Explorations into themes of identity, belonging, feminism, friendship and love. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

Fantastic book about a girl with an actual hole through her abdomen. I recommend this read for sole factor of learning about self acceptance. That is the gift this book provides.

Contemporary Fiction
14-18
All teens feel like something’s missing in their lives, but Morgan Stone was born with a literal hole in her abdomen. This “brokenness” has consumed her young life – she cannot go swimming or have sleepovers for fear someone will see the hole; her father was so torn by her deformity he eventually walked away; her mother, an exercise guru who built a career on encouraging women to create a perfect body, persists in sending Morgan to surgeons in hopes someone can fix her daughter. Morgan herself, now 17 years old, is understandably a loner. She focuses on her art, going to school and work from an apartment she shares with her best friend Caroline, though they are still high school seniors. One night out dancing with Caroline, frustrated by a lifetime of keeping the hole hidden, Morgan exposes her truth and unleashes a social media storm complete with sexual innuendo, bullying, and an online following called “We All Have Holes.” Out of it comes an unexpected surprise. Morgan meets her match – her literal match, in Howie. A young man whose stomach has a lump of extra flesh that precisely fits her hole. (Yup. Sexual innuendo again.) Can genetic therapy heal them both? This is a metaphor-loaded debut novel, dealing not only with body acceptance and otherness, but also feminism and the particular challenges of navigating emerging sexuality as a teen. There’s also the issue of body ownership – I found myself comparing Morgan’s situation with that of a teen pregnancy – who gets to decide what happens to the fetus? Fortmeyer has created an endearingly prickly character in Morgan – she truly is a teen struggling with growing up, vulnerable and feisty, angry and confused, and so eager for acceptance. Howie’s character is well developed as well, and so is Caroline though I wanted to know even more about her. Perhaps a companion novel? One quibble: I do hope in her future writing Fortmeyer eases up on the similes. My thanks to Soho Teen press for the advance reading copy provided digitally through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37792712

"It’s weird how much time you spent hiding, when all you really wanted was to be seen."

Hole In The Middle caught my interest the moment I read the synopsis as it seemed as though it held an uplifting story about body image, self-love, and friendship. Since I personally haven’t read many contemporary books, I did find it difficult for me to get into unfortunately. The beginning was slow, but as the story progressed, it picked up and now all I want to do is to discuss the important elements it holds.

Kendra Fortmeyer truly weaved a story of self acceptance. The book might have been a little slow at first, but I feel the need to thank the author with all my heart for writing a story like this. If there’s something this book taught me, it’s that we all have our own hole. Although it might not physically be in our middle like Morgan’s, but we all have one somewhere. Physical or otherwise.

The story took an interesting direction and I wanted to know all the ways that Morgan was going to deal with people’s criticism and mean comments. Caroline proved to be quite a wonderful best friend by always spreading the positive and also embracing and loving herself entirely. Morgan battled a lot throughout this book between feeling defeated and getting back up and showing the world who she truly is. Howie was one of those really sweet characters who always accepts people and giving second chances. Then there’s Morgan’s mother, who was my least favourite character in the book. We got to know a little bit about why she is the way she is, and I guess we’ll have to settle for that. There were also plenty of humorous moments, which readers will definitely enjoy. The story is incredibly different from most contemporary books that you see on bookstore shelves. Perhaps by the end of this read, everyone will have found a way to relate to the main idea of the book just as it did by sending a positive message to me, and I hope it’ll send a positive one to other readers too.

In a way I’m satisfied with the way the book ended, which gave a strange feeling of happiness. Regardless of how I felt in the beginning with its pace, this book would be highly recommended as the story is just too lovely to miss out on.

I enjoyed this YA title, and how the main character seemed to find what she was missing in her life, in a non cookie cutter way, Different and unique, I would recommend this title!

Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read this title in exchange for a review!

