Big Summer

Shirley J.                Adult Fiction                   Plus Sized Women; FrienemiesMurder                         

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner  357 pages

It is sometimes hard to know when a person is being sincere and when they are playing you for what they can use you for.    When big girl, (plus sized) Daphne Berg meets up with Drue Cavanaugh, who happens to be insanely rich, Drue seems to be sincere in offering friendship, but over the years while they have their fun moments together, Drue also gets Daphne to lend her money, do her homework, even write papers all through college for her.   There are trade-offs so Daphne is good with it even though other people tell her how Drue is using her and how she uses people up then drops them, boyfriends included.   There are even rumors that Drue or her family paid someone else to take her SATs.  The story was the girl who impersonated Drue to take the test was chastised but Drue got off scott-free and was allowed into Harvard no less!   Due to a falling out between Daphne and Drue over hurt feelings due to Drue's fixing Daphne up with a "pity" chance in counter at a bar when the guy's true feelings come out about Daphne being fat etc the incident ends up going viral and for several years the  two don't speak.   All of a sudden one day, Drue shows up begging Daphne to be in her wedding.  She even offers to pay her to do it because she has no friends.   THat is only the beginning of the story there is waaaaay more going on than that.   Good story that deals with people's motives, and body shaming,, deception, jealousy, greed, and more.   So many people in this story turn out not to be what they seem.   Well written, good plot and so are the side stories.   I recommend this to middle schoolers on up.  Deals with many school issues teens go through..