Size 12 Is Not Fat

- Meg Cabot -

I really enjoyed this for the most part - the characters were all very engaging, the mystery was a)not instantly predictable and b) made sense once it was solved, and generally speaking I liked the concept of a Britney Spears style character who lost herr career, money and fiance all at once and was forced to truly start her life again from scratch.

But! There are some major buts - flaws, or stylistic choices that drove me insane:

- Why, why, WHY is Heather written as too dumb to believed sometimes? Ie completely unablto think before she talks, to observe anything around here eg: at the Pansy Ball with Christopher, there is no subtlety whatsover. He asks her to dance, the next minute she's all " Those two girl you shagged" what about them. a) it's ludicrous, because even if she suspects him, she has no definitive proof and b) if she wants to get proof, thinking it through for a moment and turning the conversation in that direction doesn't have to be done by blurting crap out without thinking.

I know Heather has self esteem issues relating to her lack of education etc, but does that mean she has no street smarts or impulse control whatsoever?

We are shown that her instincts are good - she picks up on very reasonable yet easy to overlook reasons for the the deaths of the girls in her dorm make no sense, so I found it irritating that she then was a) seen as the overreacting melodramatic type by those around her and then b) seemed to act out that image herself by behaving completely hysterical and dim: seriously - she couldn't really have thought that if Christopher is sociopathic enough to callously seduce virgins and then shove them down an elevator shaft, then the mere mention of their names is going to inspire him to what? Confess? Look guilty so she can point and say 'he did it'.

I was also annoyed by Heather's mooning after Connor. Not the fact of her being semi in love with him, but by the constant "what does he think of me" or "maybe he's going to say he secretly loves me now" anytime he opened her mouth. Part of it I am sure comes from Heather's self esteem issues - she clearly doesn't expect him to take her seriously in any way - but when she gets all hysterical "You went to see a GIRL" when he tells her about the visit to the coroner's office, instead of listening to him, and taking the point that he clearly does take her concerns seriously, it is just frustrating.

Finally - the way Heather's size was dealt with bugged as well. Again - not because it was an issue, but because of the way we are constantly reminded it is an issue by the never ending references to "I'm size 12 cause I like to eat". That sentiment alone is fine - great even, but it's constantly described as she likes to eat junk, listing all the stuff she wants to eat, so despite Heather saying constantly "Size 12 is not fat, it's normal", it ends up feeling like the eating is also related to her self esteem issues and a sort of compulsive behaviour, instead of it being a situation where, free from the physical constraints of her career, she is free to relax and eat and live with a bit more freedom.

Wow, my problems with the book make it sound like I didn't enjoy it which is not true at all - I really did which is probably why those issues stood out to me so much. Will be reading the next book in the series soon though, so hopefully they won't be as noticeable to me.