I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I thought I was going to be more into this book because of the content, but I couldn't get into the audio book. I would try it again another time though!

I just wasn't able to get into this story. I didn't finish it.

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Big Girl is a coming-of-age story about Malaya Clondon, a Black girl living in Harlem with a big problem.


She's obese and she couldn't care less.


This is, of course, much to the chagrin of Malaya's mother who also battles her weight, and her very judgmental grandmother who reminds her and suggests to her that she should care.


Readers, these loving family members were so brutal in their shaming. It's a definite trigger warning for anyone who's ever endured judgment over their weight.


Here's are two snippets that depict the horrible and stinging verbal abuse from Malaya's grandmother:


"Guess I'll have to take the doors off the hinges next time I see you, big as you're getting."


"You sure you need to eat that, My-Ly-Ly? One more bite of that sandwich and you're liable to blow like Willy the Whale."



This debut by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan is a deeply raw and emotional look at shame, intergenerational trauma, familial expectations, Black womanhood and queer desires. All set against the backdrop of an ever-changing Harlem.


Narration by Lisa Reneé Pitts was very well done. That said, I found myself able to follow along better to the storyline while also reading the hardcover.


Special thanks to High Bridge Audio for the opportunity to preview the audiobook via the NetGalley app.

Round up to five stars. Big Girl is a compelling coming of age story following Malaya through two time periods (around 8 years old and then mid teens). The book brings readers to Harlem in the 1990s up through the earlier periods of gentrification. I guess technically that makes it historical fiction but since I grew up in the nineties that seems wild to me!

The writing is lyrical, mostly narrative with minimal dialogue, giving us a deep insight into Malaya's experience from a close third person POV. This is definitely a low plot, high character development kind of book but the story carries you along beautifully. The most prominent theme of the book involves a lot of food and body shaming which can be hard to read, especially when Malaya was only eight. Yet, it all rings very true and it's an important story to hear. There are also themes of race, family, intergenerational trauma, community and the roles women are expected to play.

The author has the way of sticking in memorable little tidbits of wisdom that make you say "huh!" out loud. Often these tidbits come from secondary characters - all of whom are so brightly written and developed that I would read stories about any one of them!

It might be mildly spoilery to say this but, after dealing with a lot of heaviness throughout the book, it's a relief that it ends on such a hopeful note with Malaya finally being empowered to take up space.

The narrator is excellent with a melodious and captivating voice.

Content warning for all kinds of fat shaming, food shaming and the type of disordered eating that is the result of all the types of things you could imagine happening in the 1990s.

I received an audio Advanced Review Copy from Net Galley and HighBridge Audio in exchange for an honest review.

Malaya girl you've got my heart. Holding back my tears throughout this novel, tears of sadness and joy. I would love to read about Malaya as an adult on her own.

“Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.”

In her debut novel, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan gives us a story about Malaya, young girl growing up in Harlem who cannot escape the judgements and constant reminders about her weight. As Sullivan details Malaya’s life, we get to know her and her family. We see the good times and the bad. Malaya’s mom, a successful, working woman who faces weight challenges of her own, pressures Malaya to lose weight but her tactics don’t always work. Malaya’s parents do not always see eye-to-eye and this contributes to a rocky family life at times.

In my opinion, the second half of the book falls a bit flat (with the exception of the very end). I would have liked a fewer day-to-day details and a bit more substance at times. The POV was interesting to me, but the book sometimes lacked Malaya’s thoughts and feelings on how she’s treated by others. The stigma of obesity was obvious, but I wanted more of Malaya’s inner voice.

Though I didn’t absolutely love the second half, I would still recommend this book to readers. Sullivan’s writing is vivid and the elaborate descriptions of Harlem brings the city to life. The overall story is good. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this ARC audiobook!

Important topics in this story:
Weight, mental health, sexuality, race and gentrification

I am so blown away by how much I connect to this character! The author really captures the mental/emotional ups and downs and back and forth.... the things that are said to us about our bodies and the harm it does. I am just so thankful for a book like this that makes me feel so understood.

Big Girl is a coming to age story about an African American girl, Malaya, growing up in Harem in the 1990s. Being eight years old is tough enough, but Malaya has to deal with her family’s cruel remarks about her being fat and being one of the only African American kids at a predominantly white prep school. The book focuses on her struggles with her relationship with food and her family.

I struggled with listening to this book. I had hoped this would be a more body positivity story, but the amount of fat shaming that Malaya had to endure from her family was unsettling. The book heavily empathized on Malaya’s weight and the society’s stamina regarding women's bodies, especially as an African American woman. I got too consumed by Malaya's struggles and fears that I did not enjoy the story as much as I wanted to. I did not like the ending either; as much as Malaya wanted to seek change in society and with her family, I feel the end did not do her justice.

The narrating by Lisa Reneé Pitts was great, and she kept me engaged throughout the entire book.

Taking place in Harlem of the late 80s and early 90s, this character driven novel follows the life and reveals the thoughts of Malaya as she grows and discovers herself from the ages of eight to sixteen, all while trying to become more the name that people call her, "Big Girl."

