small for her) to wear for her popular boyfriend Todd, at the school's homecoming dance. As many young girls are, she is driven by what she sees around her and especially the taunting but beautiful, slim big-breasted competitor Janelle. Janelle's body is perfect in Carrie's eyes, and Carrie cant help but feel that Janelle is trying to steal Todd away from her.
Through driven competitiveness and the high standards of beauty broadcasted all around her, Carrie cracks, and decides to take diet pills in order to make her lose some inches days before the school's homecoming dance. But boy is Carrie in for a surprise. She ends up fitting perfectly in that charming slim red dress, but she deals with major consequences that no one could have foreseen, which sets her off into a crazy surreal roller coaster... as she is slowly shrinking, not by weight, but by height.
This story intrigued me intensely throughout the entire book. The writing style was very engaging and the pace was just right. It seemed like the story was written as a diary, where we get to see Carrie's struggles on a day-to-day basis. This truly connects the reader with not only the story, but also with the characters on a deep emotional level. I felt what Carrie was going through, not only Carrie's emotional pain of losing inches to her height day-by-day and the impact which it has on her school-life, relationship and daily chores; but also the struggles she experiences due to immense remorse for not loving her body just the way it was.
Throughout the book, the story line pick up and Ms. St. Pierre has the amazing writing skills to send the reader into panic of what is going to happen next and how Carrie is going to deal with her (so it seems) never ending shrinking dilemma. Even though we can suspect that this could not happen in real life (I hope!), Ms. St. Pierre so amazingly and successfully portrays the struggles which girls now a days are facing, cleverly integrating this into a fascinating and suspenseful fictional story line. I felt that this enhanced the moral and message of this book that much stronger.
I definitely recommend this book to all young adult readers; young and old, male or female... this is a lesson which we can all learn from, May it be a reminder that accepting who we are will send you peace and understanding. Eventually, the only person you need to deal with your entire life is yourself, so why not be more open to your flaws and embrace them as your own unique beauty :)
