To Be Honest

To Be Honest by Maggie Ann Martin provides a thought-provoking take on the thinmother-fat-daughter relationship dynamics that are a theme in young adult novels such as Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy (2015), My Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding (2018), and Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado (2021). However, the unusual relationship between mother and daughter is missing depth, reinforces weight-related stereotypes, and ultimately feeds into the new-body-new-me trope. The young adult novel follows the fat teenager Savannah Alverson, a senior at a high school in suburban Indiana. Ashley Alverson, her “re lanky” sister, has just moved away to college, leaving her alone at home with her mother, Kim Alverson, with whom she has a complicated relationship. Their parents divorced recently, and the whole family has to adjust to new living situations. Most central to the plot development, Kim Alverson lost an extreme amount of weight by joining a made-up reality TV show Shake the Weight after “struggling” with her weight throughout her life. Because of her recent lifestyle changes, Kim Alverson tries to impose her habits onto her daughter by regulating what she eats, asking her to eat something “healthy” before social events, and throwing away “bad” highcalorie foods. Kim Alverson unequivocally represents and even epitomizes the evils of diet culture. These scenes showcase the harms of diet cultures and the realities of fat discrimination in family homes, especially between fat daughters and thin mothers. Shake the Weight comes back to the family home to interview the mother and daughter about how they are doing after the weight loss. Savannah’s comments on national television get twisted and put a negative light on the two, as one would expect from such productions, which deepens the division between mother and daughter. In stark contrast, Savannah is portrayed as a fat activist despite occasional insecurities about her body, self-worth, and desirability. Savannah has a clear, opposing opinion regarding her mother’s new eating and exercise rituals. In a heated argument about Savannah’s eating choices, Savannah articulates her stance on her body: