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Women's Fiction
Jemima J : A Novel About Ugly Ducklings and Swans

Jemima J : A Novel About Ugly Ducklings and Swans

List Price: $11.95
Your Price: $9.56
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Inspiration to an Overweight Reader!!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Green's novel. Jemima reminds me so much of myself. There were many times in the novel when I was exasperated by the familiarity of her emotions and I actually had to put the book down and squeal with agreement or exhilaration for that matter.

I have been on both sides of the weight issue. I gained the freshman 15 (or more like 25) in college even though I was tipping the scales at 190 before I even began. I was miserable and I finally decided during my freshman spring semester that I had to get the weight off. I thought that I had to get it off in order for me to be happy. So I restricted my calorie intake (though not to extremes like Jemima) and I exercised for at least an hour and a half each day and within 5 months I had lost 65 lbs and I looked great!

Now looking back on it I loved the way that I looked yet during that time I was extremely self conscious and (like Jemima) the transition to becoming a thin person was not so easy emotionally. I was still stuck in my old fat person mindframe. Underneath I did not think I was worthy to have a boyfriend or exude any sort of real confidence. And being thin was not the answerall to my problems. Two years later, I ended up gaining the weight back and still have not lost it yet. But when I think back I am so angry that I did not take pictures of skinny me because back then I didnt feel beautiful and thin. But I was! Ahh the mind the mind. How it does play tricks on you.

But Jemima did what I couldnt do! She grew and she learned to love herself. I am not saying that her development was impeccable. No one should eat that way. Even though she is an inspiration to me, I would never follow her nutritional examples. But she has spurned me to use exercise to my advantage again. And maybe, just maybe I will be as lucky as she became with her union with Ben. But I am not much on fairy tales. Personally, I know that I have to work things out for myself because happiness is really not measured by what size you are but by how you comfortable you are with your emotional self and yes your physical image. And that does not mean that you have to be slim-just comfortable with your physical image. Jemima J is fiction and should be treated as such. I'd advise anyone fond of literature to give it a read!

Michelle (The wanna be writer with a serious writer's block)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Looking for love in all the wrong ways and places
Review: Jemima J. speaks for many big, beautiful woman who feel that the need to slim and beauty to be accepted in world. And like many women, she thinks the finds love through the Internet. Thinking with her heart and not with her heart. She goes on crash course of diet and excercise in order to look like woman she has placed in Brad's mind. It is only when she goes to visit him in Los Angeles when she find out that being used a "trophy" when the real woman he loves looks the way she did before transition. This book does tell the story how a person should first love oneself and not worry about pleasing or wondering what other people think about them.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WHY DID I WASTE MY TIME READING THIS!?
Review: If you are interested in reading an unrealistic story about a poor fat girl who suddenly becomes thin and thus, happy, ...well, this book would still be terrible. I'm just glad i checked it out of the library and didn't waste money buying it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Enjoyable read, but mixed messages
Review: I did enjoy this book--it was a funny, quick read, with insights into the modern, technology-obsessed world we live in. The book has much to say about what it's like to be overweight in our culture. What was confusing, however, were the messages the book sends about weight loss. First of all, that it's possible to lose 100+ pounds in 3 months. Yes, it's possible--but we all know that it is certainly not healthy. There were hints at this, but they were not explored at all. The book depicts LA as being a shallow, looks-obsessed culture, which might be true. I like the fact that Jemima settles into being a voluptuous woman at the end, but it was almost an afterthought. And yes, the romantic part of me was satisfied that she gets the man in the end...but what does this say about our obsession with weight? As one reviewer pointed out, what if she had not had a beautiful face?

