150 Pounds

by Kate Rockland

[Leah]

When I heard about 150 Pounds by Kate Rockland I was excited. I love novels about weight and even more than that I love novels about fat girls. You read a lot of Chick Lit with women who feel they’re fat, but who aren’t so to have a genuine fat girl to root for sounded awesome and Shoshana was definitely that. Sadly, although the novel is well-written and while the idea is interesting, it all fell a little flat as far as I was concerned mainly due to the second character in the novel, Alexis Allbright. But the novel was also let down by predictability, in the way that people who DO NOT WANT KIDS in Chick Lit novels always end up pregnant, in the way that weight loss/weight gain, but mostly weight loss, happens magically…

My problem with Alexis, because I have got to get this out of the way first, is that she is a complete and utter cow. She’s horrible. She’s short with people, she’s holier than thou when it comes to dieting/weight/eating/whatever and she thinks she’s better than you. Throughout every single chapter concerning Alexis – from beginning to end – I got a vibe from her that she was just plain horrible and that it was deep to her core. This is the kind of person who has an alarm clock message that says only fat people like to lie-in on a morning. I’m not messing. The kind of borderline-anorexic person who thinks she’s being “healthy” by barely eating each day. Who SCREAMS, literally SCREAMS, when someone takes a piece of her banana. It was just awful and cringe-worthy and I hated how she could switch so easily from being moderately OK to full-on cow within seconds. Does Alexis change? Because, inevitably, you must know the skinny cow will get comeuppance of some sort, but she doesn’t really change. I didn’t feel it the way I felt Darcy’s change in Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed/Blue novels, it was similar to that, but Alexis didn’t pull it off. Darcy was an airhead, but Alexis was a total female dog right to the root and it ruined the book because there was no saving grace with Alexis.

Shoshana did bring something enjoyable to the book, I liked her crusade for fat people. I liked that she wasn’t encouraging fatties to eat, eat, eat, but that she was telling them they were worthy people. I cannot tell you how many times I try on clothes or whatever and I feel horrible about myself. I’m not fat, at least I don’t feel it, but I am a little overweight and I felt for Shoshana and I understood her message. Fat people are mauled in society and it was nice to see a character be fat and fabulous even if she was fictional. Mind you, I didn’t like how predictable Shoshana’s character became as the novel reached its conclusion, though. It was a bit twee, but honestly? I should have expected it. I truly should have. I feel like a fool for being fooled because I should have seen what happened to Shoshana coming, I should have seen it coming a mile off.

Rockland is a good writer, don’t get me wrong. The writing was excellent. Very readable, and the novel did really pick up during the last quarter, but by then it was too far gone. Alexis’s “change” came too late. Alexis just wasn’t redeemable no matter how hard Rockland tried to make her likeable. And considering I didn’t like one of the main characters, it was always going to be downhill sort of read, and while there were bits I liked and while the writing itself was good, the characters (at least Alexis) sort of ruined it. Some people might like Alexis, and it may not just be skinny people who feel a kinship with her, but I couldn’t get on with her. I can’t get on with someone who is so mean, so selfish, such a drama queen and as such only half of the novel really worked for me, but even Shoshana’s half had me rolling my eyes in dismay at times. 150 Pounds wasn’t for me, sadly.