"Fugly" by Claire Waller is a heart-wrenching and thought-provoking novel that delves into the complexities of self-esteem and beauty standards. The author does an excellent job of exploring the impact of societal pressure and bullying on the main character's life. The writing style is powerful and evocative, bringing the reader on a journey of self-discovery and healing. If you're looking for a thought-provoking read that will stay with you long after you've finished it, "Fugly" is a must-read. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a powerful and impactful story.

A plus size girl who comforts herself with food, but is a vicious online troll in her spare time. She meets a fellow troll who becomes her partner in crime, but who won't stop when things hit too close to home.

This book was hard to read, but I powered through.

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was hard to read at times because it deals with insecurities a plus size girl like myself has. I liked it but there were also times where I wanted to dnf it, so glad I didn't. This book deals with a plus size girl and the way she sees herself, at the beginning it is a little annoying , but as the book continúes she changes a lot.

DNF

I could not get into this book. I was really excited by the premise, of seeing the perspective of a troll, but instead the book tells us about her trolling. Being told is far less powerful than seeing her troll, and seeing why she trolls. In the bit I read, it felt like it was glorifying trolling. I'm sure this changes by the time the book ends, but I couldn't stick around to find out..

This book had captured my attention through the title "Fugly". The book starts with Beth Soames who is at the library reading a psychology book when she meets a beautiful girl who reminds her of a fairy Amy. The pair chat and you can tell that Amy is a genuinely nice person, but Beth, as we are about to discover, is a bit messed up. Beth has always been a big girl and loves to make fun of beautiful people and troll them as a way to make herself feel better. Online, she can be anybody she wants whereas IRL is a shy girl who is so insecure that I have to admit she started to annoy me. It's like come on Beth, get over freaking yourself - not everyone is out to get you. While she is online trolling, she meets online Tori who loves trolling too. When Beth is with Tori, the pair start to take things to the next level as Tori is a pro in hacking. Throughout the novel, Tori and Beth get closer to IM and start to fall in love with each other - this is a bit of a pseudo lesbian relationship but not. During the novel, Beth starts to sit next to Amy in college and hang out with Amy's crowd. What happens though when her internet life and her real-life end up crashing as one of Amy's friend tries to kill herself over social media bullying. Afterward, Beth tries to distance herself from Tori, but her double life will start unraveling and soon Beth finds herself friendless and trolled herself online. Is this moment, a chance for Beth to reinvent her life and realize that she should live in the moment and that life isn't as bad as she thought. Reading this, I did wonder right through the novel too if Beth suffered from Mental Health issues as she seemed like she had Bipolar / Split personality disorder.
Fugly is a great read to the dark underbelly of the internet from Hacking, Trolling and Catfishing.

I received a copy of this via Netgalley for an honest review.
Being a plus sized girl I thought this book would be right up my alley until the first chapter. I literally couldn't get past that first chapter it was absolutely so incredible triggering. I understand that this is how people think inside their heads and that truely makes me so sad. But I have worked hard to get those thoughts out of my own and it is just not a place I could allow myself to go back to.
I appreciate the copy and hope that later in the book the main character can grow to love herself.

Though the idea was promising, this book did not live up to its potential. Beth, the main character, considers herself "fugly" - fat and ugly - and uses people's real-world treatment of her as an excuse for being a mean, horrible person online. She cyberbullies "the beautiful people" and then gets a partner in crime, Tori, who trolls with her and for her, creating a relationship with someone Beth doesn't even know but who has convinced her they're special and in love. When Beth finally wakes up and realizes what she's doing is wrong, "Tori" strikes against her.

None of this really rang true for me. Beth was completely unlikable as a character and so many times I almost put the book down; I finished in the hopes of some kind of redemption but it was too little, too late.

