Pretty Funny

Haylah Swinton lives with her mother and her brother, a small dictator. At school she is called Pig, a nickname she adopts to prevent further teasing about her weight. Refreshingly though, this is not a book solely about Haylah’s weight and her size is simply a nice fun fact about her rather than the novel’s driving narrative. Her mother starts dating a man totally wrong for her – he wears shoes with no socks – and she develops crush on Leo Jackson after watching him do comedy at her school’s talent show. When she overhears Leo saying he has no inspiration for new material to perform, Haylah decides to help him out because she is pretty funny too and has her own nascent aspiration to be a comedian.

This is Rebecca Elliott’s first YA novel and the first of an upcoming series. If you enjoy feminism combined with comedy then this is the book for you. Haylah is a witty and realistic character who gets into embarrassing situations and makes mistakes. She may be overweight, but Haylah embraces her body and shows that there is so much more to a person than what they look like. Elliott’s writing is sharp and observant, with a healthy serving of jokes throughout. I particularly appreciated the novel’s ending as it affirms that standing up for and loving yourself is more important than standing on the side-lines and loving a boy. This book will have you giggling under the covers, cheering for girl power and applauding female comedians.

Evangeline Henry