Book Review: Deenie by Judy Blume
★★★★☆
Deenie is both a product of its time and extremely important now.
In Deenie's family, there is a known fact: Helen is the brains and Deenie is the beauty. While her sister is destined to become a doctor or a lawyer, Deenie has been raised knowing that her mom wants to her become a model. She knows she's pretty, and she tries her best to impress at the modelling agencies. But there is something they never quite like about the way she stands and moves - and after several doctors' visits, Deenie finally knows why:
Deenie has scoliosis. And until the ugliest brace in the world is removed in several years, she can kiss her modelling dreams goodbye.
And while her mother is falling to pieces over this, Deenie finds herself thinking. Does she really want to be a model? Does she even like it? And if she doesn't want to be a model... then what does she actually want?
The character Deenie herself is honestly a fair representation of her age. She can be selfish, ignorant, and shallow. Likewise, she's also trying to be a good friend and learn to be kinder as she gets to know more about the world. She gets jealous of the friends she loves and likewise wants them to succeed and be happy. She's imperfect, and I love that!
This book is a great representation of how parental pressure - no matter how well-intentioned - can influence and hurt kids. Both Helen and Deenie suffer from this, and you really feel for them. You can also see how the instilled values affected the kids' views - Deenie can be quite vain about her appearance, and she can also be quite rude to those who don't conform to certain beauty standards. For example, she is very judgmental of the disabled kids who ride the "special" bus, and she is hesitant to touch a girl with eczema for fear of "catching" it. These have direct correlations to the values her mother has raised her with, and Deenie spends the novel facing that this might be wrong.
This book is also known for being very controversial due to its mentions of masturbation, but honestly? This is such a small mention and is very well-handled. This is a topic that kids Deenie's age will have questions about, and I'm glad that Judy Blume includes it in here so naturally.
Deenie isn't my favourite Judy Blume book (Tiger Eyes, my beloved!), but for such a short book, it does a great job covering a lot of topics. I wouldn't minded if it was a bit longer to further explore some brushed over topics. Overall though, this book is fantastic and a really great read!
