Meh. That's all I got to say about that. ( )

I only finished this book because I hated it so much and felt it unfair to rate a book 1 star if I hadn't finished. What if the book redeemed itself in the end? This did not. ( )

It's best to ignore the blurbs on a book because they're usually meaningless, but I want to fight the authors who gave blurbs for this book. "Full of sharp insight and sly humor"? "Hilarious and cutting"? "sparkles with wit...Awad knows how to talk about the raw struggles of female friendships, sex, contact, humanness, and her voice is a wry celebration of all this at once."

I could not disagree more.

There's nothing wry, clever, or funny about this book at all. Acerbic and bitter. Perhaps deeply tragic, even.

There are 13 vignettes, 11 of which are told from the perspective of Elizabeth/Liz/Lizzie/Beth, the name she insists people use is usually connected to what sort of identity she's invented for herself. She's a fat girl who has internalized all the fatphobic propaganda of society - not only does she hate herself, as she is supposed to, she hates anyone and everyone around her.

That's perhaps the most difficult aspect of the book: the protagonist is empty. She has no real friends, no interests beyond fatness, and not once in the book does she have a nice thing to say about anyone. Her self-loathing is a poison that has coated everything, preventing Elizabeth from having a single meaningful relationship.

Truly, the closest the book come to wry or clever is in the second vignette, told from the unnamed perspective of some douchebag musician who only refers to Elizabeth as the 'Fat Girl' in his head, who should be grateful to have even his drunken, sloppy attention. That he was the one replaced at the end with another gormless musician was a funny twist. But then we were back to Elizabeth's perspective.

I suppose any cleverness lies in the way that Elizabeth's desire to be thin, and the time when she achieves her goal weight, and that it changes nothing. She is still self-conscious, still self-loathing, still deeply hateful of all women. But ultimately, this novel is just sad. A portrait of a woman who internalized all the hateful messages of society, as she was supposed to, and all it did was leave her with nothing. ( )

This felt overwrought, yet it didn't delve into stories deep enough. ( )

I enjoyed aspects of this book a lot, especially the first few chapters. But parts were hard going. I know that’s the point of the book but I felt it could have been so much more. ( )

fiction (human condition-desperation, depression, misery; weight loss struggles and how one sees oneself).
The first time I tried to read this I abandoned it in the first chapter/story for all of the self-hate; the second time, 4 years later, I pushed through and was rewarded with an unpleasant story that I probably would never recommend. At least the ending is a bit hopeful, like maybe the main character has come to terms with her body. It did not feel empowering for women of size, and who wants to read such a downer these days? ( )

At first I thought this book was going to dredge up a slew of bad feelings from when I was "the fat girl"...and while I could relate to some of the stories, because unfortunately I totally could, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Lizzie, and in turn myself. She worked so hard to lose the weight and she was 1000% less happy in life ... And as a heavy person I have to say that a common thought is... If I could just be thin I'd be happy. I feel like the story just ended too... Like it wasn't quite finished. Also, the editing/proof reading was crap which made it annoying to read at times. ( )

This book was really uncomfortable. It was very good, but it was very hard to read, as well. Elizabeth is at the same time unlikable and totally relatable, which is a really uncomfortable place to be as a reader. I really liked the prose, and I flew through it, and I would recommend it to some people but not to others - the rawness of a struggle with body image and weight and dieting and exercise and self-hatred can be triggering to some people. In the end, I just want Elizabeth to be happy, but I don't have hope that she'll get there. ( )

I ALMOST gave up on this one about halfway through. I just felt like it wasn't for me. I totally appreciate the parallelism between this book and 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, but for me, the disjointedness works much better in poetry than in prose.

BUT! I stuck it out and the second half of the book was much more enjoyable! I might actually read another book about adult Liz if it existed. Probably not, but maybe. ( )

One of several short stories contained in this book.
It was mildly amusing but overall had me feeling depressed about he characters. I kept wanting to interject suggestions on her flawed thinking of self acceptance. She develops a "relationship" with a much older physically disabled man online. This just demonstrates her inability to accept herself as a "fat" girl just like her mother. She feels bad about her mother who seems to be a "fat middle aged lonely woman". A fear I'm sure is one she lives with daily. ( )

Completely unsure how to rate this as a used-to-be-fatter girl. But god is it ever authentic.

