Kate Rockland
Fiction
I didn’t like this book, but I kept reading because I wanted to see what would happen at the end. I skimmed a lot so I was able to get through it in one day, which is good because I would not have been able to stand picking it up again.
150 Pounds is the story of two completely different bloggers, Shoshana and Alexis. Shoshana runs a blog called Fat and Fabulous that celebrates being overweight while Alexis is in charge of Skinny Chick, which celebrates staying slim in a world full of temptations. The two meet when they’re both invited on Oprah and tensions run high during the interview. Then we watch as Shoshana loses weight and Alexis gains it (for incredibly realistic reasons, I must say). Now both are struggling with what to tell their readers and themselves.
I’ll give Ms. Rockland props for her great dialogue and (mostly) funny characters. I liked Shoshana well enough but I hated Alexis. She was just a straight up bitch for most of the novel. It was only when I got towards the end and she had an emotional confrontation with her parents that I started to soften towards her.
Three things really irritated me when I was reading this book. The first thing was that during Alexis’ scenes with her love interest, she “laughed out loud”. Now, I don’t know about you, but for me, there is no other way to laugh. You can’t laugh internally. You can only laugh out loud. And the author used the phrase several times which made me grip the book in a rage. The second thing was all the pop culture references. I was put off from the beginning when the book started with both women going on Oprah. That took me out of the story right away because, hello, Oprah’s talk show has been off the air for a few years now. Thirdly, Shoshana and Alexis have a heated and uncomfortable debate on Oprah, don’t see each other again for almost a year, decide to meet up when the press starts attacking both of them, and then suddenly they’re bffs. What the hell? The author completely skips showing us why they bond and become friends. It totally came out of left field.
I would not recommend this book, but if you like chick lit you might be able to slog through it.
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