Dear Opl

by Shelley Sackier

[Leah]

Dear Opl is one of those books that’s been sitting on my Kindle for ages. Absolutely ages. I don’t know what possessed me to finally read it – the fact I am once again on a weight loss journey that more often than not resembles a roller-coaster? Because I wanted a real book about what it’s like to be fat, without magically losing weight? Whatever it was, I decided to give Dear Opl a read, and I just completely related to Opl like I haven’t related to a character in a while. It’s a bit odd to me that I relate to a thirteen-year-old, but finding fat girls in books is scarce. There’s Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy (which I actually didn’t like as much as I wanted to). But they’re hard to come by. Opl, however, is me. Emotional eating? Check. Lying about what you’ve ate? Check. Eating for eating’s sake? CHECK.

What I liked about Opl is that she doesn’t necessarily hate herself because she’s fat (or bigger) – it’s her mom and her doctor and everyone trying to make her fit into “skinny jeans” but Opl isn’t unhappy about her weight. I liked that she made the decision to try and eat better, for her health. But she slipped up. And that happens. You can’t just click your fingers and never again crave a chocolate bar. You can’t think you’ll never fall off the wagon, because you do and I just, I got it. I may be double Opl’s age but I knew exactly how she was feeling – it’s so, so hard to lose weight. There isn’t a fairy godmother standing in the background, with a wand. It doesn’t just melt away, despite what magazines and celebrities would like you to think. And I loved her idea of using her blog to keep herself occupied, instead of having it as a food diary, she used it to just vent, instead of eating her feelings.

Probably the only thing that bummed me out is that Opl’s grief (or any of the family’s grief, actually) isn’t dealt with. Opl mentions a few times she never used to be big, until her dad died. And I kinda felt like there needed to be a discussion with the whole family about how it had effected them – Opl’s eating, Ollie’s dressing up in costumes, Opl’s mom punishing herself with work and opening her book store. I felt like it was an elephant in the room that needed dealing with. But otherwise I really enjoyed the book and I soon found myself halfway through and I didn’t want to put it down. This was such a sweet, spot-on read. I’ve never related more to a character, and I just wanted to squish Opl in a hug.