Emily:Okay. So There's Something About Sweetie was my pick for the YA Book Club because I have read and loved Sandhya Menon's books in the past. I especially love When Dimple Met Rishi, and I knew that There's Something About Sweetie was a "sort of" "sequel" to Dimple/Rishi, and that it featured a fat protagonist, so I was ALL IN, and I knew Mary would be too.
Mary: And I was!
Emily: Especially because we've been doing a lot of fantasy/supernatural books lately, this was a nice breath of fresh air. The premise is fairly simple. Sweetie is a high school girl who is the start athlete of her track team. She has a great group of friends and parents who seem to love her a lot. But there's one big problem: her mom will not stop harping on her to lose weight. And it seems to be coming from a place of genuine care, but also a place of HUGE misunderstanding. And because Sweetie is in a lot of ways a very traditional Indian girl, she's not very comfortable speaking out against her parents. So when Ashish's parents try to get their son set up with Sweetie, and Sweetie's mom says no because Sweetie is "too fat" to date their star basketball player son, Sweetie realizes it's finally time for her to do something about it.
She and Ashish start dating in secret behind Sweetie's parents' back. WHAT WILL HAPPEN FROM THERE? IDK, but spoilers to follow.
Mary: That's pretty accurate! The plot seems really simple but there's a lot of good stuff going on here, and I wouldn't say it's just an easy book, even though it's a breezy and enjoyable read. There's lots of good body positive stuff happening--as well as Ashish coming to terms with comparing himself to his brother. This is where we say, HEY we gonna spoil it.
Although I think this is the rare kind of book where spoilers wouldn't really make me not enjoy it.
Emily: For sure. We should also say Ashish is Rishi's little brother. And we see Ashish and Celia get together in When Dimple Met Rishi. So that's how these books connect.
Mary: But both books stand on their own, well!
Emily: In the beginning of this book, Ashish is trying to get over Celia, who cheated on him.
Mary: TBH Celia is awful. But then again, I think we're supposed to think she's awful.
Emily: Yeah I read When Dimple Met Rishi a while ago, so I can't remember how I felt about her in that book. I do think you kind of read Dimple/Rishi and think Ashish is an annoying little brother.
Mary: But after that breakup, Ashish decides to turn to his parents, who matched up Dimple and Rishi with great success. He thinks maybe getting his parents to match him up with a girl would help him get his "mojo" back
Photo image of Ashish trying to get his mojo back and go back to “Balltopia.”
Emily: Right. And in SO MANY WAYS, Sweetie is such a great match for Ashish. They're both athletes who care a lot about physical fitness and sports and stuff. Even though their sports are different, they really respect one another's athleticism.
Mary: They also both come from traditional Indian families, but are not sooo traditional themselves.
Emily: Also, they both feel somewhat misunderstood by their families, like they have something to prove. And in the ways they're different, they also kind of compliment each other. Sweetie teaches Ashish to respect his Indian heritage more, and Ashish teaches Sweetie to speak up for herself and think about herself over her family sometimes.
Mary: Yes! But... Sweetie is fat.
Emily: But yeah... Sweetie is fat. You want to talk about Sweetie's feelings about being fat? Because they're complicated.
Mary: Sweetie is fat and she's not ashamed of being fat. She is athletic and strong--mentally and physically--and she sees herself as a feminist. That being said, Sweetie's mother Vidya thinks Sweetie's body is something she should hide, and that becomes a major point of stress in their relationship. Sweetie wants to do things like wear a traditional dress that shows her back and Vidya strongly opposes. Vidya loves Sweetie, of course, but part of that love is trying to protect her from a world that sometimes mocks fat people.
Sweetie has heard this her whole life, and so she's sort of shy about certain things. She doesn't want to get up and sing in front of a crowd of people because she can almost hear her mother's voice in her head wondering if she'll get laughed at. She questions if Ashish is attracted to her because of her fatness, and she almost misses out on traditional growing up things like prom because she thinks she shouldn't go.
All of this is VERY familiar to me, and part of my enjoyment of the book was remembering a lot of my own experiences (even more recent experiences) where I've tried to reconcile how I feel about myself with how the outside world tells me I should feel. Sweetie KNOWS she is worthy of everything, but she has a hard time remembering that.
Emily: That was so sad. I teared up towards the end of the book when Sweetie was reflecting on all of the things she'd allowed herself to miss out on because of internalized prejudices about fatness.
Mary: Definitely. I hope, on some level, that this book helps young adults both understand that they're important and beautiful no matter what they look like, and that they should be more tender to people who are different from them. We should all be nicer to people!
Emily: Yes SWEETIE IS SO NICE
Mary: Sweetie's main mission in the story is the Sassy Sweetie Project, where she is going to prove to herself that she can do all the things her mother doesn't want her to do, and it was very fun.
Emily: So obviously on that list: going out with a hot dude, wearing what she wants to wear, singing onstage in front of a big audience
(p.s. I love how this "huge audience" was a little over 3 dozen people... that seemed accurate for a high school band)
Mary: Hahha! Well, I would've thought it was a big audience, too, when I was in high school.
The problem is that the Sassy Sweetie Project goes a little awry because she actually falls in love with the hot guy she sets out to date.
Emily: Yes. It was all very cute.
Mary: I really enjoyed the traditionalism of it all. Ashish's parents want to set him up to date Sweetie, in a traditional way (not for marriage, just to date), but Sweetie's mother opposes it because she says they aren't matched well (physically). So Sweetie goes behind her mother's back and challenges Ashish to a race--which she handily wins.
