Fat Cat

Fat Cat

by Robin Brande

Catherine has been battling the bulge for four years.  She's also been battling Matt for those four years, even if he hasn't realized it.

And this year, she's going to beat him... at the science fair.

Everyone in Fizer's Special Topics in Research Science class has to blindly pull a picture from a pile on the first day of class in September, and then develop an entire research project around it to be entered in the March science fair.  Get an A and you're guaranteed any college you want.  Win, and you go on to international competition.  Plus!  You get to beat the guy who embarrassed you and broke your heart four years before.

So when Cat picks a National Geographic illustration of early hominins from 1.8 million years ago (a.k.a. Homo erectus), she feels pretty defeated.

Until she comes up with the ultimate plan.  And the ultimate sacrifice.  She will live as close as she possibly can to the lives of those hominins.  That means no technology, no cars, no junk food, no make-up, and (gasp!) no hair products.

Over the next 207 days, she takes on a complete transformation.  All that walking and lack of junk food turns "Fat Cat" into "Hot Chick", and plenty of people are starting to notice... especially Matt.

Now that she's skinny and hot, will she also be able to confront her former-best-friend-now-worst-enemy and make him explain himself?  Or will she continue to feel like the fat girl she's trapped herself into thinking that she is?

Final thought:  Absolutely worth reading!  Perfect teen romance.  Cotton candy for the mind even with the very real messages it conveys.

Rating: 5/5