This book was so good. I'm not sure what made me pick it up but I'm glad I did. I loved the main character. Very real and relatable. I loved the use of technology here, a very common way to stay connected with the world now, but also seemingly a common way to use for abuse as if done in this book. I loved that she was so hard yet so vulnerable and gullible. I loved the problems and surprises that arise. The ending was my least favorite. I won't put a spoiler here I will just say that I'm not sure what I expected but with everything that happened it seemed a little too nice/tidy for me.
Overall this book was a breath of fresh air. I'm so glad I had the chance to pick this up and read it.

This book hit way too many trigger warnings for me, and if it was a “honest look into...” then I do t want to finish reading it. It was disgusting and foul, and the main character Beth was a sad excuse for a human being.

Beth is a fugly... fat & ugly and a troll. She gets a kick out of trolling those she thinks are perfect, until the day she meets a like minded and their trolling has consequences.

I didn't like Beth all that much and predicted some of what was going on, but managed to stick with the story long enough to finish the book, but I would not recommend it to my friends and family.

This book didn't work out for me. At the beginning of the book, I found myself very annoyed with the character Beth who gets bullied herself so instead of keeping her head up high she trolls on social media doing the same thing that people do to her.
I had a very hard time finishing the story and didn't like the writing or how Beth was so negative.

Please note, I received a copy of this e-book and exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

Please be aware that this review will contain spoilers.

One of my favorite things about this book, was that I was actively trying to predict what was going to happen next, and I was usually wrong. For the longest time, I was convinced that “Tori” would end up being Amy. Honestly, I’m still kind of surprised that it wasn’t. And then when it became extremely obvious that it wasn’t going to work out, I thought it might be Brat. I will say that I am not happy that we never found out who “Tori“ really was.

Everyone knows that cyber bullying and trolling is bad. Everyone knows that the people who do it, are usually just trying to make themselves feel better about their own lives. But what we don’t see you, is why they are feeling the way they do. In the case of Beth, she was bullied and her real life. She was very insecure about her weight and she was made fun of frequently for it. Even just the side long glances where she felt judged, hurt her every time. In her mind, she felt that it was a certain type of people that were targeting her, and she wanted revenge. While this absolutely does not make it OK, she didn’t realize the effect that she could be having on the people she was targeting. She didn’t realize that she was doing essentially the same thing that she felt others were doing to her. Until Tori happened.

I love the redemption aspect of this book. I love that Beth grew to realize that what she was doing was horrible. I do not like the fact that it took such a Trumatic event for that to happen, but I am glad it finally happened. And that is very realistic. Until you actually experience it in real life, your actions seem like you won’t have any consequences to deal with.

I think this is a great book for teens to read to try to get a better grasp on how bad trolling is. While it may just seem like fun and games, what they are doing has real consequences and is basically destroying somebody’s life.

Other great aspects of this book, in my opinion, include the relationships. I loved that there was never a big deal on what sexuality somebody was. It didn’t matter that Amy liked men and Beth liked women. I also liked the forgiveness. I loved that Amy was willing to give birth so many chances because she saw the good in her. I also loved the Beth didn’t give up on Amy despite everyone telling her to leave her alone.

This was a great standalone book that covered a very tough topic. It was very engaging and extremely well written.

As we follow Beth, a societal outcast in all the typical ways, through life as an 18 year old, she struggles to rise above and make stronger "I'm an adult" choices. Instead she falls into the typical "let me bully people online with my new-found friend who's dragging me even lower".

It was difficult to read this novel, as an educator, because for basically the entirety of the novel you knew what was going to happen, and it is all of the choices parents and teachers work hard to help instill in youth.

The writing was appropriate for young adult literature, but the plot and character decisions were difficult to get connected with as a reader.

This could have been a great book. I can see the potential for a suspenseful YA mystery/thriller kind of book. I would have loved that book. This book, however, is just one big collection of hateful thoughts and comments by the main character. The "turning point" comes way too late to even start making up for the vileness.

This is an unbelievable story. As in, I cannot believe it. The main characters are too extreme in their personalities, and their actions are illogical based on their experiences. Someone who distrusts every single person she meets and is smart enough to hide her online tracks, would never be so easily swayed to give personal information to a complete stranger.

