Kaylin (The Re-Read Queen)'s Reviews > On the Spectrum

3.5 Stars

Overview:

“Did you just use ‘artisanal’ to refer to nachos?”

^Now I want nachos. There was seriously so much delicious food in this book, and now I want to go to Paris.

Clara has an unhealthy relationship with food, prompting her mother to relocate her to Paris and her father’s for the summer. During her stay, Clara grows closer with her younger brother, Alastair, who is on the autistic spectrum.

I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review, thank you to Second Story Press for the opportunity! (All quotes are not final)

Pros:

“I’m on the autism spectrum, but I’m not autistic. You’re on the eating disorder spectrum.

There’s some really strong ASD and eating disorder representation here. Clara is diagnosed with orthorexia—which I wasn’t personally familiar with. It is a term used to describe those who have an unhealthy relationship with dieting and food, without reaching the all-encompassing levels of anorexia. There was a lot of nuanced and interesting discussion about what it means to eat ‘healthy.’ When does counting calories and avoiding carbs turn to obsession?

Similar themes were explored with Clara’s younger brother, Alastair. Though he is not neurotypical, he’s not what is traditionally considered ‘autistic.’ Even though he’s only six-years-old, he struggles with his identity in the world. He’s also cute as heck and I loved him.

Clara has a really interesting relationship with her ballerina mother—who also suffers from an eating disorder. Her mother’s unhealthy relationship with food no doubt affected Clara growing up, and they are both still trying to process this.

She also has to work on her relationship with her father and step-mother, both interesting character's in their own right. This really succeeded as a character study, and everyone's intersecting stories worked very well.

(Also I just really enjoyed the history and food enriched atmosphere of Paris)

Cons:

I really hated the romance???

Look, Michel is an interesting character in his own right, and I enjoyed his relationships with food, race and the city But I don’t understand why the romance was here at all. It felt detracting from the real story, and like it only existed to add some drama to the last act.

It’s a little predictable. The plot’s cute… but nothing really surprised me.

This reallllyyyyyyy takes its time getting started. Like 30% in the plot FINALLY kicked in.

A couple of points of really on-the-nose descriptions in the narrative. Don’t tell me Clara’s mother has an ‘unhealthy dependent’ relationship with her manager, show me.

In Conclusion:

As a whole, this was a lot more thoughtful than I expected a summer-romp through Paris to be.