I finished reading this book a while back but I was hesitant to pen down my thoughts because well, I had a lot of them. There are certain books that just connect with you and this was one of those.

When I first started reading it, I did have trouble getting into it, understanding it... most of the time I was shaking my head in disbelief over the antics and thought process of the novels' protagonist, the eponymous 'fat girl', but slowly the shaking turned into nodding and the disbelief turned into agreement... because I realized that, at some point in my life, I have been that fat girl or maybe I still am.

The novel (or a collection of stories) deals with a girl's all-absorbing obsession with her weight. She sees everyone and everything around her in terms of their weight and how that affects her relationships in turn. She hates someone just because they are thinner than her, she sympathizes with someone because they weigh more than her, she doubts a girl is as happily married as she says, because well, she is fat and so on.

Let's just start from the beginning... When we meet the protagonist (who is called Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Elizabeth during different stages of her life / weight journey) she is supposedly a fat girl, conscious about her looks, who thinks no guy would ever want her because she is overweight and thus compromises. But, what got me hooked (the point where aforementioned shaking turned to nodding) was when she did manage to lose all the weight yet she was unhappy. The constant worry about losing weight had just morphed into constant worry about not gaining all the weight back... and that is a sentiment I am (or rather most of us are) quite familiar with.

What I liked (unlike many readers!) is that there is no magical realization in the end... the protagonist has a slight idea about the absolute pointlessness of her obsession, but we don't get to see whether she acts on it or not. ( )

Well-written, uncomfortable. I love books with flawed lead characters, books that deal with the expectations placed on young women by society, books that let girls be unlikeable. And there's a self-consciousness that this book captures in a compelling way. However, I found this book a little much in its constant portrayal of the longing to be desired by someone else. It was frustrating, and I kept on waiting for Elizabeth to break out of that mindset and stop focusing so much on the people around her. ( )

Oh dear, from what I had heard about it, I was expecting to really like 13 Ways of Looking At A Fat Girl by Mona Awad so it came as a big disappointment when I not only didn’t like it, I pretty much hated it. I obviously missed something here as this book was up for numerous awards but I really struggled to get through it. This is a collection of short stories that are connected in that they all depict scenes from one person’s life. Lizzie lives in what she calls “Misery Saga” a nickname for Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, she is overweight, insecure and has little or no self-esteem.

Through the course of the book she goes through many weight changes, from an obese teenager to a thin young woman, but no matter what weight she seemed to be, she remained, to me, a very damaged character. Her craving for affection in her younger days allowed many to take advantage of her and use her in different ways, including sexually, which was difficult to read about. As a thin woman she came across extremely unhappy and angry.

So many things put me off this book. It is full of nasty, small minded people who appear to be only out for themselves. The humor is sly and always directed at other people’s shortcomings. I can’t knock the writing but overall I didn’t like the characters, didn’t like the stories and didn’t like the book. ( )

Sad, true, aching.

Note: I read the last half of this book on a Sunday morning while eating donuts. Not until I felt sick with fullness and regret did I see the "coincidence" of my choice. ( )

Connected stories about a nasty, self-obsessed, vacuous girl who becomes a nasty, self-obsessed, vacuous woman. Oh, and she is fat. As a fat girl I know how difficult and sometimes painful it can be to be overweight. That said, it is not the only thing we chubsters think about, it does not entirely define us. And we don't walk around judging others, even when we are going through skinny times. This woman is shallow and cruel and intellectually lazy. Being fat is the least of her problems. ( )

