Customer Reviews

Waking Beauty: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Heroine: Stout, then willowy

At the ripe old age of 22, Allison Penny is already sick of life. Her alcoholic mother berates her at every possible chance. The young woman is barely making it as a cleaning lady. And she is rooming with a sex fiend who only serves to remind Allison that her own love life has always and will always be in the toilet because, in a word, Allison Penny is ugly. Well, two words. Not just ugly, but fat.

But all that changes one morning when Allison miraculously awakens to find herself in a new body, one that transcends the supermodel class. Yet after all those years of being certain that a new appearance would be the answer to the pain in her heart, Allison-the-beauty discovers that perfection personified isn't necessarily all that it's cracked up to be.

What worked for me:

This was a very funny book that took a tongue-in-cheek look at the realities of what a person's appearance means in the world--especially a woman's. The choice of characters and settings were excellent, even if they weren't always fully developed. They really helped the reader to delve into the subject of a caste system based upon personal beauty or lack thereof.

I felt that the author made it easy to relate to Allison, both before and after her "miracle". I fully understood the need for Allison-the-ugly to run away into fantasyland and daydream the way she did. And I have to admit there was a certain pleasure to riding along with Allison-the-beauty during her payback times, but the vendettas I enjoyed most weren't a direct result of her new attractiveness.

The ly adverbs that popped up here and there kept catching my eye, but other than that I really enjoyed the writing style in this book. Some of the visuals that the author painted were just wonderful.

Size-wise, prior to turning into a living Barbie doll, Allison was squat, flat, and flabby with unattractive features all the way around. But not only females suffered from beauty discrimination in this novel. Allison's guy pal Nathan was overlooked many times because he was merely average in appearance.

What didn't work for me:    

There were times when reading this book left me feeling downright depressed, but I don't want to give anything away so I can't tell you why.

I would have liked to have had some concrete idea of why and how this change occurred in Allison.

Overall:

       A great book for the bubble bath or beach, but there is plenty of deeper thinking here about the nuances of the human psyche that would make it a terrific subject for a women's studies discussion group.

Warning: there are some coarse words and some sexual scenarios, as well as weight loss, in this book.

If you liked "Waking Beauty" you might also enjoy "Jemima J.", "Fat Chance", "Separation Anxiety", "The Way It Is", "Inappropriate Men", "Coffee and Kung Fu", "What a Girl Wants", "Getting Over It", "Bridget Jones's Diary", "Good in Bed", "Last Chance Saloon", and "Having It and Eating It".

This is the story about an overweight, exceptionally homely woman who wakes up one morning with the body and face of a supermodel.

The story doesn't try to explain how this happened, and for me this wasn't a problem. Once you accept the premise, I felt the author did have some interesting things to say about Beauty, and how powerful a force it is in our culture.

I give this book 4 stars because I thought it was a quick, fun, entertaining read. It's not simply a Revenge book, although it's that. It's also a mirror on how our society works.

Instead of a rags-to-riches Cinderella story in which a poor girl becomes a princess, Elyse Friedman gives us a beast-to-beauty story in which the altogether uncomely 22-year-old Allison Penny wakes up one morning to find she is suddenly beautiful - and instantly a whole new world of fortune, fame, and love is available to her. The story is complete with a wicked "stepmother" in her adoptive mother and "stepsister" in her roommate. As in some other stories with a similar premise, Allison's first reaction to her astonishing transformation is to take revenge against those who denied her love and friendship because of her previously unlovely appearance. But beyond that, does Allison eventually decide that it's what's inside that counts? What I like about this book is that it doesn't "grow" the character in that obvious direction. Elyse Friedman isn't trying to kid us that what's outside doesn't count...a lot. Allison learns something else. You may be more likely to enjoy this book if you consider yourself one of the beauty-challenged.

This book is infinitely better than your average chick lit. Elyse Friedman is one of the sharpest, funniest, most observant writers I've read in a long time. The story of her heroine, Allison, could just be turned into a fairytale or wish-fullfillment fantasy, but it winds up being an extremely funny and edgy romp, laced with a lot of black humor and razor-sharp observations about men, women and society. Some of the scenes with Allison's evil roommate, Virginie, or the smoothly handsome suitor George (a Prince Charming who turns out to have some weird sexual proclivities) are worth the price of the book alone.

This will definitely appeal to the Bridget Jones crowd, but it's Bridget Jones with a bite that Bridget never had, and it's far sexier and funnier. This is one of those rare novels that's really worth your money. Read it and enjoy.

I enjoyed this book (except for a few of the sex words--but I think that's because I'm in my 40's). As an overweight woman, I could really relate to some of the painful experiences Allison had. I would have liked to know the secret behind the change in her appearance but there's probably nothing that would have made any sense, so you just suspend disbelief. No matter how often we hear that it's inside beauty that counts, we all know that's never enough. But if Allison had not been a bright, funny, and good person, she would not have found happiness either.

