Fat Chance (Red Dress Ink)
2 journalers for this copy...
I very rarely ever give up on books, but I could only stick with this one for a little over a hundred pages. The premise of the book is actually pretty good, it’s just that they way it’s written and the pacing is done quite poorly. The mixture of first-person narrative and inserted newspaper columns by the protagonist can be confusing at times. And the biggest relationship in the novel seems to be between Maggie and food…which turned me off. If I wanted to read a menu, I’d pick up an issue of Gourmet, not a chick lit book, thanks. The other thing that bothered me is that Maggie is so gung-ho about weight-acceptance until she wants to impress a man. I’m sure that’s the motivating force for a lot of women, but shouldn’t she be doing it for herself? I couldn’t even begin to like Maggie, let alone side with her. I had a feeling that whole pages had been edited out of the text and perhaps it was in those that the key to what could have been a good novel lied.
Journal Entry 2 by Beatchik at It's A Grind - Little Italy in San Diego, CA, Bookcrossing Meetup -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (5/10/2006 UTC) at It's A Grind - Little Italy in San Diego, CA, Bookcrossing Meetup -- Controlled Releases
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Left at the Bookcrossing Meetup.
Left at the Bookcrossing Meetup.
Picked this up at the May meetup in Little Italy in San Diego.
I couldn't find a single thing to recommend about this book. Maggie is a columnist who advocates fat acceptance and talks about the futility of dieting. When she gets a consulting job in Hollywood with a screen hottie, she secretly (without aid of a diet per se)loses 35 lbs. within a matter of weeks to impress him. This being a wish fulfillment book, of course she ends up bedding him. To be honest, I only read about 100 pages, skimmed the rest to confirm my general dislike. Another beef: The book can't make up its mind whether it's froth or a polemic about diet and nutrition. There wasn't a single character I cared about. I read chick lit for escape. I particularly like Red Dress Ink books, because usually they're a cut above. This one is a huge disappointment.
Left at a Bookcrossing meetup in Little Italy.