Discovering that the main character is the same age as me meant I had to work hard to put aside the instant nostalgia that arose. Given that, the accuracy of detail will charm any elder millennial or anyone enamoured of the era. Beyond the pop culture references, the hold that Weight Watchers had over our mothers - and the mind-melting diet culture that was foisted onto our generation from a young age rings so, so true.

Beyond that, the novel should become an instant classic. A young person moving through the New York City of their time and circumstance harkens back to Catcher in the Rye, but with an optimism despite tough circumstances that makes the reader feel for Malaya Clondon in a way that one never could for Holden Caulfield.

There's no shying away from challenging issues here: the novel takes on racism, sexism, what it means to be a woman, burgeoning and confusing sexuality. And all with lyrical prose that is both masterful and a joy to read. This is by far the best book I've read so far this year!

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC!

Big Girl takes on some big topics. And it does so boldly and bravely. Kudos to the author for not shying away from the many traumatic elements involved. I really loved the way we got to see inside Malaya's mind and thoughts as the specter of her size shifted and evolved throughout the book. Really fantastic writing.

The narration also sparkles. I couldn't imagine a better manifestation of Malaya in every age of her young life. Lisa Renee Pitts sparkles throughout.

Definitely in a league with The Hate U Give, Thirteen Reasons Why, and many of John Green's novels in terms of being difficult books that everyone should read anyway.

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. This book is about childhood obesity. The author did a fantastic job building this character and I enjoyed it immensely.

This book is amazing, start to finish, and the narration is equally good.

Trigger warnings below.

I deeply loved BIG GIRL by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan for every conceivable feature, from the wonderful style and writing, to the both heart-breaking and heart-warming narrative, to the utterly charming narration on the arc audiobook I received from NetGalley, performed by Lisa Renee Pitts.

BIG GIRL tells the story of Malaya, an overweight young black girl living in Harlem in the 90s. Time passes around Malaya--she is first 10 in the narrative, then 15, then almost college age, looking at graduation. Everything changes around her--Harlem does, gentrification changes the face of the neighborhood she loves, hiphop does, when Biggie dies, even her home changes as the nature of the relationships inside it changes--her parents marriage, her mother's need for Malaya to lose weight and the fluctuating stridency with which she expresses this need. But one thing that doesn't seem to change for Malaya, no matter what she does, is that she always battles with her weight.

A note about the technical stuff. The Characters in this piece are finely rendered. I could *smell* them at certain points, the were so well cut! This is because I connected. Not merely because Sullivan described, but because she describes *reliably*.

I loved the way Sullivan writes about the painful things in life without being grotesquely detailed about them. As someone who has survived trauma, I appreciated this delicacy a great deal.

I won't give away how the narrative resolves, but I will say I think it's a clever, smart ending. Also, magical, which that time in history needs, a little bit. I know, I was there. This story is well told. Satisfying. It left me with the kind of good feeling that only good-feeling books can give a person. BIG GIRL is completely worth the read.

Rating 14 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Finished August 2022, Audiobook
Recommended for fans of contemporary women's fiction, family fiction; and readers interested in themes dealing with weight and beauty/identity, stories told from diverse perspectives, and stories from black American women writers
Trigger warnings: weight related slurs, job loss, gentrification, death of a parent, emotional abuse/neglect, SA

Thank you so much Netgalley for an ARC of this phenomenal audiobook

Thank you to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the ALC!

"Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels."

Big Girl follows Malaya - an overweight girl in 1990s Harlem - and her struggle with being overweight. Between bullies at school and her own mom taking her to Weight Watchers meetings, Malaya has to navigate a world that is not nice to big girls.

I really wanted to love this book, but I started losing interest at around 30%. I think the narrator, Lisa Renee Pitts, did a fantastic job at keeping readers engaged and entertained, but I just felt like nothing was happening. I ended up DNFing around 46%, but I'd still recommend this to other readers.

NOTE: I listened to an audio version of this novel that I received via Netgalley. It does not look like this is available for the public.

Big Girl is the story of Malaya, daughter of Nayala and Percy (Pro or Prah) initially at age 8 -168 pounds - living in a Brownstone in Harlem and attending Weight Watchers with her mother. All big girls know, that in order to eat, you lie. And in order to get really, really big, you eat greasy food, sugary food, quantities of food. You eat during the night. You eat because it makes pain go away or because it brings joy. To the world, you are the big girl, the fat girl. To doctors, you are morbidly obese. Children tease you, except for your friends. To your overweight mother, you are her shame. But no one, is just the body she presents to the world. Sullivan blends together the story of having ones severe weight issues be all the world sees with that of a human being, going about her life, growing up, with talents and friends and loving parents in a discordant marriage.

