How Poor Word Choice Can Take Away From A Otherwise Good Story

A lesson in language using Jenny Colgan’s “Welcome to the School by the Sea”

Have you ever enjoyed a story but got put off by the wording? You enjoyed the characters and the plot. But something the author wrote rubbed you the wrong way. You couldn’t stop thinking about it after closing the book.

It’s how I felt when reading Jenny Colgan’s Welcome to the School by the Sea. Colgan had a delightful cast of characters. Their stories kept me reading, and I loved watching friendships form between the many characters. I should’ve come out of this book with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

But I didn’t. I liked the book, but there were parts of it I felt needed rephrasing. It took from the story in the end.

What Is The Book About?

In Cornwall, England, there lies a boarding school for girls. The book follows the students and teachers of this school.

One girl is there on scholarship and is excited to leave her old school. Another girl doesn’t want to go to the school and does everything she can to get kicked out.

Meanwhile, the Headmistress is preparing for another year and government evaluation. A new teacher is coming to the school, and her boyfriend doesn’t like the change. She makes friends with a teacher from the boy’s school nearby.

Despite what I said in the beginning, I did enjoy the story. Yes, some parts rubbed me the wrong way, but let’s put it in a different perspective. Forty years from now, our ideas will change, and sociologists and literary scholars could see this book as a curtain into the past.

Don’t believe me? Look at the Harry Potter series. When it came out, it shaped a generation. Now, people pick it apart to prove JK Rowling was a bigot in disguise.

I’m not saying Colgan is a bigot. I’ve only read one of her books, and I’m currently reading another to give her the benefit of the doubt.

First, Let’s Get To The One Sentence

From what I’ve read in her other book, I don’t see Colgan as an intentional bigot. In her other book, she seems careful about her wording when writing about a character of color. However, I was still shocked to read her describing a Black character as a monkey.

In context, she was trying to compare a girl’s performance to a trained monkey. Not intentional, but it’s not a good look for the book.

Colgan published this book in 2008 under a pen name. She wrote in the intro that she edited the book to make it relatable in 2022. I want to believe this poorly written sentence was a mistake she missed.

When I read Dr. Crystal Flemming’s How to be Less Stupid About Race, she explains how racism is so subtle these days that well-meaning people can say or do something racist without realizing it. I want to believe that sentence was one of those situations, but I don’t personally know Colgan. So I can only speculate.

Long after I put down the book, I’m still thinking about that line. Subtle, but it’s there. It proves Dr. Flemming right. Even well-meaning people can say something racist and not realize it, no matter how obvious.

A Little Fatphobic, But Relatable

It’s rare when you find a book with a fat female protagonist. Many writers have a nasty habit of making their female characters tiny. They’re always small for their age or super skinny. So it’s a refresher when you see fatter females in the spotlight.

Welcome to the School By the Sea is one of those books. Simone is the girl coming to school on a scholarship. She was bullied at her old school for being fat, and she looked forward to change.

However, the girls weren’t as receptive to her. She became depressed and withdrawn. And when she starts getting accused of stealing, she runs away but finds friends when she‘s rescued from the harsh winter. The other girls learn how funny she is and start becoming her friend.

As someone who grew up fat and is still fat today, I saw Simone as relatable. Sometimes, the girls would say something, and you could feel it was a trap, but you couldn’t tell how. It’s how it felt in my middle school days.

As relatable as it is, I felt how people thought of her was excessive. Every few pages, you’d see someone think, “She’d be much prettier if she lost some weight.” (Paraphrasing of course, but you get the picture.)

I get it. We live in a society that sees fat as bad and thin as good. And it sucks finding a book that bombards you with that way of thinking. But it is how our society is. And I don’t think it’s going away any time soon. I understand guiding Simone to healthier choices in the book, but to think she needs to lose weight to be pretty bothers me.

Losing weight doesn’t guarantee someone will be happy. It changes the number on the scale, but it’s not guaranteed to change your self-image.

Don’t Let These Critiques Fool You. The Book Is Still Delightful

Despite the problems, it’s a fantastic read. There wasn’t a character in this book I disliked. And it’s nice reading something light-hearted and fun for a change.

I had fun reading this book, and if I see another one in this series, I’m will read more. I’ll still read this author’s books to make sure my doubts are correct.

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