Review: Skinny by Diana Spechler

Title: Skinny
Author: Diana Spechler
Genre: Women's fiction, adult
Publication: 2011
Source: For review, TLC

Well, I must preface this with an exciting little story.

When I was at BEA last week (YAY!), I happily attended the author speed dating event at Book Blogger Con, where different authors would come to your table and tell you about their book and you could ask them questions. Every fifteen minutes or so, they switched, so you would get a chance to talk to a bunch of different authors. It was really a lot of fun.

The first set of authors came to my table, and when Diana Spechler introduced herself, I was so surprised and excited! I told her I was on her book tour and would be reviewing Skinny the following week. She surprisingly knew nothing about the tour (she was pleasantly surprised I hope)! She was super sweet and I don't think we even talked about the book much, just chatted like a bunch of long-lost girlfriends. My mom and I told her about how exciting it is when an author comments on your blog after doing a review of their book and she said she always wondered about that, because she sends out thank you notes and wasn't sure if people really cared or not, which I assured her they do. I feel like I've been in touch with a rock star when I hear from an author and Diana was just amazing! But anyways, onto the story:

When Gray Lachmann's father dies, she is left to carry out his will. In the course of doing so, she discovers a half-sister she never knew about. Curious to find out about his secret life, she finds out that her half-sister, Eden, is signed up to go a weight loss camp for the summer. Desperate to meet this mysterious girl, Gray manages to get a job as a counselor at the camp in an effort to unravel her father's lies and take control of her body and her life.

I found the characters in this book very interesting. They were all very quirky and strange with a dark, secret center. There's not a lot of action in this story, but rather a discovery of how each of the characters deals with their weight and self-image issues. If you like a lot of character details and getting inside of people's heads, then you will really like this book. I love having that sense of really knowing a character and what they are all about. While it slowed the pace of the book down somewhat, I enjoyed knowing the characters. If you're looking for lots of action, this book isn't for you, but if you're looking for characterization, it is.

My rating: 3.5/5