SuitabookMeat Market
Juno Dawson
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside a conversation about consent, contracts, image-based expectations and who benefits financially. Pause after difficult sections and invite the reader to explain how the portrayal affects their view.
- Themes
- Glamour, money and exploitation: Jana’s modelling success offers money and status while exposing her to an industry where models may be treated as commodities and have limited protection. The book takes a critical view of this.
- Body image and identity: Jana is uncomfortable with her appearance and is recruited because her androgynous look fits a fashionable image, while the story examines pressure towards bodily perfection. The portrayal challenges idealised beauty and links the industry’s preferred image with personal and emotional pressures.
- Consent and relationships: The narrative includes sexual consent and abuse concerns alongside Jana’s efforts to maintain important relationships during a disruptive period. The book takes a critical view of this.
- Worth knowing
- Expect emotionally forceful material involving sexual consent and abuse, eating disorders, drug use, body-image pressures, bullying and relationships. The treatment is described as hard-hitting rather than moralistic, though some readers may find it gritty.