This was SO VERY CUTE to me. Sweetie whips Ashish on the track and proves to him that she's strong and not a stereotype of a fat person, and Ashish is FLOORED by the mystery of this encounter, and Sweetie's skill on the track.
This is the kind of cute YA stuff I eat up.
Mary eating up that good good YA.
Emily: Yes this is PEAK cute YA romance. We've been focusing a lot on Sweetie, but Ashish is equally the protagonist of this novel. Half the story is told from his perspective. How did we feel about him?
Mary: He has a strong little brother energy, and I enjoyed him a lot! Ashish is the type of character I usually hate--super confident in himself almost to the point of arrogance when we first meet him. He has super skills with the ladies, in his opinion, but breaking up with Celia has really messed with his head. He's not playing basketball well and he can't talk to girls, either. What I really enjoyed about Ashish is that the novel demonstrates well that even though he might seem confident, he also has insecurities and worries about himself. He's not perfect.
Emily: I think for Ashish, his experiences in this novel was a lot about growing up
Mary: Yes, definitely.
Emily: His break up with Celia caused him to reexamine himself and realize, "okay, the way I've been acting is no longer serving me. How can I be a better version of myself?"
Mary: Which is truly very mature and unusual for a teenager. But good!
Emily: And I love that he sees things in Sweetie that he wants to emulate. Part of his love for her is that he truly admires her and wishes he could be more like her. Which is really sweet.
Mary: Yes, he loves how passionate she is about things and how kind she is. He also thinks she's hot. Which I liked!
Emily: Yes, they made sure to let us know that she got him aroused. Multiple times throughout the book
Mary: Oh yeah, she felt his boner.
Emily: And she was into it. You're the fat studies person. How did this book rate compared to other YA books about fat teens?
Mary: It's difficult for me to even think about because I enjoyed it so much. But yes, this book is doing something that some YA books are beginning to do: not treat fat people like absolute crap. This is a trend happening right now, and it includes novels like Julie Murphy's Dumplin'. This book is doing something even more nuanced, though.
It's uniting the sort of body positivity activism we've seen in some other novels and marrying it with traditional beauty ideals of Indian culture, which has its own views on what's considered lovely or acceptable in young women. By uniting the influence and views of Sweetie's family with her views on herself, I think the book is really doing a great job of showing how one's feelings about their own body are actually influenced by a LOT of factors, not just their own views. And I really appreciated that, as someone who's been writing a lot about fat YA characters recently!
Emily: I'm so glad you liked it!
Mary: Me too! I really want to read Menon's other work, now! There's something really enjoyable about her writing, too. She leaves enough mystery to be exciting, but she lets the characters really shine. Like, I had a general idea of where things would go (as in a lot of YA books), but I loved the characters so much that I didn't care. I think she also has a gift for dialogue.
Emily: She does. Even her non-dialogue is very voice-heavy. Like it sounds like the characters talking to themselves. It makes this a pretty speedy read
Mary: Definitely! The characters had their own way of thinking and speaking to themselves. I really enjoyed that the chapters were both from Sweetie's perspective and Ashish's perspective. A lot of YA novels about fat young people are from the fat character's POV, which means that there's a lot of uncertainty and wondering if people are really attracted to them (I'm thinking of Dumplin' specifically--which I do love). We immediately have that question answered for us because in Ashish's chapters he thinks to himself about how hot she is and how much he wants to kiss her. And I like that the question of if Ashish is attracted to Sweetie is just immediately answered so we can move on to how cute their romance is or how fun their dates are. Or how Sweetie's family takes the news of them dating. More important things!
Emily: Yes! And I love how in the end we get Dimple and Rishi! A little cameo, for us fans.
Mary: Yes! To me, it didn't mean as much, but I was still like, aw, people know them!
Emily: Hahah! Now you just have to go back and read about them and when Ashish pops up you'll say "AW, ASHISH!
Mary: I do!
Emily: Which I didn't have when I was reading it
Because I didn't know Ashish yet.
Mary: I truly, really enjoyed this book.
Emily: Me too. I laughed out loud. I cried. I smiled at the cute stuff.
Mary: And would suggest others read Menon! She's doing something different in YA lit, includes SO MUCH diversity (even in Ashish and Sweetie's friend group), and her writing is great.
Emily: Yes! This is my third book by her, so I can officially say I love her!
Mary: No, no, you have to go on four dates! Before you can love her.
Emily: Oh okay so I need to read one more
Mary: Yes.
Emily: Maybe I'll read the Pinky one next. She also has a new YA series called Of Curses and Kisses that comes out next month!
Mary: Oooh, I do love curses AND kisses.
Emily: I'm giving this book 4.5 stars. I docked a half star because as someone who was in a band in high school, the band stuff was a little unrealistic. Like... they rehearsed and were ready to play a show and everyone loved them? In two weeks?
Mary: I gave it a 5 because I don't know anything about bands lololol Unless they're marching bands.
Emily: Yeah that part just irked me lol. But everything else... great.
Mary: Yes! Safe to say we both loved this book.
Emily:100% Want to announce our next one?
Mary: Yes! Our next pick is Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles. This book is about--from the little I've read about it--a boy who gets interested in a girl and joins a purity pledge (I'm tempted to say cult) in order to get closer to her. This is EXTREMELY up my alley. And I'm glad you mentioned it to me.
Emily: Yeah I think I just picked two in a row. MY BAD. But yeah, love this culty religion stuff, and we haven't read a book that's 100% from a teen boy perspective, I don't think.
Mary: I'm pleased to be getting a teen boy perspective that ALSO tries to talk about toxic masculinity. That should be fun! Yaaay!