I think in small doses this collection of short stories would have been thought-provoking and illuminating. There are some gems of observation here but reading story after story was enervating. The stories tell of an overweight girl, then an overweight young woman, then a young woman who starves herself into losing weight and then a woman who counts every calorie and carbohydrate and fixates on food and then a woman who fixates on food and exercise. Only at the very end do we get a hope that Elizabeth (also known as Lizzie, Beth, and other iterations) has seen that her obsession is unhealthy. I think the author wants us to realize that problems with body image are rampant in today's society and that they can be debilitating. I just think that some more positive messages might have made the collection better. ( )

I'm divided in my opinion of this book, on the one hand it was very readable, and on the other hand I didn't much like the narrative. It's 13 short stories with one main character. We meet her when she is an overweight adolescent and throughout the stories her life, weight and even her name fluctuate over time.
I didn't find it funny or filled with dark humor, it was just a bit depressing. ( )

Positive reviews of this novel of interlinked stories have been cropping up everywhere. It was even nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

The book is about a young woman (Lizzie/Beth/Elizabeth/Liz/Bess/Betty) who struggles with weight and changes her name as her weight changes. Her entire life, from her teens to her 30s, is defined by food, weight, and body image. Major events in her life (education, engagement, relocation, marriage, etc.) are mentioned only in passing. When she does manage to lose weight, she discovers that thinness does not guarantee happiness; she becomes a bitter, judgmental woman obsessed with maintaining her slimness.

The novel depicts the struggles and indignities many women have experienced around their weight. Anyone who has ever looked in a mirror and not liked what she sees will understand the protagonist’s emotions.

The book is not an easy read. It is often an uncomfortable read with its description of several cringe-worthy situations. Its messages about society are disturbing. Even as an adolescent, Lizzie sees her worth only in terms of how sexually desirable men find her. She becomes involved in a number of inappropriate relationships because she is desperate for masculine attention. And women, in the competition for society’s approval, turn on each other, cruelly judging and berating others. Also, as witnessed in Lizzie’s relationship with her mother, obsession with weight loss and body image is passed down through generations. Society has mandated a hatred of fat women, but its demands that women conform to an ideal size are largely unachievable and inevitably leave women feeling miserable. When Lizzie has a svelte figure, she is amazed that her overweight manicurist can be so happy with her life.

The book blurb describes Lizzie as someone “whose life is hijacked by her struggle to conform” and that is indeed an accurate description. She is trapped in an unhealthy relationship with food which leaves her hungry, guilty or angry. She seems to have no pleasure in life. Because she does not love herself, her marriage suffers. And there is no indication that she will be able to escape; the final image of the book is that of a woman cycling in a dark gym despite fire alarms going off around her. “She’s like a soap opera that you tune into after ten years only to find the plot hasn’t moved an inch.”

There are some humourous scenes but they do little to alleviate the sadness I felt not only for the protagonist but for all people whose lives have been negatively impacted by society’s teaching them to loathe their bodies.

Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). ( )

Because I've been a sufferer of both an under and overactive thyroid, I am always exercising, walking and watching what I'm eating. I don't have an emotional tie to my weight- at least not in the sense that many others fight through, but I do have things I'm working on. That being said, when I saw this book in my book stash, I was pretty excited! I thought to myself, "I think I'm gonna like this..."

I didn't like this.

I won't give away any SPOILERS, but I can say I was very let down by this book. I was so upset by it, the only reason I finished the book was due, only to my literary obligations. So here's my review.

First, it's a very well written novel. Awad shared her feelings in a way that allowed me to relate to her situation She was real and open about eating, social awkwardness and the opposite sex. I was like : "Yes! That was me too!" But that was where the similarities ended.

Liz was desperate and hard up for attention while over-weight, an unhappy thin person with an eating disorder. It was very frustrating for for me as the reader, because she never found herself. There was n medium and she just came off as pathetic. This book showed how emotionally hazardous one can be if they don't love themselves. The protagonist was so dependent I was angry and actually threw the book against my office door!

*For the full review: http://bit.ly/13WaysofLookingatAFatGirl
**Book released by Penguin Random House. ( )

This is a very powerful book. Elizabeth has been overweight most of her life, and this has done a lot of damage to her self-esteem. Even when she, through extreme dieting and exercise, become thin, she continues to obsess about her weight and isn't happy. This book looks at how so many women feel unattractive in a world where far too much importance is placed on appearance. It is honest, sometimes brutally so, about how we look at ourselves, and how others relate to overweight women.

