Bookshelf: This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous

by Nina Beck
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I picked this one up because I'm interested in books about weight, especially non-diet books about such topics. Riley sounded awesome and she was: this snarky, mean size 14/16 who gets around and doesn't let anybody tell her what to do. The last line doesn't work with Dad, though, so she gets shipped off to fat camp... though not before making out with her BFF's crush and lying to the other BFF about where she's going.
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The book was fun and there were some awesome one-liners. I appreciated how Beck pointed out the obvious problems in any Riley-D romance and Eric can pretty much take me to prom right now. Howevah, darlings, I was disappointed by the ending. Why, you ask? Wasn't it a super happy ending?
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Exactly. I'm becoming a miser, ever since Breaking Dawn unleashed its venom on the world. I hate perfectly happy endings and This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous had a perfectly happy ending. I wish Riley had had some serious consequences, or choices or decisions to make. The ending also felt badly plotted, and for me-who-hates-plot-in-all-its-forms to say this, it was badly plotted.
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Overall, characterization brilliant but I wish the characters had made difficult decisions, and that the ending was a tad more bittersweet than ultra milk chocolate. I want to see Riley play a butt-kicking plus-size Ophelia.