Malaya is smart. She attends a private school for gifted students, traveling by bus with her friend Shauniece, who brings her food to share from her father's Bodega every day. Malaya is a talented artist. She wins a major prize for her work in a local art program. She spends time in her room at her easel, drawing, painting, creating with the passion only artists know. Malaya is proud of her mother, a college professor with an advanced degree and the respect of her students, if not her male white colleagues. Malaya is close to her father, a computer whiz, who conspires to feed her food Nayala has forbidden and who is the more loving, nurturing parent, less critical than her mother. Nayala has a role model for this, her mother (Ma Mere) who spends and spent a lot of time being critical of her daughter and now her granddaughter, particularly around issues of food and weight. Throughout this novel, Malaya keeps gaining weight, past the 400 pounds of the scale in the gastric bypass surgeon's office. Past anything she cares to find out.

And she listens to the music she loves and mourns the 1997 death of Biggie, along with her world. She finds a crowd as more students of color come to her school, crushing on one while embracing them all, "La Famille." When hard things around her weight come up, she is in pain, but it is about how she experiences others' hurtful behavior and at times, failure to see her. She has respect now, for her gifts but also is not considered as a potential love interest. She experiments in various ways but mostly the connection is not there or it is too confusing to pursue. She misses school for long periods. She experiences serious loss. She makes up stories for her therapist and eventually she finds s a desire to grow into who she is as a person. This is a coming of age story, among other things. It is also a phenomenal story, often painful, about how the world thinks it has the right to talk to obese people about their weight and to not bother to know the person. Because it is such an accurate depiction with so many characters who are complex and relatable, it can be hard to read. But it is also funny, sweet, touching and the story of a rebel who we know will make it from the very beginning. Who will be okay despite her challenges. You love her as the fat little kid in African Dance class; as the moody teenager; as the burgeoning cool person who is settling into herself. Truly a remarkable book.

I liked the audio version, including the narrator. Oddly, the sample offered on Netgalley of the audio did not demonstrate her notable skill in reading the book. It was just okay, but I wanted to get the book. I'm glad I went with it because the reader did a great job.

Big Girl is a coming-of-age novel centering on Malaya, an African-American girl growing up in Harlem in the 90s. Malaya, at age 8, is labeled as "morbidly obese". Her struggles with her weight and food are central to the story. However, this book goes much deeper than that. This novel touches on other familiar themes as well: body-image, sexuality, women's roles, generational divide, grief, etc. Yet, despite dealing with familiar themes, it was like no other I've read before. It is unique yet relatable, just like Malaya herself.

In addition, the narrator did an excellent job which made it a pleasure to listen to. I especially liked her interpretation of the grandmother.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for allowing me early access to the audio book version of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I try to remain objective when I write reviews. However, this book was a mirror of my childhood. I was Malaya. I was a fat girl of color, growing up watching my parents struggle with food. My mom took me to a diet clinic, and I never became thin. I ended up spiraling, and now I'm in treatment for Binge Eating Disorder. This book brought up so many memories, feelings, and thoughts that six-year-old me suppressed. It was a challenging read, but it's an important read.

Sullivan wrote the experience that many fat children go through with such accuracy that I felt naked. I went through the same situations as Malaya, even the ones with older men. It was raw; it was rich, and the writing was guttural. The descriptions of the food and the culture were so decadent it felt like I was in the texture of the paper. There are parts where you want to laugh, cry, scream, and cheer for Malaya. In a world where people demonize fat people, it was refreshing to see Malaya written as an everyday human girl.

All I can say is bravo and thank you.

Big Girl is a fantastic debut novel and terrific audiobook.

The story follows Malaya, a young girl growing up in Harlem, from age 8 through her teen years. We see her struggles with her weight, her relationships, and self-acceptance, as her neighborhood and community are also changing.

This book is difficult to read; the fatphobia that she encounters constantly could be very triggering. She hears taunts from peers, strangers, and even her grandmother. Author Mecca Jamila Sullivan really takes on diet culture in this book, showing how destructive fatphobia is and how poor body image can pass from generation to generation.

Big Girl isn’t all sad. Malaya is a bright, talented girl, and I loved her relationship with her dad. As she gets older, she embraces and takes strength from hip hop and rap music. She learns a lot about herself and I felt hopeful seeing her come into her own.

Maybe I was a little naïve, but I I didn't realize this book was going to focus so heavily (no pun intended) on the main character's weight. Yes, I knew that was part of the plot, however just because someone is big, it shouldn't consume their entire life like I feel like it did throughout this story - to the point where it was uncomfortable to read the thoughts/comments/feelings about it.

The book was really well written and the audio was great, just not for me.

The heart of this book is Malaya, a funny and resilient young girl growing up in Harlem in the 1990’s. While the book covers hip hop, race, gentrification, and Malaya’s sexual awakening, the vast majority is about Malaya’s relationships with her parents, grandmother, friends and most of all food. This book was moving and wonderfully descriptive, but extremely stress inducing for me.

Warning, if you have any kind of eating, dietary, or body image issues, this book could be very triggering. I found myself disturbed by the way Malaya’s mother and grandmother talked about food, their bodies, and women’s bodies in general, though nothing surprised me considering the way society scrutinizes women's appearance and choices. I will say the writing was great and the end was very moving and hopeful but it was a real challenge to enjoy the ride.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this ALC!

Content Warnings: Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Addiction, Death of a family member, Statutory Rape