Online Book Club Discussion - May 2010 - Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

***SPOILER ALERT*** If you have not yet read this book but intend to you may want to finish it before you read the discussion questions. There are some spoilers herein!

MAY 2010 - Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

At 28, former teen-pop-star Heather Wells feels as though she has lost everything: her family and fortune (her mom fled the country with Heather's earnings), her recording contract, her slender waistline, and her fiance, Jordan, a philandering, boy-band singer. Then Jordan's brother, Cooper, a dreamy private investigator and family black sheep, offers Heather room and board in exchange for clerical work, and she finds an additional job as a residence-hall director at a nearby Greenwich Village university. After several female students turn up dead at the dorm, Heather takes on her own stealthy investigation and finds herself the target of the killer. In the first title in her Heather Wells series, Cabot combines a fairly straightforward mystery with a single-girl-in-the-city plot in which Heather triumphs over cheating guys, bad luck, and a fattist society. Most of the characters are two-dimensional, but Heather's strong, amusing voice, the plot twists, and the possibility of romance will draw mystery and chick-lit readers alike.

Book Club discussion questions: (the answers in pink are my own personal responses)

1.  On a scale of 1 (lamer than lame) and 5(super fantastic) rate the following:
1. Style of Writing - 3 out of 5
2. Development of Characters -  3 out of 5
3. Flow of storyline - 4 out of 5
4. Over all book - 3.5 out of 5
2. Heather has quite a history, what do you think you would do with all of the turmoil?  I would have the most issue with the fact that her own mother took off with all her money! This is my biggest issue with the whole idea of child performers. Their parents get too greedy and forget about being the parent!
3. What was your most favorite part? When Heather called out the store clerk in the first few pages. It was such a "You Go, Girl" moment.
4. What was your least favorite part? Jordan, as a whole! Why is that there is always one character that I just don't like? Jordan was so annoying. I wish he would have stayed a "mentioned" or "referred to" character and not an active part of the story.
5. What did you "not see coming"? Mrs. Allington and her hot mess self! What was up with that? She was so random.
6. The book starts out in a dressing room, would you have done the same this Heather did? Given the same circumstances, YES! Vanity sizing makes me nuts. Just make it the size the label says. The number doesn't make me feel better or worse. I just want to be able to walk into a store grab my size and have it fit.
7. Would you have pursued the issue of murder, if everyone just wanted to brush it under the rug? I think that if I had the same "gut" feeling, that I would have pursued things. But I am not so sure that I would have risked quite as much as Heather did.
8. This is a random question, but did you get annoyed by Heather constantly correcting herself when she called Fisher Hall a dorm? I think that this was supposed to be a funny/fun quirk of Heather's but for some reason it just irked me. I got really tired of reading it over and over.
9. Will you read any more of Cabot's books, specifically the sequel, Size 14 Is Not Fat Either? Although I did enjoy this book, I don't know that I am in a hurry to read the next one. I might try to read another of Cabot's book down the line.

You can post your answers to these questions, as well as any comments and questions to other members in a comment using the link at the bottom of this post. Or you can create a post on your own blog and link back to us using the Linky! Hopefully we can start a dialogue about this book. Please remember that this Book Club is a new concept for me so an constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. I want this to be OUR club not MINE!