Some things about this book are five stars for me:
The careful balance of an honest look at an imperfect community and treating that community with dignity and kindness, the honest character development - the people in this book feel very much themselves throughout, the loving relationships that grow.

So why three stars?

On the other side of the story is an entirely uncritical eye on fat shaming and ableism and racism. These issues are thrown into the story without examination, at times making me want to condemn the book entirely.

So why three stars?

I think this is ultimately a book worth talking about - importantly including talking about it’s flaws. How it is that some areas are handled with such awareness and sensitivity and others with such apparently negligent … I guess bigotry … and how even that very reality OF the book is informative about contemporary Jewish culture.