A “Little” Surprised (Pun Intended) By Just A Few Inches by Tara St. Pierre

*All reviews I write are spoiler free*

A review from me on a Monday? Shocking, right?

I know I usually post reviews at the weekend, but that’s purely because that’s when I usually finish my books. But this book only took me a couple of days to read, so I finished it on Saturday.

So yay, bonus review for this week!

Let’s talk about Just A Few Inches!

Let me just get this out there: I’m not a fan of the book cover. But there’s that phrase all us bookworms say…what is it?…“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” That certainly applies in this case, because while I’m not a fan of the cover, I greatly enjoyed the book. So I’m very glad I didn’t judge it beforehand!

Title: Just A Few Inches

Author: Tara St. Pierre

Publisher: Self Published / Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Series Status: Standalone

Number of Pages:  298

(Found on Goodreads)

All Carrie Roberts wants is to be a little bit smaller.

To fit into the perfect dress for the Valentine’s Day Dance. To look beautiful for her boyfriend, the school’s star basketball player. To keep his jealous ex-girlfriend, a rival cheerleader, away from him. And to be noticed by her classmates.

Exercising and dieting don’t work, but an advertisement for weight loss pills promises a quicker solution to her problem. As time runs out, she takes more than the recommended dose until she’s just a few inches slimmer. Heads turn when she arrives at the dance, and the wonderful night with her boyfriend is beyond what she dreamed it would be.

Days later, Carrie discovers that her body is changing in ways that should be impossible. While her doctor searches for a cure, she desperately turns to her friends and family for support. Everyone is noticing her now whether she likes it or not, and even the media is intrigued by her incredible story. Getting everything she once wanted has created new problems—problems that are growing more terrifying every day.

Because Carrie Roberts is shrinking.

*I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review*

I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Not in a horrible way. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be bad.

What I mean is – as shown in the synopsis – it’s a story about a girl shrinking. Which by all means would be a little bit weird, but I figured “hey, I’ve probably read weirder”. But I was wondering a lot about how plausible the story would be, and how much would happen considering it’s quite a short book.

Well, I don’t have to wonder anymore.

I really liked the writing in this book. It was easy to follow, and I could relate to the main character’s voice quite a lot. Especially with her studying Journalism and Media like I do. And as for how plausible the story was…it was actually quite believable. Science and theories were brought in for explanations, but not in a complicated way – in a way that you could imagine yourself being in that situation, and needing to understand. It was strangely realistic.

The book is based on a really strong topic: body image. You can see that just from the synopsis. Now, it’s not something I think about every day, the problem of body confidence and people’s thoughts towards themselves. But this book sort of acted like a reminder that of course this is a thing – an everyday thing. It discusses the length people go to. How young body consciousness starts. What causes it. And I while I found it slightly unnerving knowing how true all of it was, I found it really interesting too. I was agreeing with most things that were being said, and it just really hit me that a book like this could bring the issue back to the forefront again.

“Funny how desperation allows you to bend the rules a little bit to suit your own purposes.”

Putting aside the serious topics and the shrinking, the rest of the book was just as enjoyable. Seeing someone navigate through High School, trying to balance things, and having the main character’s voiceover as she looks back…it feels almost nostalgic, as if I was there with her. To see her look back and think over each decision she made, each conversation, each reaction, she literally tells the story for us like she’s an old friend.

Granted, when it came to some of the maths and measurements, I sometimes got a bit disoriented, trying to put myself in her shoes. But that’s probably the point. All the way through the story she feels disoriented, so if I put myself in her shoes and feel that way? That’s great!

And I have to mention the relationships in this book. The main character has both friends and a present family…shocking right? Though it shouldn’t be, way too many books just seem to cancel out one or the other. So I just have to point out that it’s actually here in this book, and applaud the author for including them *claps wildly*

I really enjoyed how the story progressed. It seemed steady, following a timeline and again, sounding exactly like an old friend is just sat telling the story. The ending I was impressed by. It was well rounded, and didn’t leave me with any unanswered questions.

I know I’ll be thinking about this book for weeks. Or there will be times I see it on my shelf and the importance of it will hit me all over again. With it being a different take on disability and everyday struggles, of the life of a teenager amidst high school and the relationships between friends and family, it was a really enjoyable novel. And with the book being a quick read, I really hope more people grab this book and read it!

Rated 4/5 stars!

Order from Amazon!

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Share your thoughts!

Have you read this book? What did you think?

If you haven’t read this book, do you plan to? 

If you hadn’t heard of it before, are you intrigued now? 

Are there any books you’ve read that discuss body issues too? Recommend them in the comments!

Until next time…

Come and visit me!