Lauren Koshak's Reviews > The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits

** spoiler alert ** Dang, I wanted to love this book because I’ve only heard great things about Jennifer Weiner’s books. This was just okay for me. It was a really fun plot with a lot of potential— two sisters make it big in the music industry right out of high school, after a Battle of the Bands show. Zoe craves the spotlight and doesn’t have a lot of natural talent, whereas her sister Cassie detests the spotlight but has a lot of natural talent and is musically inclined. The two girls are torn apart by a man and tragedy. I was really bummed by the continual fat-phobic comments and descriptions toward Cassie’s character.

Examples: “a girl even fatter than Cassie”, “summoning her in a register only other fat girls could hear”, “she would have been happy to cede the attention of every fat girl to her sister”, “her feet were small, compared to the rest of her”, “all the boys used to call her a whale- free willy!”, “Cassie flopped down beside him but gently so the bed wouldn’t shake too hard and the bedframe wouldn’t groan”, “How could Russell want to sleep with Cassie when he had her?…it would be like a diner in a restaurant sending a perfectly cooked steak back to the kitchen and requesting roadkill instead… Zoe knew how her sister looks out shaper clothes- Cassie was flabby and squishy. her belly and her breast drooped and even if a guy didn't let himself see her body he wouldn't be able to keep from feeling THAT.”

And that’s just the few I highlighted so I could remember. Zoe seems to have Cassie’s back in any other regard so I’m not sure why we needed to be reminded of Cassie’s weight every other page. It was well established and felt redundant, and didn’t articulate her body image issues. I was able to gather that from the personality descriptions and the way she spoke.

This would have been a higher rated read for me, but the fatphobic vibes were a huge (no pun intended!) buzzkill for me. Great sisterhood story, motherhood, and personal growth otherwise. But man.

I also recognize that this took place in early 00s when women’s diet culture was toxic AF. But also there are ways to have authentic history without being offensive:)

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow books for the advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book.