The book is a series of thirteen inter-connected stories that give us glimpses of Elizabeth at various times of her life, mostly told from her point of view although two chapters are narrated by men in her life. This style made the various moments in Elizabeth's life very vivid and poignant and, by the end, I felt I knew her. ( )

I received an advanced copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

As a lifelong "fat girl" I was really interested to read this one. After reading it, I'm not entirely sure what to think about it. I can't really say I enjoyed it, although I did feel compelled to finish it. Anyway, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl is comprised of short stories that tell about different times in the life of Lizzy/Beth/Elizabeth/Liz. I honestly found it kind of depressing. You drop in at different times of Lizzy's life, getting glimpses here and there, but never really getting to know all of her. The one main point that you get is, even when she's thin, she can never really let go of the weight she once carried. It overwhelms her life, pushing out any possible joy she could have. I'm not sure if the author had a message she was trying to get through, but what I took away from it was that you really need to learn to be happy with who you are, whatever weight you are, and enjoy life as it comes at you. Otherwise, I think you're bound to live a life like Lizzy, never truly enjoying the things life has to offer. ( )

Lizzie and Mel live in misery; they are the girls who are overweight, who want to fit in but don't, the girls who do anything for boys because they finally feel special and loved. Lizzie lived that way for a long time; waiting for a boy to call, dropping everything when the phone rings, running over with fresh-baked banana bread and a willingness to do whatever is asked. Lizzie starts to date men online, but meets creeps she doesn't see spending the rest of her life with. And then she meets Tom, who seems to love her even though she is still bigger than she wants to be. As Lizzie, now Beth, starts to lose weight, she gets compliments, but she still feels like the fat girl. She counts every calorie and every morsel, but she can't shake the image of herself as fat. Her image and her self change outwardly, but inside, she is terrified of gaining weight back and does everything she can to keep it off. She has loving friends and family, but none of that matters because she can't be happy with herself. This book, to me, comments on our society's focus on outward appearance. We should all look a certain way, and if we don't we can't be part of "the group." This sense of fitting an image takes over so many lives and ruins so many hearts. It would be nice if we could all just be healthy and happy in our lives and in ourselves. ( )

Posted On http://readaholiczone.blogspot.com/2016/02/debut-novel-13-ways-of-looking-at-fat...

Blog Posting Contains: Video, Cocktail Recipe, Cool Links, & a GIVEAWAY of the book!

What an amazing, unique read. It's written in thirteen individual short stories about Lizzie’s weight influencing every aspect of her life. Starting with the title, the author never holds back creating a crude, brazen, enlightening look into the mind of a woman who from this reader's point of view loathes herself, no matter what. Having no self-esteem the author makes Lizzie's ways of getting attention repulsive and self-destructive. Whereas, the stories tend to be dark the comedy will make you pee your pants:


“Oozing from the V in the front and the V in the back, the volume of my ass threatening to crack the little bows along the fault line...Maybe if I wait long enough, if I am patient, I’ll just ooze out. First the fat, then maybe we’ll find a way to coax the organs...it’ll be a slow process.”

What I took away most from this book is that it shouted out a fundamental message to readers of all weights. If you cannot find peace and happiness on the inside you can be as big as a house or stick thin yet changing your weight will not bring you the happiness you are looking for.


“My wide slash of a bared stomach feels like an emergency no one is attending to, my feet like they’re doing bad porn under the table”

This is Mona Awads debut book. Her writing quality blew me away by thinking outside the box and creating a read I will never forget. Do yourself a favor and start your spring reading with this book.

“I RECEIVED THIS BOOK FROM THE PUBLISHER BUT THE REVIEW & THE OPINIONS ARE MY OWN” (who else could come up with kind of crazy) ( )

Very relevant read to most women today. Library book. ( )