Also I'm growing tired of the queer character always being the bad guy. You'd think that, in the year of our Lord 2019, authors would at least make sure to provide "nice" queer characters as a counterpoint, so as not to associate an entire community with evil deeds and awful people.

Definitely one you need to read. It covers all of the problems most of us face in life just put in a very well told story form.

I could not finish this. I made it through almost half of the book before stopping. I love books that tackle hard topics because I find them to be extremely important in today's world. I find it incredibly important to be able to find content that people from all walks of life can relate to in all types of media. This book tried really hard but failed. I probably should have realized this from the title alone. "Fugly" is an insult, but from that and the description, I assumed it'd be a book about a girl overcoming her negative self-image and self-talk and bullying. Instead, all I got was HORRIBLE fat-shaming (from the overweight character mostly, which was confusing), victim shaming, and flat out bullying from MOST characters involved. It all made me sick to my stomach.

The writing was hard to follow as well, as it seemed to go off on random tangents that had nothing to do with the plot and left me confused as to where we were in the story. The story was mostly told through Beth's thought process, with very little dialogue, which did not help.

There are ways to tackle tough subjects. There are always ways to make a reader dislike the main character, but have it further the plot. This book fell VERY short of that. If you have any past history of sexual assault, weight-related health issues, eating disorders, or bullying, I HIGHLY suggest skipping this book.

You know the feeling you get when you’re approaching a car accident? The traffic has slowed down, emergency services are already on the scene and you don’t want to look. You know if you were involved in that accident you wouldn’t want a whole pile of strangers gawking at you as they passed, yet you can’t help it. You look, even as you’re wishing you hadn’t.

That was how I felt the entire time I was reading this book. I wanted to look away and move on to something lighter, happier, less vindictive, but I kept reading. Why? Because, despite how uncomfortable I was, I still wanted to know. It was compulsive.

I’ve never understood why victims choose to become offenders. Surely if you’ve experienced something painful enough that you could be labelled a victim as a result, you know how bad that feels and wouldn’t want to inflict that pain on anyone else, right? Apparently not.

Beth was bullied at school and now she targets “Beautiful People” online. If she’d simply had some imaginative revenge fantasies featuring some of the worst offenders in her life I probably would have cheered her on but that’s not her game.

Instead she revels in trolling people she wants to be, people who have never done anything to her and who she knows nothing about outside of their likely Photoshopped online presence. It’s a victory for Beth if her victims shut down their social media accounts, and the hatred she receives from her victims’ supporters? Bring it on! It’s like a drug to her.

“Here I’m not a loser. Here, I reign supreme. It doesn’t matter what side of the fence you fall down on: lover, hater, you’re still focused on me, talking about me, making me the topic of conversation.”

While I never liked Beth I did find some of her commentary about being overweight authentic, from not wanting to eat in public to the shame of standing in a retail store that doesn’t stock clothes in your size. Had she not also been a troll I probably would have found her character fairly relatable. Well, except for the fact that she bought into some infuriating myths surrounding sexual assault and self harm, and her propensity to blame pretty much anyone other than herself. Okay, so maybe there’s not as much relatability happening here as I thought. I did want her to make an appointment with a psychologist rather than study psychology though.

I initially liked Amy, adorable, quirky Amy. She was a bit too sweet to feel realistic but the contrast between her and Beth, who mostly only approximated sweet when she was eating chocolate, felt necessary. (While I’m thinking about sugar, I have to say that I absolutely loved the phrase “chain-eat chocolate” and expect I will probably both do this and use it in a sentence within a week.)

I wanted to hold onto the time I had with sweet Amy and bask in the warmth of the sunlight that appeared to be originating from her pure heart. While I understood her confusion, pain and anger when she learned some truths about Beth, whenever she yo-yoed between anger and forgiveness her personality seemed to change, almost as if there were three distinct Amy’s.

