The Desperate Bride's Diet Club by Alison Sherlock

Such a shame that the writing is actually quite good for the genre.  Full of wit and moves the tale along at a good pace without feeling rushed.  Why is this a shame?  Simply because the underlying "message" in this tale is that unless you are slim then you cannot be attractive, unless you are slim you cannot have a valid emotional attachment with people, unless you are slim you cannot enjoy life, unless you are slim you can never be truly happy - it is all just a front, the curse of the jolly fat person if you will.  The members of the diet club (Violet, Maggie, Lucy, Kathy and Edward) don't really start getting their lives together until they start shedding those pesky pounds and this irritated me beyond belief as it is such a superficial expression of Humanity.

The pity is that the characters themselves are well observed and feel all too real.  They are easy to empathise with on the whole but then something jarring will happen that does not ring true.  The best example of this is in the opening scene when Violet steals a 12-portion double chocolate gateau from a stranger in the local store and proceeds to eat it all herself without throwing it back up.  Sorry, but that would make even the most dedicated chocolate hog throw up whether or not they were bulimic.  It also somewhat misses the point that obesity is caused, more often than not, by having too many calories in each meal and being sedentary as opposed to eating between meals or stuffing yourself with chocolate and cake and biscuits - portion control is the key.  But no, here the downfall for every last one of them is snacking and it irks me a great deal.  Not as much as the implication that you are worth less if you are fat but enough.

Maybe this is all written from the author's personal experience in which case I would suggest some sessions with a therapist as your self-worth should not be determined by your appearence.  Yes being fat is unhealthy and can cause serious medical complications but what it doesn't do is make you any less valid as a person and this was the message I came away with from this book.  As thrilling as it was to see the characters all rekindle their relationships or start new ones there was always this little voice cursing away in my head at the message being given.

I have given this 2 stars because the writing itself is good and the characters are wonderfully drawn but I can't give it anymore due to the handling of the subject matter.