Lauren's Reviews > Fat Cat

I originally picked up this book because of its interesting premise: as a science experiment, an overweight teenager decides to live out her version of a paleo lifestyle (diet AND avoiding modern conveniences as much as possible).

Unfortunately, the interesting premise is tossed aside within the first fifty pages in favor of a generic, boring rom com.

Cat, the main character, struggles for all of a couple of chapters with the changes to her life before everything magically snaps into place. Why? That’s what I kept coming back to: Ms. Brande had a great concept that could power an entire book (and then some). I’m stumped as to why she ignored it in favor of the same-old, same-old.

For example, Cat’s decision to give up most personal grooming products in favor of going ‘wild,’ as it were, had a ton of potential. For most teenage girls (and adult women), that’s a terrifying prospect. There are a ton of places that storyline could go. Instead it went nowhere. Other than a few token comments about hating to go to school with frizzy hair, Cat didn’t give up personal grooming. When convenient (which was frequently), Cat turned into High School Barbie.

Also, Cat’s all over the place: she wants to be hot! But she doesn’t want to go shopping, even though she’s dropped a bunch of weight and none of her clothes fit her! She wants to date! She doesn’t want to date! She hates cooking! She’s the world’s most amazing chef!

Oh, and guys are given the short end of the stick in this book. Seriously, they get to be jerks or doormats. That’s it. No middle ground.

A somewhat questionable takeaway message: All you need to make boys fall all over you is lose weight.

In short, by the time the book gets to the big science fair, I was rooting for Cat to lose. Cat’s supposed to be this genius scientist, but honestly, it reads like a 1950s sitcom episode that ends with “Haha, don’t you know that girls can’t be real scientists?”

Here’s what confuses me about a book like this: if the author had stuck with the original premise, I think it would have been a bestseller. It would have caught people’s attention. It could have, without stretching, hit on weight, image, and health issues against a backdrop of a teenage girl who is smart and wants to be a scientist but fights against the lure of an appearance-obsessed culture. Doesn’t that sound more interesting than one more book about a teenage girl with a crush?

Instead we get bad nutrition advice, a girl who equates dieting with serious science, and a romance plot that defines the word hackneyed. Not recommended.