9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Fab!, September 12, 2008
This review is from: This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous (Hardcover)
Nina Beck has written a great book. Our heroine is Riley Swain who comes from money, has a best enemy not a best friend, and a guy who is her best friend but whom she has loved for a long time. Riley is content to play the New York Socialite and her manners and behavior would be fit for the tabloids if she were a Spears or a Swank. But since she just goes to an expensive high school, and hangs out with well-to-do friends, she is just the center of attention. But all of that is about to change.
It's her senior year and she has coordinated and planned the senior trip to Mexico for the second week of spring break. But now her Father and soon-to-be step-mom have registered her to go to a Fat Camp at the New Horizons School for Young Ladies. While there, things in her life turn topsy-turvy; she starts falling for a boy who isn't her type and she needs to plan an escape so she can go on the trip and fool her parents. She starts examining her motives and behaviors in a real and profound way. Yet how can it all work out?
She has lied to her best friend the day before leaving New York and she kissed him for the first time and it was not what she expected. She has booked a fake spa week to fool her friends about where she is. She now has a new man in her life, but is not sure what she feels about the old one, and her whole world is crashing down around her.
Riley Swain who says that she is fabulous, and does not care what anybody else says, is now having feelings and is caring for people in ways she never knew she could. Can she untangle her feelings and save her social life that seems destined to crash and burn on Saturday? Read and find out.
This book really is fabulous. I enjoyed it a lot, and lent it to a friend - she was laughing out loud on the first page. This book is not about a fat girl becoming skinny, it is about an unhealthy girl becoming healthy, and that starts on the inside with the emotions. This is one of the best books for young people I have read since
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and like that book, this has a lot to offer to the younger generation, and maybe even something for us older folks.
(First Published in Imprint 2008-09-12.)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, November 18, 2008
This review is from: This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous (Hardcover)
Riley Swain thinks she's in love with her best friend, D. It's the night before their spring break, and she confronts D with her feelings. She manages a real kiss with D, and then leaves him hanging. For Riley is going to fat camp for the two-week break. She knows this is just another maneuver by Elizabeth, her future stepmother, to get her out of the apartment.
Of course, Riley can't tell her friends that she's off to New Horizons in upstate New York. Instead, she lies and tells them she's off on a spa holiday with her father and Elizabeth. To cover her tracks, she has to actually make a reservation ($3000, will her father notice it on the credit card?) at the spa in case her nosey friends check up on her.
So Riley arrives at the train station a few hours late. Can they fault her for leaving her cell phone back in the limo and having to fetch it before getting on the train? While waiting at the train station for someone from New Horizons to pick her up, a strange boy (with nail polish, no less!) starts talking to her. He seems harmless enough, and she's surprised when she finds out Eric is actually there to pick her up.
Arriving late at New Horizons does not endear Riley to the headmistress. Riley starts off her two-week "holiday" with one demerit to her name. She learns that three demerits sends her packing home.
Riley is not fat. She's comfortable in her size-12 body, and easily gets along with boys. But Elizabeth chose New Horizons and her father seldom sticks up for her these days. So Riley is torn about staying at New Horizons or trying to get kicked out.
It's only when D calls to tell her he's coming to pick her up at the spa to bring her home on her last day, that she hatches a crazy plot to get kicked out of New Horizons so she can return to the city before D can come get her. Afraid that her friends back home would ridicule her for being at a fat camp, she does everything she can to avoid telling the truth. She enlists the aid of Eric, whom she's become friendly with during her week at New Horizons. Little does she know that Eric's feelings are much deeper than she would ever have realized.
This is Ms. Beck's first novel. Riley is a confident girl that knows what she wants. But hidden behind the confidence is indecision and confusion. Riley doesn't want to like New Horizons, but the new friends she has made and the connection with Eric cause her a moment's hesitation. She is afraid to come clean with her friends back home and the help she seeks from her new friends may be pushing her luck.
I enjoyed the quick pace of Riley's life, and Eric's quirky personality was very endearing. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for more by Ms. Beck. This story was fun and amusing with Riley's adventures.
Reviewed by: Jaglvr
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
