Rating: 
Summary: A quick, fun read
Review: I'm in graduate school, and I read a lot of academic, heavy books in addition to journals and the Los Angeles Times a few times per week. I was looking for some books that I could read at the gym, waiting for an appointment, or at a cafe, and I decided to give this one a try. Jemima J is a cute, quick book about an English journalist who transforms herself into JJ because she has set up a meeting with a man that she "met" on-line. The plot is set in both the young, English social scene and trendy Santa Monica, CA. What makes this book cute is that despite transforming herself physically, JJ remains the same person at heart, and she learns that looks and impressions can be deceiving. This is a light book, fun for the beach or the pool, but if you are looking for heavy symbolism and meaning, don't pick it up.
Rating: 
Summary: When an Ugly Duckling isn't Ugly
Review: This book came highly recommended to me; maybe because my friend thought I looked like Jemima, maybe because I, too, suffered from eating disorders and low self-esteem. Whatever the reason, I was deeply offended and horrified by this book. Not only did it put down overweight people but it encouraged Bulemia and Anorexia as a way of life. In short, this book goes like this: Fat girl unhappy with life; Fat girl can't diet (an offensive myth about overweight people); Fat girl discovers the joys of starvation and purging; Suddenly this ugly duckling is a swan and is no longer embarrassed to meet her internet lover; Internet lover sees a beautiful girl and falls in love; swan decides to end eating disorders, yet somehow manages to maintain her newly discovered figure. Not only does Jemima J encourage the already-prominent-in-our-society notion of beauty as thin (men only started noticing her after she'd dropped a million pounds) it makes anyone who doesn't have the discipline to starve themselves or the stomach to throwup all their meals feel bad. Our society shouldn't be wasting time reading books that promote these myths, rather we should be encouraged to reevaluate our conception of beauty and learn that an Ugly Duckling isn't necessarily Ugly.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Read...Just Don't Look Too Closely
Review: In Jemima J, Jane Green reinvents the Cinderella story as a tale of an overweight girl who, through obsessive exercise and borderline anorexic dieting, becomes the super-thin woman she has always longed to be, and who, through lying about her identity through the Internet, finds a semblance of true love with a superficially perfect Prince Charming before a series of deus ex machinas lands her in the arms of her true Prince Charming, who, naturally, has been there all along. Jemima J is an entertaining and fast-paced story, one to be read on the beach or while killing time on the airplane, but not an altogether believable one, nor an exactly well-written one, or of any literary merit. Although I liked it well enough the first time through, a second reading changed my mind; if this book had gone through one of my workshops, I and my students would have torn it to pieces (tactfully, of course!). The characters, though convincing as they are, are merely stereotypes; one wonders if this is due to the protagonist's skewed perspective or due to Ms Green's own stereotypes. All the slender, stylish and charming beauties in the novel are superficial gold-diggers--yes, even the supporting "best friend" Geraldine, who, nice as she is, remains a gold-digger on the make. It's as if Green doesn't believe that someone can be good-looking and yet independent and intelligent: the aforementioned Geraldine, though genuinely kindhearted, also happens to be a shoddy writer, so superficial she will only date "onwards and upwards," and prizes beyond all else a Louis Vuitton vanity case. Meanwhile the other two beauties of the novel, Jemima's roommates, are painted as vicious tramps--while, naturally, the overweight Jemima is a paragon of intelligence, literary talent, genuine goodness, wit, humor and taste. The novel maintains a consistently whiny tone throughout; though Green seems quite sympathetic to the woes of being overweight, and though she puts more effort into fleshing Jemima out than in fleshing the other characters out (at times the story reads as if it is autobiography), she also seems determined to paint the obese as sad sacks who can't maintain decent romantic relationships, which, contrary to what Green and popular media may say, is, in fact, not true. Naturally Jemima is saddled with an overbearing, unsatisfiable mother; naturally Jemima is also saddled with the aforementioned vicious tramps for roommates; naturally Jemima can't find true love. I agree with the reviewer who mentioned that the shifts from first-person to omniscient third-person viewpoint are jarring. In the first chapter they presented a major problem to me: they are confusing and unnecessary; their only function is to set up the shifting viewpoint structure so that Green can later point out just how much others adore the slimmed-down Jemima. From her diction it's obvious that Green is British. This wouldn't be a problem, except that that distinctly British diction creeps also into dialogue spoken by Americans...perhaps a small nitpick, but one that bothered me enough to cause me to put the book down and roll my eyes at several points. Rounding out these general complaints is the fact that I simply thought the seeming "message" of the book was bizarre. Apart from espousing drastic dieting and obsessive exercising as valid ways to lose weight--and keep it off--I found it quite disturbing that a tale which seems meant to be about seeing beyond the surface should cast a flawlessly gorgeous man as its romantic lead. Ben is, unfortunately, too good-looking to make Green's point: in fact the novel is as superficial as the people its narrator bemoans. As a 5-year Angeleno, I have one more complaint to make about this novel: its second half takes place in Los Angeles, and reads as if Green decided that one week's holiday in L.A.--or perhaps just the tips an L.A.-based friend gave her--are sufficient to allow her to know the place. Jane Green's Los Angeles is a half-idealized, half-parodied mecca of gyms, bodies beautiful, Starbucks, fancy resteaurants and fancy cars; on top of that it's a place which seems populated only by Caucasians in said fancy cars. It seems obvious to me that Green has not taken the time to make her setting believable. Perhaps she only meant for this to be read by Brits who'd never been to L.A., but unfortunately for her this Angeleno has read it and finds her portrayal of my city quite lacking and silly. L.A. is *not* the place it appears to be on television and in the movies, and for someone who makes several points about television not being real, Green does a startlingly good job of portraying a real place as if it were exactly the way it looks on television. And, from a fashion-conscious and Internet-conscious woman's perspective, well, judging from the copyright date (1999), unless it took Green about eight years to write this novel, she's about five or six years behind the times in both fashion and technology. As I've said, Jemima J is entertaining and fast-paced. Just don't read it expecting any revelations, surprises or literary merit, and don't read it expecting another Bridget Jones's Diary: although it has enough similarity with that book to cause it to be compared to BJ'sD, it is far, far inferior, and gives "chick lit" a bad name. And if you live in L.A., be forewarned: reading the second half of the book may cause spasms of irritation.