There were a couple of reveals that I’d figured out early on and unfortunately the blurb gave too much away. While the ending felt too neat overall, I liked that there were some questions that remained unanswered. It would have been nice to know who Tori really was but not knowing was even better.

If you have a problem with swearing, this is probably not the book for you. Because I’m me I got curious. Give or take a couple because my maths isn’t perfect, I counted ”shit” and its variations, not including “shite” 77 times and ”fuck” and its variations 231 times!

Content warnings include anxiety, bullying, depression, mention of images of slaughtered animals, self harm, sexual assault and suicidal ideation.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

Wow, just wow ...
This book really got to me, and while I usually am perfectly fine with writing a review right away, I just had to let things sink in for a while this time.

Part of me wanted to dislike Beth from the very start, but that would be acknowleding that I hate parts of myself. Just to make things clear, I am not an internet troll by any means. I am, however, in the fugly-camp, and have been in the depressed-camp, and due to my autism I'm often in the don't-fit-in-society-camp. I recognized the self-loathing, and I know that I can be harsher on others than I should be at times because of it.

The emotions displayed by Beth, the fear that when people seem to like you it is all fake or imagined, it all felt so real. And however much I hated what Beth did, I could do nothing but weep for her, for her pain, for how society, problems, bullying and self-loating made her who she was. Like it made me who I am at times when I really hate myself.

I am glad she grew and learned to open up to others a bit. It is scary, but it is good. I'm also glad that it didn't end with 'and now Beth is happy, and never scared or insecure anymore', because life does not work like that either.

Don't read this book if you are not up to serious issues taking place, having serious consequences and resulting in more serious issues. It is a difficult book to read, with a main character who is difficult to like at best. If you do feel up to it, it is absolutely worth reading though.

I received this book as an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I rarely dislike a book so much I consider not finishing it. But this was that book. I did finish it, mostly because I wanted to see if it had any redeeming qualities.

The answer? Not really, and certainly not enough to account for its shortcomings. It might be the right book for some people, but I can’t get past the triggering content in this book that had no warnings.

Some people like anti-hero protagonists. But Beth goes beyond an anti-hero into just being a villain. I don't mind reading about villainous characters, when they're written well, or have a redeeming factor, or have some interesting aspects. Beth was none of those things. Beth is not someone I wanted to root for, and she's also not written very well.

The book, in general, is a mess. The ending is sloppy and unrealistic. It's something out of a soap opera. I don't want to spoil it entirely, but it's an attempt at a redemption arc, but it's not truly earned, so it doesn't make sense.

The book needed trigger warnings. I'm an advocate for trigger warnings, which I know is controversial, some people think books don't need them. This book is marketed to young adults. It had descriptions of self-harm, eating disorders, sexual assault, fatphobia... need I go on? It needed trigger warnings. It did not have any.

Let's talk about the fatphobia. The author addresses it a bit with "discussion questions" at the very end. But that doesn't make up for the intense fatphobia throughout. The main character is fat, so on some level, her encountering a bit of fatphobia from the outside world, or some internalized fatphobia, that could be expected. Not fine, but expected. But this level was horrible. It wasn't necessary to the plot, and removing it would have, in my opinion, really strengthened the book.

It was clear that Beth had major issues, and she was at points delusional about how the outside world saw her, and used that as an excuse to enact revenge for feeling unseen.

One final note--making the two not-straight characters (it's unclear what sexuality they are, but they're not heterosexual) the villains is a homophobic trope that needs to die.

Thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Fugly follows a young girl, Beth, who is deeply insecure and considers herself someone who doesn’t deserve friends or happiness. She spends her time being a troll online and bringing people down.

She meets a new troll friend online and together they wreak havoc. When the trolling starts to affect her real life she starts to have some regrets.

I thought this was a pretty good picture of an unhappy young woman and a good glimpse of her mindset. Not something you see a lot in fiction.