Penny Smith’s Reviews > Fabulous Bodies > Status Update

I also don’t love the implication that not being affected by a scarring incident equals being strong or badass. For a child that young I’d assume a lack of reaction to trauma would simply be a trauma response, her brain protecting her from the trauma, something that would require extensive therapy. It seems very convenient to end the book with an 8 year old child who is conveniently totally unaffected by all this

Was there even a shred of a point for her neighbor to be a private investigator? Was that just an idea from an earlier draft that got left in?

I can’t even open the can of worms that is Noah’s death. She makes a yearly cancer donation in his name but she completely failed to process his death or reflect on the fact that he died helping her, he died without a goodbye, and after spending years trying to survive and beat cancer. I just…I can’t

Listen I appreciate the sentiment that Marlo is like, the good version of Eddie’s personality, but as someone who has consumed a lot of Star Wars, a franchise that spends a lot of time discussing how the bad people in your family do not have any weight on the person you become despite sharing blood with them, I don’t love reading about how Marlo is a supposed showman because she has the same blood as a bug guy

Regarding the grave robbing thing, I honestly feel like she should have been a true crime influencer. She could have made her money from sponsorships and PR boxes all the same, but she should have been profiting off the exploitation of dead people with no regard for them. The vanity could have worked too because she still needs to look good for the camera. I personally think that would have been a better fusion

I’ll actually give the book props. I was just thinking it would be cool if she lost a limb, and wow she actually did. That’s awesome. I like that she will have to learn how to live with a disability and experience a loss of privilege. I think that’s better than just having her have a bunch of cuts that will heal.

“I can’t deny our bizarre cosmic connection.” The connection that you both love entertainment and you’re both…ruthless? The second one is just a vague personality trait and the first one is common considering he’s a very famous pop icon and there are thousands of influencers in 2026. I would not call this a cosmic connection and I certainly wouldn’t feel sentimental about a bug who’s somehow my dad

I don’t even really understand, besides plot convenience, why she needed to sell dead bodies. She’s asking herself why she did it, and she says it’s because she didn’t think of them as people. And im thinking…no literally WHY did she need to do it? When she’s already a famous influencer living in a flashy mansion? The dead bodies gig really doesn’t even gel with her character to me at all

I don’t like Noah’s needless death, I don’t like the implication that poppy and Marlo will survive because they’re ruthless when Noah died because he was kind enough to help them, I don’t like the implication that this is somehow all poppy’s fault for making an effort to be beautiful in the age of social media, I don’t like it. These things feel very icky to me.

So this is somehow all poppy’s fault because she…gave into beauty standards???