#it's just very funny to me okay. I have a horrendous sense of humour

[malachitezmeyka]

I'm sorry I know it's not funny but I can't help but crack up at the face this one guy makes when Hürrem starts traumadumping 😅😂

[bforbookslut]

ARC Review: Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais

This book was provided to me by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This review edition is an ARC and may differ from the printed edition.

I have given this book ☆☆☆☆☆.  It belongs to the Young Adult Contemporary genre. Pushkin Children's Books publishes it. It will be published August 8, 2017.

The blurb reads: “Awarded the Gold, Silver and Bronze trotters after a vote by their classmates on Facebook, Mireille, Astrid and Hakima are officially the three ugliest girls in their school, but does that mean they’re going to sit around crying about it?

Well…yes, a bit, but not for long! Climbing aboard their bikes, the trio set off on a summer roadtrip to Paris, their goal: a garden party with the French president. As news of their trip spreads they become stars of social media and television. With the eyes of the nation upon them the girls find fame, friendship and happiness, and still have time to consume an enormous amount of food along the way.”

“I don’t know. Maybe ugliness makes you wiser.”

Verdict:

If only this book existed during a time when I was struggling constantly with my identity, particularly my “lack of beauty” and overall fat-ness, it would have helped me understand that it’s not all about being beautiful or skinny no matter how much you’re bullied.

Perhaps, Piglettes is the best example of what a YA contemporary novel about coming-of-age should be like. It was first published in 2014 as Les Petites Reines and has won the 2016 Prix Sorcières, the biggest French prize for children’s books! So, you can imagine how phenomenal this book is. In fact, as Edelweiss informs me, film rights have already been sold.

It is funny and witty in the way only a French novel can be. As they say, French humour is strange. But it’s also evocative and along the way, you really root for these three girls. And it’s more than just about the competition. Mireille struggles with her relationship to her mother and step-father, fixated on her birth father’s identity. Astrid is the quintessential teenager, obsessed with meeting her favourite band and introducing everyone to them. Hakima and her brother, Klaus are politically-inclined. While bullying plays only a small role in the book, its influence is massive. It’s exactly what bullying is like. It seems inconsequential, brushed off but it has a massive impact. Piglettes describes and paints it in a positive way, how victims can reclaim themselves.

Without giving away too much, it’s about puberty, realising your place in this world and embracing yourself in every way possible. It is about the power of social media and how you can control your voice in the press. It’s about feminism and challenging patriarchy. It’s about falling in love, how the right person can help you become your best self. It’s about sacrifice and leadership. It’s about freedom, the ability to be and express yourself. It is about the hardiness of youth and how powerful the young can be.

[may contain spoilers]

You can tell how much I loved Piglettes.

Long story short, Piglettes is about three girls, Mireille, Astrid and Hakima who are ranked in the top three in a vicious and humiliating competition for the ugliest girls in their high school. The girls are ranked based on their looks and weight, two things that everyone struggles with particularly in school. The top three are called Pigs/Piglettes.

While Mireille is a repeat winner, both Astrid and Hakima are new to the high school and have never won before. Driven by a strange compulsion to make sure the two new girls are okay after this horrendous ranking as she herself was broken down over it when she was first ranked gold, Mireille makes it a mission to visit both Astrid and Hakima, particularly the latter as she is the youngest at thirteen. Driven by their own individual reasons, the three young piglettes make a plan to invade the heart of Paris and a very important party for very important people. With Mireille as the most confident and most outspoken one and Hakima’s brother acting as chaperone, they plan to cycle across France, hitched to a trailer and selling sausages as a way to fund their trip. Get it, they’re piglettes so they sell sausages. Along the way, they meet very colourful people who help them. And, the press gets wind of the journey.

The Bad:

I felt that Hakima was a token POC character because certain things Mireille says that I won’t repeat seem to poke fun at Middle Eastern people. But, again, French humour and all that.

Nope. I don’t have any other gripes with this.

The Good:

1. Piglettes really addressed coming of age in three different stages.

Hakima represents the ones who are just stepping into maturity. There is even a whole entire section dedicated to Hakima and the first time she has her period, how the older girls teach her about hygiene and take care that she probably has religious rituals when it comes to periods.

Astrid represents those girls who are just on the cusp of turning seventeen and eighteen, the time just right before you get responsible. It’s a time when you’re no longer a fresh teen but you’re not just an adult either. There’s a sense of carefreeness to how Astrid is written. It’s as if she’s just absorbing the world.

And Mireille represents the older girls, the ones who are moving on from their high school years. She’s confident in her own skin, extremely vocal and unapologetic for whom she is. She’s learnt how to transgress her bullies and the trash talking. She’s learning to be a leader and to care for those under her wing.

2. Whoever who did the English translation has kept the magic and lyricism in Beauvais’ writing. I’ve never read anything French nor do I know the French language but there’s always this pervasive idea that the French are more romantic in their writing. It shows through.

Here are some gems. They may be different in the printed and final edition:

“Astrid pushes me and I walk into the flat, breathing in deeply, since I’ve just fallen in love, after all, with the number one star in our solar system.”

“What’s magicial about a bike is that it’s a broomstick—a flying broomstick that punches holes through the air, obeying your merest thoughts; it responds to your fingers, your feet, your groin, you don’t need to tell a bike where to go, it knows—it’s a flying broomstick.

What’s magical about a bike is that it’s also a horse. A proud, athletic horse—that hurts its hooves sometimes, that whinnies and grinds its teeth when it stumbles into a pothole; you have to stroke a bike and talk to it. You really must—it’s a horse.

What’s magical about a bike is that it’s a clickety, metallic machine, a mechanical wonder; look at its gears and marvel.”

Conclusion:

Piglettes is a phenomenal read about coming of age and social issues. It seems like just another contemporary YA novel but Clementine Beauvais is a genius in how she has weaved so many complex issues about identity, feminism, family, adulthood and teenagers into one very entertaining, very well-paced novel that every girl should have in her arsenal and shelf.