Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Title: Fat Cat

Author: Robin Brande

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

Hardcover, 330 Pages

You are what you eat...

Cat is smart, sassy, and funny - but thin, she's not. Until her class science project. That's when she winds up doing an experiment - on herself. Before she knows it, Cat is living - and eating - like the hominids, our earliest human ancestors. True, no chips or TV is a bummer annd no car is a pain, but healthful eating and walking everywhere do have their benefits.

As the pounds drop off, the guys pile on. All this newfound male attention is enough to drive a girl crazy! If only she weren't too busy hating Matt McKinnery to notice...

This funny and thoughtful novel explores how girls feel about their bodies, and hte ways they can best take care of their most precious resource: themselves.

- Summary from Goodreads

I just wanted to quickly thank Random Buzzers for giving me this book! I saved up for quite a while to get enough Buzz Bucks for this book.

Sadly, I must say that using my hard earned bucks for this book was a bit of a waste. I chose it above the rest on the list because of the good rating on Goodreads (A 4.02 out of 5 which is pretty good for Goodreads ratings). Little did I know that I would soon be disappointed. In the description, Fat Cat sounds like a playful and light read with numerous teenage problems that I knew I could relate too. The cover was simple yet fun, a purple-covered book that I inferred resembled Cat, and a measuring tape which resembles her changing body throughout the book. It is an eye-catching, clever metaphor.

Much of this book frustrated me. Although I know the point of Cat in the beginning was to show that she was overweight, her eating habits disgusted me. Several Diet Cokes a day, plus tons of candy, sugar and chocolate? I was grossed out. In the beginning she complained that she was fat, but she never did anything about it. She just kept eating. Her hatred for her ex-best friend, Matt, bothered me as well. Cat was constantly repeating how she couldn’t be friends with Matt, but never actually explained why until the very end. I could tell that the Brande’s intention was to make the reader curious and want to read on to find out what Matt did to Cat that forced them to stop being friends. Instead of being curious, however, it just made me agitated. Cat ended chapters with quotes such as “He stabbed me in the heart,” “He showed me the real him”, etc. but she failed to explain who the real Matt was, or how exactly did he stab her in the heart? She was a complete witch with a “B” to Matt every time he tried to approach her. The worst part of her attitude toward Matt was that every time he tried to talk to her and she rejected his existence, I couldn’t feel the same hatred towards Matt as she did, I did not understand why she was being so mean, and I couldn’t act like her friend and back her up. All because I had no reason too, since so far there was no explanation of what Matt ever did wrong.

Many of the chapter endings ruined my reading experience of this book. Robin tried to make the concluding sentences dramatic and effective/powerful, but instead, most of them backfired to dramatically lame and poorly chosen sentences.

“I didn’t care anymore what I looked like or what people might say about me or whether they thought it was hilarious that a chubby girl was out there doing freestyle. I didn’t care about anyone or anything. I just swam.

I think tonight I might have made the biggest scientific discovery of my life.

I think I was born an amphibian.”

Isn’t that just a terrible ending to a dramatic, positive self-discovery statement?

Cat’s personality was odd. She was a terribly socially awkward girl at the start of her experiment, when she was fat. She absolutely never talked to boys, and just like she did to Matt, rejected their existence when any one of the male species tried to interact with her. Then, when she became skinny, *Bam!* it was as if all her awkwardness slipped out of her instantly, and she became a slut. Just because she turned skinny, doesn’t mean her self-consciousness and emotions can change that easily, that fast.

The only part I really enjoyed was the end, when Matt and Cat attempted giving each other second chances. Matt was adorable and sweet. He was nonchalant on the outside, yet heartbroken on the inside. But to tell the truth, that was about the only good part of the book.

Cats experiment failed to conclude in something productive. After Cat started turning skinny, her experiment was put ajar and her social/personal life was on the spotlight. Ultimately, I was confused as to what she acquired from the project and how it was going to help her in life.

3.5 Beasts