Dietland - Sarai Walker

The wickedly funny feminist revenge fantasy that takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality and our weight-loss obsessed culture with fists flying. 

Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you're fat, to be noticed is to be judged. Or mocked. Or worse. But when a mysterious woman starts following her, Plum finds herself involved with an underground community of women who live life on their own terms. At the same time, a dangerous guerrilla group called "Jennifer" begins to terrorize a world that mistreats women. As Plum grapples with her personal struggles, she becomes entangled in a sinister plot, the consequences of which are explosive.

Part coming-of-age story, part revenge fantasy, Dietland is a bold, original and funny debut.

My thoughts:

I have been meaning to write this review, but I was thinking about the review. I want to say something profound, but yeah, that is not how I write reviews. I may try, but it does not happen. *insert fabulously smart words*

Seriously how to start this? Look at the cover, it looks all chic-lit, well except for that is a grenade! Boom! Yes it starts of sort of chic-litish. The fat girl, Plum dreams of being thin and people liking her. She thinks her world will change if she is thin, she lives in the future, not in the present. She does not even get to work at the office with the thin pretty people, instead she works at home, since she only answers emails anyway.

"When I was around women who had grown-up lives, the kind of life I thought I should have, I felt suspended in time, like an animal floating in a jar of formaldehyde."

But then, then things change. Darker.

"Who has the problem here: women who have committed the heinous crime of merely existing, or men, who choose to objectify women? If the sight of uncovered women offends you, stay at home or wear a blindfold. Better yet, pour acid into your eyes. Then you will never have to see anything that offends you again"

We get a chapter of someone taking things into their own hands. Why should only women be naked in media. Why should there be boobs everywhere? And then London starts to change, and men are suddenly embarrassed. 

"We're told not to go out by ourselves late at night, not to dress a certain way, not to talk to male strangers, not to lead men on. We take self-defense classes, keep our doors locked, carry pepper spray and rape whistles. The fear of men is ingrained in us from girlhood. Isn't that a form of terrorism?"

She touches everything from rape-culture to fat shaming. And it gets dark, and I get angry at our effed up society. Yes why is it like this? Why do teenagers who gets raped get blamed for it? Why do towns stand by the men who did it?`It happens,  it is messed up, and it makes me angry.

So yes the more I read the angrier I got. And when bad things happened to bad people, well I was not sad, it may not be the best way to go after them, but let's take back the power!

Plum then, well she will change too. And I liked that, she gets happy. How, well that I will not say.

Inside this chic-lit cover and start there is a hidden depth. It gave me a lot to think about.

Conclusion:

Good book!

Paperback, 320 pages
Published May 5th 2016 by Atlantic Books (first published 2015)
Fiction
For review