Morgan was born with a hole in her abdomen. One night while out dancing she decided to display her hole, never realizing how much her life would change by showing it. Hole in the Middle reads like a several different books that never quite gel into one cohesive whole. One moment it's a satire of social media, the next it's an earnest romance, the next it's a social issues book. The sudden changes from chapter to chapter oftentimes causes mood whiplash. Fortmeyer captures the voices of her young characters quite well, especially Morgan's and her best friend Caroline. However, the adult characters come off as caricatures and it seems like she goes out of her way to avoid writing about them. This is especially apparent when you consider Fortmeyer has Morgan and Caroline, who are both 17, living in their own apartment that they are able to afford because Morgan's mom is an absurdly young fitness guru. Things like that are just jarring and could take readers right out of the story, This book could have used another draft or two because while it has a strong premise, it doesn't quite succeed in the presentation. It tries to be too many things at once when it should be a story about how a grounded story of how a teenage lives with a hole in her stomach.

3.5 stars

When I first heard of this book, it was pitched as being similar to Wonder, but for older teens. I feel like comparison doesn't quite do this book justice.

Hole in the Middle is about Morgan, who was born with a rare genetic disorder that gives her a hole right beside her stomach. Tired of always hiding, she decides to show it off while at a club, gaining the attention of not only the media, but of a researcher in New York. From there she meets Dr. Morse and Howie, who happens to have lump on his stomach the same size and the hole in Morgan. Dr. Morse believes she can fix both of them with experimental genetic testing but Morgan isn't sure she can put her hope in another test.

The story itself was interesting to read. It covered a lot of different themes, such as identity, acceptance, body image, and friendship, that were all explored in detail. The story has a good balance between serious moments and humorous moments, which really helped keep me engaged. There were some thing's I would have liked to have seen explored more in depth, like seeing more of intricacies of Morgan's relationship with her mother towards the end and the plot line with Chad wrapped up a little too nicely for me.

The characters themselves were also very relatable, a strong point with this book. I loved watching Morgan go from being very self depreciating and anti-social to becoming a very strong young woman, who learns to accept herself and others for who they are. I also enjoyed the juxtaposition of Morgan's and Howie's families in the novel, and I wish we could have seen more of Howie's family in particular. I also really enjoyed Caro's character, and would have loved to have seen more of her in the middle of the novel.

Overall this book had a very clear and positive message and I would recommend it.

First of all, I see you hating on the Northeast . . . and lemme tell you Raleigh, you are just a few strip malls away from turning into South Jersey, so I'd be careful if I were you.

Now that I got that out of my system, I really like this book. The body positivity message is strong and the characters flawed, real, and relatable. The reader is Morgan's cheerleader, even when she starts the self destruct that leads to her reinvention of self, so strong coming of age scenario too. And the book leaves you with a bit of hangover, not the tequila kind, but more of an extra glass of cabernet where you start thinking of that mirror, before it is smashed, that gets you looking at your own life. A book worthy of a re-read.

What a very different story! The premise took a little getting used to, but it is well worth it. This is a beautiful story about learning to love and accept oneself and to accept love from others. It is definitely worth the suspension of reality to spend time with these characters and this story.

I gotta admit, this one made me skeptical at first. The whole (no pun intended) concept seemed so far fetched that I wasn't quite sure how it was going to play out. But there's something about this author, something about the way she blends words together to tell one heck of a story.
Morgan has always been different. Born with a hole in her torso, she's struggled to fit in. Very few people know her secret, but she stills struggles with accepting herself. An absent father and a perfectionist, demanding mother don't help matters any. Finally, she decides she's tired of hiding her body under bulky sweaters and sweatshirts. So she bares her secret, slowly at first. As secrets go, though, it snowballs out of control. Wishing she could take it all back but unable to...
And then there's Howie. He's her exact opposite. Literally. Where Morgan has a hole in her abdomen, Howie has a protruding lump of flesh. Could their shared abnormalities be the key to curing them both?
This is such a good story. Beyond the medical concerns and insecurities and body image issues, it's a story of accepting yourself. Not only for Morgan but for those around her. It's a message we could all use more of in today's world of staged perfection.