Review: Moose by Stephanie Klein.

Grade: 4 out of 5

With acerbic wit and captivating insight, the author of the wildly popular, Straight Up and Dirty continues her memoirs series with a funny and touching look at adolescence, sharing her memories of a summer at fat camp. Long ebfore she was a glamorous young divorcee and world-famous web personality, Stephanie Klein was an eigth grader with a weight problem; the boys called her “Moose,” and her nighttime beauty routine involved soothing “chub rub” on her inner thighs. Yearning to be thin, Klein unsuccessfully dieted. Sessions with a nutritionist known as “The Fat Doctor of Roslyn Heights” ended in frustration. By summer, Klein was enrolled in fat camp, embarking on a journey that would teach her more than just how to shed pounds. Moose is a raw and remarkably honest account of a woman who realizes at age 12, “I would be fat for the rest of my life, even if I looked thin.” Campfires, cabins, first loves, and summer are the backdrop of this coming of age story that will appeal to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider. Moose is about the universal trials of adolescence that we carry throughout our lives: the struggle to find friends, discover ourselves, and realize that who we are has little to do with our waistlines.

I saw this book on Amazon a while ago and wanted to read it when it came out. I wanted to read this book because I remember reading the author’s blog a few years ago. It was when I was going through that dating phase, where I loved reading all of those dating blogs, and then our romance community blogs and when I spent way too much time on the computer.

When I received a review copy of this in the mail, I was more than a little happy. I was pretty excited. I don’t even know what I was thinking going into this book, I just knew that I was going to enjoy it.

Now, what I liked most about this book is that this is a book about a fat girl who didn’t whine and complain about the state of her weight. This is a book about a girl telling her story, a girl who went through some really tough things growing up and didn’t let it take over her life.

A lot of people will admire Stephanie Klein more because of this book and I’m one of them. She was a worthy heroine for a good book.

She went through life being overweight. She suffered from mindless eating and she went through a lot of things to try to overcome her problem. One of the things that stood out for me while reading this book was something Stephanie said. She said something like, “I knew that I would be fat for the rest of my life, no matter how thin I get.” That stood out to me because it’s true. Holly and I have talked about this before, where “fat” is a mindset and no matter how big or how small you are, if you think you’re fat, no number on a scale is going to convince you otherwise. Stephanie Klein covered this in Moose and I thought it was eloquent because I’ve often thought this very thing.

This book is not a romance, it’s not a chick lit book, it’s a memoir of fat camp. We get to know the friends Stephanie made at fat camp and we got to know just who Stephanie Klein was and what she went through. Being fat is not easy and it’s never any fun, especially if you can’t accept the fact that you’ll never be a size 0, it’s a really good to give you perspective on life and what’s important and what’s not.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to read about what goes through an overweight teenager’s head while she’s growing up. Especially a female teenager who’s overweight. It’s never easy and it’s even worst when your peers are not nice. You won’t find a whiny tale about an overweight kid who is bemoaning her lot in life. It’s just a straight up, in your face story about Stephanie Klein.

I enjoyed it and could relate to a lot of the things that Stephanie thought about and went through. This is an easy read that opened my eyes to things about my childhood that I never really thought about. It made me realize a lot about myself and I’m glad that I read it.

Check back in a couple of weeks, I will be meeting Stephanie Klein here in L.A. and I’m totally looking forward to it. She has a great blog that is straight up in your face what she’s thinking about, holding nothing back. You can check it out, Greek Tragedy.

This book is available from William Morrow. You can buy it here.

**CONTEST ALERT** Leave a comment here to be entered to win a hardback copy of Moose! One lucky winner will be chosen at random from the comments Friday, May 30th, so be sure to comment before midnight Thursday, May 29th!! **CONTEST ALERT**

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