Fat, homely, no--ugly Allison wakes up one morning to find herself suddenly and mysteriously super model perfect. As with most Cinderella stories, Allison keeps her own intelligent, usually pleasant personality during the transformation. However, she discovers that the world is different and easier for attractive people--men are infatuated with her, jobs fall into her lap, she is able to get revenge on her nasty room mate, and she finally gets a date with the average guy fat Allison has had a crush on.

Underlying the transormation plot is Allison's relationship with her adoptive parents. Her adopted mother is an alcoholic, and her adoptive father has refused to see or speak to her since she was five. Allison has never sought out her birth mother, assuming her mother would reject Allison as most other people in the world have.

Waking Beauty is dark, cynical, funny, and intriguing. The characters may not be as well developed as they could be, the plot is well done and vibrant, creating an engrossing and enjoyable novel.

UGH! I hate when models say that! With that said, I found Waking Beauty very interesting.

Allison has limp hair, golf ball skin, hunched shoulders, a flat butt, snaggled teeth, thin lips, short legs, 3 hairs located in a mole on her upper lip and a huge birthmark on her leg. She sounds like she may be a good candidate for Extreme Makeover. Even if Allison wasn't overweight, she believes that she would be an "ugly limp person". The only good quality she feels she has is..she can sing.

Poor Allison is disrespected by everyone in her life. Her adoptive parents divorced when she was 2 years old and her Mother began drinking ~ heavily. She has always gone out of her way to be nice to the kids in school for acceptance, but they only used her. I had a laugh out loud moment when reading whenever her Mother see's her eating, she has a "face like she found Allison with her pants down taking a dump in her crock pot". Every Friday of every month, she has to pick up her Mother to run her errands because she got her drivers license suspended after getting a DUI/running over a dog.

Anywho, Allison goes to bed one night and wakes up the next morning totally transformed into a thin, beautiful goddess. She buys new clothes, beauty products and creates a lie that "Allison #1" had to suddenly fly to LA to visit her Father. The "new" Allison gets lots of attention and is approached by a scout for a modeling career. Allison #2 can find out what her family/room-mate/co-workers/friends honestly think about her since her appearance has been altered.

Waking Beauty makes you stop and think that we do (as a society) treat people differently because of appearance. I'm not saying that I agree with that, that's just the way that it is. I try to treat every person that I come into contact with the way that I would like to be treated regardless of race, appearance, etc.

I look forward to reading more from Elyse Friedman.

this is a fiercely funny book. It's not silly or frivolous, but it is incredibly funny, sharp and has lots of great twists and turns. Nothing is as you expect in WAKING BEAUTY, but you'll enjoy every minute of reading it. I was actually disappointed when i finished it because I wanted it to be longer.

Imagine that you are an overweight, unattractive woman whose life revolves around your job as a cleaning lady, your patronizing roommate, and your unrequited crush on the average man of your dreams. Allison Penny's life is like this...she turns to food for solace, has an adoptive father who has cut her out of his life, and an alcoholic mother who just can't be nice.

Now imagine that you wake up one morning transformed into a beautiful goddess-like creature. What would you do? You'd probably do what Allison does...buy some sexy new clothes, used your newfound power to seduce men, and exact some revenge on the people who tormented you when you were, well, not so attractive.
The problem is that Allison is still an insecure, plain person on the inside and has to balance that out with her gorgeous appearance which is easier said than done.

After she embarks on a plan to steal her mean roommate's boyfriend, confront her father, and ruin her mother, she discovers some revelations about her prior life that shatter her. Can she figure out who she really is and will she find love with the rich, handsome power-player or her Average Joe, Nathan?

This is a dark and sometimes depressing look at how your life would remain very much the same even if it changed for the better overnight...but a story well-told!

This book is exactly as what it promises to be. Too bad, Elyse Friedman has more talent than that.

The premises is that Allison is fat and ugly. Her life would be different if she was pretty and fat, but she isn't. One day she wakes up as a perfect beauty. As fat and ugly Allison she is even unloved by her parents. As beautiful Allison she is....adored by most and gets what ever she desires with out even trying. The moral of this book is simple. "It's what's on the outside that counts..." the tag line says it all. This book goes no deeper than that. There is no great revelation, no master lesson and even though her life changes Allison doesn't. Allison isn't even terribly likable thin or fat she is the same "kind of blah".

Elyse Friedman's writing is easy to read and has a great flow to it. Had she penned a book with more depth or even more ups and downs she might be called a good writer. Truth is this book reminds me of a Sunday afternoon movie. Entertaining but forgettable and only when you don't have something better to do.

After reading this book you might ask yourself the question if I was uber thin and model beautiful would life become effortless? Take it from a former model. The answer is no. Being thin makes shopping easier not life. Life is better because of the people you have around you, not size or beauty.

If you want to indulge in a fantasy that all doors open to the thin and beautiful go ahead read the book. It's a quick read. If you want more - walk away.