Small-Town Shenanigans

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl
Stephanie McAfee
Fiction

Another chick lit novel. What’s going on with me? Well, like I said, sometimes I like to read light, fluffy books that I can zip through in a couple of hours before moving on to the heavy stuff. And zip through Diary of a Mad Fat Girl I did. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the book was any good. The dialogue was funny and great, but that was probably the only thing I enjoyed. It’s time for a nitpick post, folks.

Nitpick #1: Stupid Misunderstandings. Our heroine, Ace (yes, she is female), has been in love with Mason since they were both eleven and they’ve had an on-and-off relationship for years. She moves down to Florida to be with him, they’re about to get engaged, she sees him talking with an attractive woman friend in the driveway for an hour, flips out, and then leaves without telling him and moves back home. Then refuses to read or listen to his texts and voicemails. She doesn’t even let the man she’s ‘loved her whole life’ explain. It’s just so stupid and totally unbelievable.

Nitpick #2: Exclamation Points. Way too many. I’ve noticed that most chick lit novels overdo exclamation points, and it’s annoying as hell. The sentence should be strong enough to stand on its own without one. Ms. McAfee’s editor was asleep at the wheel, apparently.

Nitpick #3: Plot Overload. There was so much going on, even now, I’m still not sure exactly what happened. Not only do we have Ace dealing with Mason, but she’s fighting for her job, she’s helping her friend out of an abusive marriage, she’s helping her best friend with family issues, and she’s got a lot of guys going after her. And I’m probably missing a few other important things. There should be a list of characters at the front to keep everyone straight, I swear.

Nitpick #4: The book is called Diary of a Mad Fat Girl and it’s not in a diary format. Chapter One begins with Ace in first person present tense. First person present tense is not diary form. There’s no date and time and no Dear Diary or Dear Journal anywhere to be found. That really bugged me. Why call it Diary of if it’s not even pretending to be a diary?

So, would I recommend Diary of a Mad Fat Girl? If you’re not too picky about your chick lit, I say go for it. Otherwise, I’d stick with Sophie Kinsella.