Reading: I'LL BE THE ONE - Lyla Lee

Prose (Story): Skye Shin is a sixteen-year-old Korean high school girl in southern California who has been singing and dancing since childhood ... with the full support of her father, who believes in her on a fanboy level, but - sadly - without the same level of support from her mother, who doesn't disapprove of Skye's skills so much as she does the attention they bring her. Because Skye has been a big girl all her life, and while her fatphobic mother spent her daughter's entire childhood trying to get Skye to lose weight and find either hobbies or a career less ... "public" ... Skye has instead now come to love and accept herself. So when the hottest new reality show on television comes to Los Angeles, searching for the next big K-pop star, Skye - much to her mother's horror and father's delight - is not only determined to enter, but win. It's an uphill battle from the auditions, with even one of the three judges blatantly telling the teenager there is no place in K-pop for a girl her size and to try and lose some weight first, but this only strengthens Skye's resolve. Acing both singing and dancing auditions, Skye finds herself in the middle of one cutthroat competition, where her talent, drive and energy are tested weekly as she makes new friends - faces increasing pressure, including from her own mother, to drop out - battles fatphobic comments and innuendos from all fronts - and even finds herself growing increasingly attracted to the hot celebrity contestant, Henry Cho, who is also one of her biggest competitors in dance ... all as the show brings her unexpected fame, some of it on the nasty side, that Skye is determined will not shake her resolve to become the first plus-sized K-pop sensation. 

Don's (Review): Oh, how I adore Skye Shin. It took her awhile to get to where she's not only accepted but embraced who she is as a person, and for that reason alone every teenager who's ever been labelled (or been made to feel) "fat" should read this book; in Skye, author Lyla Lee has created one of the bravest, strongest and most lovable characters in YA (or any) fiction, whose determination to win is only excelled by her determination to do it her way. Not only is the body positivity rep beautiful throughout, early on readers also learn that Skye is attracted to both boys and girls - though she's yet to date either - LGBT+ positivity becoming equally strong in the novel. The situation with Skye's father, who's currently living upstate for work and only comes home every other weekend, puts emphasis on just how strained her relationship is with her mother, whom Skye has to live with on a daily basis, and wow does that relationship come off 100% authentic - at times even uncomfortable, especially with my reading this having grown up a fat kid, as well. Even the rom-com aspect of the book, as Skye and Henry Cho get closer as friends, grows organically from the story and never feels fake or trope-y. But at its heart (and it's a big one), the book works so beautifully because of its heroine - a sixteen-year-old girl determined to make her dream come true without sacrificing who she is - and it's a joyful read. I finished reading it about 10pm on December 31st; just in time for it to easily become one of my Top 10 Books of 2020. Beautiful.  5/5 stars