size twelve is not fat

Thursday, August 30, 2007

size twelve is not fat

Author: Meg Cabot

Plot:
Heather Wells, a teen pop sensation, was dropped by her recording label, Cartwright Records, was dumped by her fiance, Jordan Cartwright, and was robbed by her own mother of her savings from her successful teen career; had reached rock bottom and was forced to work in New York College's Residence Hall - Fisher's Hall, as an Assistant Directress, to start her life all over again. Though, she thought that she now had a place to call home, after her mother abandoned her and fled with her manager, unexpected deaths of female freshmen started to loom over the place, and what's worst was that it happened right before the residence hall she was working for - Fisher's Hall! Was it purely accident, or a lose psychopath had invaded the said residence hall? Will Heather and her dream man, Cooper Cartwright, solve the mystery of the said deaths and find the truth behind the alleged elevator surfing accidents?

Characters
Main Characters:

Heather Wells - The protagonist in the story. She was a singer and a teen pop sensation, that was dropped by her record label due to conflict of interest with the way she wanted her career to move in the direction she wanted. Much to anyone's surprise she was actually a size 12 woman.
Cooper Cartwright - The supporting character of the protagonist. He was the first person who offered help to Heather when she had reached the lowest part of her life. He, more so, is a certified detective, and at the same time the older brother of Heather's ex-fiance, Jordan Cartwright, who helped her solve the mystery.
Rachel Walcott - The directress of Fisher's Hall which played a major part in the actualization of the story. She was a graduate of B.S. Chemical Engineering, a size 8 woman, and a Pansy Awardee for noble excellence in her work.
Christopher Allington - A law student, and the only son of the president of New York College, Mr. Allington. Despite being the son of the president that lives in the penthouse of the residence hall, he likes to hang around the Fisher's Hall mainly to come close contact with different young innocent freshmen and be their acquiantance. He, more so, likes to use aliases.

Supporting Characters:

Jordan Cartwright - The ex-fiance of Heather that can't stand to what he believes in. More so, he was just so obedient to his father's will, the owner of Cartwright records, that he can't even act on his own accord without prior jurisdiction from him. He, by the way, cheated on Heather that lead to their discord.
Tania Trace - The current fiancee of Jordan, and the reason behind the break-up between Heather and Jordan.
Magda - Also a Pansy awardee, and an employee of the college cafeteria.
Mr. Allington - The president of the New York College where Heather works. He and his wife were the residents of the penthouse found in Fisher's Hall.
Mrs. Allington - Mother of Christopher or Chris. She was an alcoholic, forgetful, harsh and shopaholic type of a woman. There was never a time she appeared sober in the story.
Patty - The best girl friend of Heather, and wife of Frank, a rock star. She never abandoned Heather in times of her needs.
Detective Donavan - The detective who investigated the so-called accidents that happened in Fisher's Hall.
Elizabeth Kellogg - The first casualty in the story. Her body was found under the elevator shaft, due to alleged elevator surfing.
Roberta Pace - One week after the death of Elizabeth, she followed. She was the next casualty of the alleged elevator surfing.
Amber - She was fortunate enough not to end up as the third victim of the elevator surfing incidents.
Marnie - Roommate of Elizabeth. Proved to be useful sometime in the event of the investigation.
Lakeisha - Roommate of Roberta, and was traumatized by the event of her death. She also gave several information as to who she might thought was last person her roommate had met.
Gavin - A student who loves elevator surfing. Proved to be a major problem for Heather, because he doesn't want to pay attention to her authority. He also is not afraid to break the rules or be the next victim of the elevator surfing incident. He's name was also used to lure Heather into a trap.
Julio - A maintenance staff who always helps Heather in chasing and reprimanding Gavin from elevator surfing. Most of the metal debris of the elevator bomb explosion squeezed him, but he's still alive though.
Sarah - Also an employee at the residence hall. She was coerced, binded and used by the antagonist to lure Heather in the trap.

Location:
The story started in Fisher's Hall residence and ended up also there.

Theme:

Mystery - This was the most evident theme in the story. The whole story started with the mysterious deaths of two freshmen who doesn't even know, hadn't even a slight background nor tested elevator surfing, but ended up in bottom of its shaft. The main theme served as a leverage for the protagonist to act and to solve the said mystery, even at the point of risking her own life for thrice.
Death - This was another theme expressed in the story. This theme only served as a support or a backdrop for the Mystery theme.
Romance - This was the third evident theme expressed in the story. It was exemplified in the overt feelings of Heather towards Cooper, and Cooper's covert feelings towards her. Likewise, this was also exemplified in still Jordan Cartwright's affection towards Heather.

Critic
I'm writing this because I liked the story so much that it's worth sharing with. Though, I found the said themes to recur in every novel of the author, I must say, I'm really impressed on how she somehow kept the true identity of the antagonist upto the very last chapters of this book.

With regards to the author's writing style, her style reaches the very depths of the imagination of the readers and captivates them fully.

The said book is easy to understand and fun to read, though there were these floppy songs that were really not congruent with the flow of the story. More so, I must include, that the story was left hanging for the readers to just guess what might happen between the covert feelings of Cooper towards the protagonist, Heather, which was really not good.

But over all I still rate this book 5/5 for the delight that it had brought me.

Recommendation
Though the story was left hanging I still recommend each and every one of you to grab your copy and read the book because it's really nice and fun to read. Moreover, also grab the next book entitled "Size 14 is not fat Either", cause that appeared to the continuation of this book.