Fat Cat has a familiar feel - overweight female protagonist Cat is driven and intelligent, but eats her feelings and has a vendetta against her childhood best friend, Matt. She embarks on a science fair project that, surprise, will result in her losing weight. Any female reader who has spent much of her time reading tales of overweight ladies losing weight and Finding Themselves will be forgiven for being skeptical.
But Brande has several original ideas and twists in Fat Cat (sometimes too many - at 327 pages, it's a bit too long for a young adult novel). Cat's science project ties into a living a natural, organic life that will thrill fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollen. While overeating is a theme, there's also a lot of positive messages about family, friends and the difference between love and lust.
I would recommend this as a gift for a teenage girl in your life - the heroine makes school a priority, there's no sex/drugs, and the dialogue is breezy and funny.