Rating:
Summary: horribly disappointing in both craft and story
Review: From our first glimpse of Jemima, we are led to believe she is grotesquely obese. She is dripping with fat and food rolls down her FOUR chins. Later on, however, we learn that Jemima weighs only two-hundred and seventeen pounds. This is a terrible dramatization on the author's part. It is fiction, but a story set in such realistic places with realistic personalities should at least LOOK realistic. This story sends the wrong message: if you weigh more than one hundred and twenty pounds, you have no life and no one could possibly love you. The writing was good in spots, but I found it to be confusing with such rapid changes in points of view, many times without any warning. This book was a complete waste of reading time.
Rating:
Summary: 4 stars for the beginning,1 for the middle & 3 for the end
Review: Jemima J is different enough from Bridget Jones Diary that it stands alone and was very enjoyable and funny at the onset. Although both books are similar in that they are about single sad/funny working British young women who would really like boyfriends that's about where the similarities end. After our heroine starts to become what seems like a totally different character I started to lose interest in the book and that was a big disappoint. I had so enjoyed the beginning and where the book seemed to be heading that as it progressed I had trouble reading further.
While it is not predictable I do believe that it gets so unbelievable that any feeling for the characters we may have developed starts to go up in smoke. The secondary characters are well-written and a great deal of parts of the book are very good but without giving away the plot (which is very hard to do and get my point across in this review) I wish the author had stayed true to her original Jemima, the one we met at the beginning of the book and really liked.
Rating: 
Summary: Jemima J-An Inspiration to Many....
Review: Jane Green captures the spirit of the overweight woman with such grace in this novel. I am now a huge fan of this author, as she is able to get deep inside the horror of being a young, overweight woman dealing with the prejudices of a "thin" society. This book keeps you guessing, and it is impossible to put down. You will find yourself both cheering and crying for Jemima, who is an inspiration to the ugly ducklings of the world.....
Rating: 
Summary: Unrealistic ....but then again it is fiction!
Review: Jane Greene may not be the best author when it comes to literary styles and organization, but the book was really funny & very enjoyable. I could not put this book down. I read it instead of watching t.v. or going out. True, the book isn't very well researched ---I mean if you lose over 100 pounds you are going to to have stretch marks. Also, the plot involving the Californian hunk was very weak. Overall, this book was not meant to be over analyzed. It's in the "pink book" genre as I say. This book takes you away from reality and is a page turner. Enough said.
Rating:
Summary: I was glued to this book!
Review: This book was amazing! I read the book in a little over 24 hours and had such a hard time putting it down! It is kind of like a Cinderella story with a twist. Jemima reminds me a bit of myself and she was so easy to relate to. This book was so awesome! If you want a good book that makes you feel good and make you feel like you can take on the world, this is the book for you! I can't wait to read another book by Jane Green...
Rating:
Summary: A fun, light read. Just don't get caught up in the details.
Review: Here's my problem with Jemima J. They talk about her being really heavy (with four or more chins!), but then explain that she's 5'7" and her heaviest weight was 217. So she's not as grossly obese as they make her sound. Also, the writer flips from first to third person. Sometimes she's the all-seeing narrator, sometimes she sees through some minor character's eyes, and sometimes it's Jemima talking straight to the audience. It's not really troubling, unless you're a nit-picky English major. But it can be distracting, just the same. It needs to be said that Jemima J is a fun story that rises above these small flaws. Yes, it paints a picture of a very sad girl who struggles with her weight, but I don't think that it makes a statement about all overweight people. I don't think that it praises obsessive working out or starvation (the ways Jemima finally gets thin). Ultimately, the story is about being yourself and finding acceptance and happiness within. Jemima runs off to California to find love she thinks she's found in an internet chat room. She's super thin and even changes her name to JJ. But what she really finds is that all she wants and needs is back home in Kilburn, and with friends who have been there all along. It's a fun story with an almost too-perfect ending. It might not hold a ton of literary merit, but it's great entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: i laughed, i cried, and i got angry.....
Review: If you liked Mr. Maybe or Bookends, you will definetly like Jemima J. I felt like i was a shadow of the characters throughout the entire novel. Although, i do not like the way that Green implements that overweight people do not lead a happy life, and you must be skinny for everything to work out, although if you were to look further into the message, it doesn't matter how you look, it is how you perceive yourself, and how you want others to perceive you. If you want to be thin and that makes you happy great, but if you are overweight, outgoing and have the same effect on people as a skinny girl i find that wonderful! In this novel you get to experience what Jemima goes through in her everyday routine, until it is broken and she starts to become happy and encourages herself to get fit. She does loose the weight in a very short time span, but it is fiction right?
The pages flipped on by and I was able to read it in a day, plus it is christmas vacation for college students. I highly recommend this book as it takes you through the streets of London (Kilborn) and even to the west coast of the U.S. (Santa Monica)
Kudos to Jane Green!
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