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Book rant ahoy!
Awww, you know you missed these ... :D
So the book in question is "Pigs Don't Fly" by Mary Brown. It looked like a fun, lighthearted fantasy, and mostly, it was. I had plausibility issues with a lot of it -- I think the book's attempt to combine serious themes with a plot made up mostly of jokes and random encounters didn't work very well. But there's a huge thread of DO NOT WANT running through it, which has to do with the heroine's weight issues.
One of the things that made me pick up the book was that it was noted in the cover copy or Amazon description or somewhere that the heroine is overweight, which is vanishingly rare in fantasy. I wasn't expecting the book to handle it in a stellar fashion, but really don't think it would be possible for the author to be more blindingly awful about it than she was ...
I wasn't surprised that the heroine lost some weight through the book. Actually, it's implied from the setup, because she leaves her home village and goes out on a trek across her country accompanied by the standard array of motley companions, with lots and lots of walking and some hard times when she can't find food. So it's not only understandable, but pretty likely, that it would work out that way. And she starts out with rock-bottom self-esteem about her looks, but I figured that there would a general theme in the book of the girl building up her self-esteem and figuring out that other people are wrong to judge her for her looks and that she's not as bad-looking as she thinks she is.
HAHAHAHAHA NOT REALLY, NO.
What actually happens is that the book spends a great deal of time in the early chapters pointing out how ugly and gross she is -- granted it's from her point of view and her self-esteem is in the gutter, but there's even an ongoing plot thread where she's traveling with a blind guy and makes sure that he never touches more of her body than her hands so he doesn't find out she's overweight and (in her mind, anyway) start hating her. Then she proceeds to lose not just some of the weight in the course of her travels, but all of it, slimming down to a willowy, gorgeous ingenue (WTF WEIGHT LOSS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY), which sets us up for the final insult when she figures it out. This is such a rage-inducing scene that I have to quote it, especially given that I'd expected one of the book's themes was going to be that everyone's beautiful in their own way (which is actually something we do get with some of the other characters in the book) and that people in her village were wrong for looking down on her and judging her because of her weight. Instead, we get this:
WTFWTFWTFWTF
....... NO WORDS.
(Incidentally, it's become obvious by this point that the "pig" in the title actually refers to her -- there is also a character who's an actual pig, but it's made pretty clear in the text that it's referring to both of them.)
I was getting pretty fed up already, but that was definitely the metaphorical throwing-the-book-across-the-room point for me. I mean, WHAT. WHAT? I DON'T EVEN.
I actually bought the sequel when I bought this one (both of them used and cheap, thankfully) but I'm not remotely interested in reading it. Seriously, author, WTF WERE YOU THINKING.
So the book in question is "Pigs Don't Fly" by Mary Brown. It looked like a fun, lighthearted fantasy, and mostly, it was. I had plausibility issues with a lot of it -- I think the book's attempt to combine serious themes with a plot made up mostly of jokes and random encounters didn't work very well. But there's a huge thread of DO NOT WANT running through it, which has to do with the heroine's weight issues.
One of the things that made me pick up the book was that it was noted in the cover copy or Amazon description or somewhere that the heroine is overweight, which is vanishingly rare in fantasy. I wasn't expecting the book to handle it in a stellar fashion, but really don't think it would be possible for the author to be more blindingly awful about it than she was ...
I wasn't surprised that the heroine lost some weight through the book. Actually, it's implied from the setup, because she leaves her home village and goes out on a trek across her country accompanied by the standard array of motley companions, with lots and lots of walking and some hard times when she can't find food. So it's not only understandable, but pretty likely, that it would work out that way. And she starts out with rock-bottom self-esteem about her looks, but I figured that there would a general theme in the book of the girl building up her self-esteem and figuring out that other people are wrong to judge her for her looks and that she's not as bad-looking as she thinks she is.
HAHAHAHAHA NOT REALLY, NO.
What actually happens is that the book spends a great deal of time in the early chapters pointing out how ugly and gross she is -- granted it's from her point of view and her self-esteem is in the gutter, but there's even an ongoing plot thread where she's traveling with a blind guy and makes sure that he never touches more of her body than her hands so he doesn't find out she's overweight and (in her mind, anyway) start hating her. Then she proceeds to lose not just some of the weight in the course of her travels, but all of it, slimming down to a willowy, gorgeous ingenue (WTF WEIGHT LOSS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY), which sets us up for the final insult when she figures it out. This is such a rage-inducing scene that I have to quote it, especially given that I'd expected one of the book's themes was going to be that everyone's beautiful in their own way (which is actually something we do get with some of the other characters in the book) and that people in her village were wrong for looking down on her and judging her because of her weight. Instead, we get this:
I saw the reflection ... of a woman I didn't recognize. Slim, straight-backed with a mass of tangled hair, a pretty girl with eyes like a deer, a clear skin, a straight nose and an expressive mouth -- a woman I had never seen before.
"You're lying! It's some fiendish magic! I'm not -- not like that!" I gestured at the image and it gestured back at me. "I'm ugly, fat, spotty ..."
"You were. When you rescued me you were all you said, but a year of wandering has worn away the fat your mother disguised you with. She didn't want a pretty daughter to rival her, so she did the only thing she could, short of disfigurement: she fattened you up like a prize pig, so that only a pervert would prefer you. Now you are all you should be."
WTFWTFWTFWTF
....... NO WORDS.
(Incidentally, it's become obvious by this point that the "pig" in the title actually refers to her -- there is also a character who's an actual pig, but it's made pretty clear in the text that it's referring to both of them.)
I was getting pretty fed up already, but that was definitely the metaphorical throwing-the-book-across-the-room point for me. I mean, WHAT. WHAT? I DON'T EVEN.
I actually bought the sequel when I bought this one (both of them used and cheap, thankfully) but I'm not remotely interested in reading it. Seriously, author, WTF WERE YOU THINKING.
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Words... fail me.
P.S. Check out Jo_Graham's blog! ;)
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DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD:
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...How I wish they had failed the author before *that* got written.
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Thank you for preventing me (and no doubt others) from ever reading that book. I'm sorry you suffered through it, but I do appreciate that I've only read a short entry and not the whole bloody book.
Oh, and a few more words: I think the author should seek therapy immediately.
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Repeated *headdesk*
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(And yep yep, I already pm'd her! ^_^)
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Heh, do you want the other book btw? (It's "Master of Many Treasures".) My interest is really at a nadir right now ...
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Does the author really have no idea just how damaging those words are? Not to mention how wrong they are, on soooo many levels? Does she really think that is acceptable?!! *boggles*
And what does it say about the publishers? Did they not read the book first, or do they agree?!!
Sorry you had to go through that, but thank you for the warning!
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OMG I can't believe that actually happened. Written, edited, published. WTF.
Go read Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Cris Crutcher. It will make you feel better.
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