This book was more realistic than Bridget Jones in many ways, because Bridget wasn't really overweight--she just thought she was. I do think that She's Come Undone is much better than Jemima J...but because I like to read British authors, I enjoyed Jemima J anyway.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great holiday read!
Review: This is a third book by Jane Green for me and I loved them all. I am now looking forward to Straight Talking, Jane's first novel. JJ is so much like many of us and if she can do it so can we!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Awful.
Review: If you want to read a hilarious book about an English woman looking for love, read either of the Bridget Jones books. If you want to read a realistic and moving story of a fat girl who turns her life around, read "She's Come Undone." If you want to read a novel that's not funny; that's not clever or well-written; that has undeveloped, shallow characters (including the title character); that uses unnecessary and annoying shifts in point of view; and that is, overall, a complete waste of time, read this. With those expectations, you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Left it at the beach
Review: I bought this as a vacation read, forced myself to finish it, and deliberately left it behind when I went home. Although a lot of the details and scenes are funny, the plot is cartoonish (at best), and the narrative voice, which switches back and forth between first person and omniscent, gets annoying after the first couple of chapters. This book should have gone straight to paperback and onto the racks at airport bookstores.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I will not read this author AGAIN!
Review: Instead of saying that this is a novel about "ugly ducklings and swans" why don't they just say "this is a novel about fat people and skinny people?" Jane Green has committed a major blunder for womankind with the writing of this book. The plot is stupid: fat girl falls in love with hot guy..loses weight so he (according to her) will love her....etc. etc. (don't want to give away the whole story...) Yes, I read it very quickly, but only because I wanted to see what stupid thing would happen next. (And believe me, stupid things run RAMPANT in this story).

This story thrives on the principle that you need to be skinny & beautiful in order to have friends, boyfriends, a good job, a sex life, etc. This is not how the world works. I am offended that a woman would write such a novel like this.

Yeah, it's just a story, but why write something so unrealistic that it just winds up sounding stupid?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Wonderful and Enjoyable Read
Review: First, I do not agree with some of the reviews written. Why is it the individuals feel that a novel must teach all the appropriate lessons to be a good work of fiction. For example: She went on a crash diet but the book did not show her getting sick. This isn't a book on the ill effects of dieting and therefore does have to set an example for all woman that crash dieting can be harmful. This is one woman's story, be it the best way or not.

Second, I enjoyed the style in which this novel was written. It was creative and interesting. Just because it is not the cookie cutter approach many authors take in laying out a story does not make it bad. I enjoyed it.

Now for the story, I thought it was very interesting to see the struggle of a woman who is lonely and unhappy and how she changes her life. The struggles and situations she encounters with her weight and then her weight loss are funny and touching. She does realize that just because she is thin does not necessary make her happy or make her feel any less alone. I thought the whole book was fast paced and I ended up reading in a day and a half. I really enjoyed the excitement of the ending even though it finishs quickly.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I am not sure what I think.
Review: If you do want to read this book you may not want to read my review until after because I have given away a few plot developments in the following lines.

I am in a book buying frenzy and after having read the blurb on the back cover, I vowed to myself that I would only walk away with this book if the author was able to arrest my attention in the first 3 sentences. Obviously, she did as I am now sitting here writing a review. I am not sure how I felt about this book. I agree with A. Bowers in that at times there seemed to be some kind of Fat = Nice Person / Thin = Horrible Person trend happening. On the other hand, I thought that Geraldine wasn't a Thin = Horrible Person. She was never mean or insensitive to Jemima or JJ, she just hadn't got to know her properly which I felt wasn't to do with Jemima's weight rather that she was more preoccupied with her own world, as she continues to be even once JJ appears.

I do feel that the issue of how Jemima lost all her weight was not dealt with as responsibly as it could have been. The whole weight-loss period seemed to go by so fast and all of a sudden she was below her goal weight, she had become an exercise-junkie and was shunning food. There was one mention of her trainer being concerned with how fast she was losing weight and Jemima herself talks about skipping meals and eating sparingly, however, considering the seriousness of this issue I felt the author had a responsibility to treat it as such. It seemed very dismissive and in this, almost as if she was condoning such measures.

I don't agree that Ben falls in love with JJ. I felt that it is suggested [subtley] that he has fallen in love with Jemima. I think A. Bowers, and myself for that matter, may have felt better about their union if Ben's feelings had been explored a little further. It is obvious that he has an attachment to Jemima. (He goes to her first during all the job-changeover drama, for example.) But I didn't really feel entirely comfortable with the ending because, as it has already been pointed out, it does seem that he only admits to his love when he realises that Jemima is now JJ. It made me uncomfortable. But then, it is the way of the world; physical attraction is an important part of the Love Equation.

But don't let my critique deter you from reading the book. I think I did enjoy it in some ways as I coulnd't put it down. I stayed up until the early hours desperately reading to the end to find out if Jemima would get her man. I am a romantic at heart and I let myself be caught up in what A. Bowers calls the "Cinderella" side of the tale. But it did leave me feeling a little uneasy.

I would like to say, "Thank you!" to Jane Green though. I found the first few chapters were something that I could really relate to and I think that, despite the other issues I and other reviewers seem to have been raising, that the first few chapters will ring very true for many readers.


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