WISHBONES
by Virginia MacGregor
Pages: 384 paperback
Publisher: HQ
Publication Date: May 23rd 2017
ISBN: 9780008217297
Received From: HQ
Summary
Feather Tucker has two wishes:
1)To get her mum healthy again
2) To win the Junior UK swimming championships
When Feather comes home on New Year’s Eve to find her mother – one of Britain’s most obese women- in a diabetic coma, she realises something has to be done to save her mum’s life. But when her Mum refuses to co-operate Feather realises that the problem run deeper than just her mum’s unhealthy appetite.
Over time, Feather’s mission to help her Mum becomes an investigation. With the help of friends old and new, and the hindrance of runaway pet goat Houdini, Feather’s starting to uncover when her mum’s life began to spiral out of control and why. But can Feather fix it in time for her mum to watch her swim to victory? And can she save her family for good?
"We carry the past with us, and sometimes that past is so very, very sad that it haunts us and damages us."
I know I say this a lot but honestly I was taken aback by this book! It wasn't at all what I expected and it got me right in the feels. There is something about the way in which Virginia MacGregor constructs a story that has you needing more and questioning everything right up until the last page.
Wishbones is the story of Feather and her Mum as their family is pushed to breaking point when Feather finds her mum in a diabetic coma on New Years Eve. Before this point Feather just saw her Mum as her Mum, not the most obese woman in Britain. Her weight didn't affect who she was but after New Years everything changes and Feather takes in upon herself to get her Mum healthy. However, people don't just shut themselves in their homes and start eating themselves to death, something must have triggered it and as Feather goes on a journey to get her Mum back she is about to discover more than she ever imagined possible.
This is one of those books that matter because it brings into focus something really important. Eating disorders aren't just something people decide to do because they are bored it is a disease and as well as this an eating disorder isn't just someone who goes to extremes to loose weight, it works the other way to. We live in a time where more and more people (women especially) are shouting out body positive messages but as a whole when people see someone who is over weight words like lazy, fat, ugly, shame get thrown around all too easily. As someone who is over weight (no where near Feather's mum overweight but still) I could sympathise with Feather's Mum on a lot of things, for example not wanting people to see you. I've struggled with my anxiety a lot over the last few years and having people give you dirty looks, shouting abuse in the street and the instant judgements you get can make changing even harder. I think the one thing this book really puts across is that no matter the nature of an eating disorder there is always a reason behind it. Whether that be an illness, a major event/tragedy or something else completely, what is important is that we as a society stop judging and start empathising. This book shows exactly what a little empathy and support from the people around you can do.
What I loved about Feather was that even when she was doing my head in (and there were a couple of moments) her heart was always in the right place. She wanted what was best for the people around her and throughout the book she becomes a much more understanding character. The book isn't just about her mother though, there is the typical teenage shenanigans, love, friendship and a strong emphasis on working hard to achieve your dreams. It is books like this that make me remember why I love YA so much.
Overall I would whole heartedly recommend Wishbones to anyone and everyone. It is has moments that will make you laugh out loud and moments that will have you fighting back the tears. It was unpredictable and engaging from the very first chapter and filled to the brim with characters that you can't help but fall in love with. So what you waiting for, go read Wishbones and find your inner Feather.
EXTRACT
I was born seven weeks premature. An incubator baby. Tubes stuffed up my nose, eyes screwed shut, looked like a tiny wrinkly vole.
I wasn’t meant to survive. When the nurse put me into Dad’s arms for the first time, he said: She’s light as a feather. That’s how I got my name.
Kids at school think it’s funny, the boys especially. Featherweight champ, they say. Quack quack, they chant, waddling with their feet turned out.
Tweet tweet, they chirp, flapping their arms. I was so small that doctors came up from London and peered at me through the incubator walls and journalists sneaked onto the ward to ask questions and take photos.
I wonder whether that was what made Mum hospital- phobic – the scare she got from me being so small. And then I think about her other phobias too and where they came from, like her leaving-the-house phobia and her swimming phobia and her running-out-of-food phobia.
You were the tiniest baby Willingdon had ever seen, Dad’s told me more times than I can remember, like I’d won a prize. Anyway, it’s all turned out to be what Miss Pierce, my History teacher, calls ironic, because people say the same thing of Mum now – except the opposite: that she’s The Big- gest Woman Willingdon Has Ever Seen. People sometimes ask me if I’m adopted. I know what they’re thinking: how can someone so small belong to someone who takes up as much space as Mum?
People are still really interested in Mum and her weight and the fact that she hasn’t come out of the house in years. Last summer, I found Allen, a reporter from the Newton News, hiding behind our hedge with his camera angled at Mum’s bedroom window. He said he’d give me a hundred pounds if I let him take a photo. I told him to get lost, obviously.
Anyway, Mum’s been chubby ever since I’ve known her, it’s just the way she is. What’s more important for you to know is that she’s the best mum in the world. A mum who’s funny and clever and always has time to listen and doesn’t obsess about stuff like homework and being tidy – or eating vegetables. And although she’s a little on the large side, she’s beautiful, like proper, old-fashioned movie-star beautiful: long, thick, wavy hair, a wide, dimply smile and big soul- ful eyes that change colour in different lights – sometimes they’re blue and sometimes they’re green and sometimes they’re a brown so light it’s like they’re filled with flecks of gold.
Whenever I think about Mum and how awesome she is and how close we are, I realise that there can’t be many daughters out there as lucky as me.
So Mum being overweight has never mattered to me.
As far as I’m concerned, there are a million worse things a mum can be.
That is, it never mattered until last night, New Year’s Eve, when everything went wrong. Really, horribly wrong.
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