Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have


By: Allen Zadoff
Reviewed by: Lynna, 17
Rating: It was amazing!


There's something about this book that just makes you want to keep reading, keep reading, keep reading... then, bam, it ends and you're not exactly anticipating more... you're actually quite satisfied. This is the kind of book that you would enjoy from the beginning until the very end. There are books in which I have read where the ending just pretty much basically SUCKED. There are others in which I adore, and then the ending just doesn't leave me content. But this book, it's a whole different story. I loved it.

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have was amusing, to say the very least. I absolutely love the writing and tone - you just want to meet the author after reading this book. It's about a high school sophomore named Andrew Zansky who is, well, fat. Extremely fat, overweight, and not too healthy with his dangerous potential asthma attacks. He falls in love with a girl named April, and all of a sudden he cares about how he looks, how people see him, how he sees himself. He tries to climb the social ladder but ends up meeting with trouble after trouble while trying to get April's attention.

This book has a lot of twists and turns of events; people would never guess the ending, people like me at least. As a high school student, I found this book very relate able as far as social cliques. Although this book seems exaggerated, I can never be too sure because I haven't personally gone too every high school in the world to be able to judge for myself. Either way, this comical twist of a book keeps you reading and enjoying. The story makes you think more about the struggles Andrew has to go through and rethink about people who are struggling about weight. You can't just trust someone wholly, and sometimes what seem true may be very, very deceiving. Moral of the story: it's the inside that counts. And as cliche as that sounds, it's nevertheless very, earnestly, honestly true.


Recommended to: high school students