This is another book about eating disorders and also, to a much lesser extent, about bullying in school.

Unfortunately, the book is far too long for its purpose. We learn that Carmen's mother has had eating disorders of her own and still does. She leaves her husband and takes Carmen with her.

At first Carmen is overweight and not really that concerned about it. Then she runs into some bullying at school (and does some of her own) relating to girls who are overweight. In addition, her mother's incessant non-eating and emphasis on being thin and fashion-conscious would drive almost any girl into having an eating disorder. It's obvious, terribly, boringly obvious, that the mother has major mental problems. There's no surprise at all that Carmen begins to follow in her mother's footsteps.

In addition, the ending of the book is basically a non-ending. It's like the author got to a point and just decided enough had been written. There's no definitive conclusion to the book, nothing stating whether Carmen is or is not going to continue on the path of her eating disorder.

It also helps if, in a book, we can characters we like. In this one the mother is definitely someone hard to like; Carmen is not a bundle of joy herself. Most of the other characters are sort of ok but not really people you'd like to be close friends with.

The book is also British, and there are times when references are made using certain terms that only someone who is British would really understand. Usually you can figure out what the word probably means form the context it's used in, but not always.

In short, this is an over-long, moderately boring book that is pretty much the least interesting of any book I've read on the subject.

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