What a great, fun read this was! I was laughing out loud in the first few pages and never stopped. First time author Gitty Daneshvari is a very funny writer! Anna Norton is 'that kid' in school. You know - ostracized because she's the smart one, but with greasy hair, bad skin, uncool clothes and also overweight (by quite a bit). Her family is also more than a little bit nuts. After university Anna decides to make a break for it and move to New York where no one knows her.The only job she can find is with a private caterer. The owner - Janice - turns out to be - in Anna's words her FG (Fairy Godmother). Janice herself is a self described FF (Former Fatty). With her help Anna changes. Then she meets Ben - and falls madly in love. The problem is that so does every woman that meets him. So Anna decides to make him over, well make him down. Make him so no other woman will want him. I won't go any further into the plot, but things don't go quite as planned..... Populated with laugh out loud characters, dialogue and situations, Daneshvari has penned a chick lit book that will have you giggling on the couch until you turn the last page. The Makedown is a great rainy day read.

Rating: 4.5 "The Makedown" begins with memories of Anna Norton's life as an overweight, geeky, friendless teen and tales of her eccentric family. Anna decides to take drastic measures to change her fate and moves from her small town in Ohio to New York City. There she begins working in a catering business, where her boss becomes a personal mentor and health coach, forcing her to get in shape and helping her shed all her extra fat. Though not as glamorous or good-looking as the other women of Manhattan, Anna begins to gain some confidence and manages to attract the attention of a very handsome bachelor named Ben. Unfortunately, Anna is not the only one who admires Ben's good looks and she finds herself feeling insecure and jealous as other women constantly flirt with her boyfriend. One day Anna devises a plan to make Ben less attractive and therefore less competition for his attention - hence the makedown. While I have to admit the book's plot sounds a little ridiculous, the execution is really well done and this book turned out to be even better than I thought! I love Gitty Daneshvari's writing style and her flawless choice of words. I also loved the humor in every situation, especially Anna's semi-delusional mother, whose personality merits another book all about her! Throughout the beginning part of the book, I felt badly for Anna and the way the other kids tormented her. I really sympathized with her and wanted things to improve. Then once she lost the weight, I was relieved that she didn't magically transform into a beauty queen or become conceited. It was very realistic that Anna's insecurities did not disappear and dating the epitome of male perfection would inevitably bring the insecurities to the surface. Surprisingly enough, even when Anna was fattening Ben up and putting Nair in his shampoo, I still loved her as a character. I thought Ben was way too stuck-up and in some ways deserved to see how it felt to be less than god-like in appearance. Of course the makedown doesn't go as planned and with time, Anna learns her lesson and is a better person because of her experiences. My only complaint is that I wish the book didn't fast forward in the end because I would have loved to see what happened in between but I did think it was a good ending. This book was humorous and even witty at points, and certainly a lot of fun. http://bookopolis.blogspot.com

I love chick lit and I am quite aware that, for the most part, chick lit, although quite entertaining is not necessarily a high art form! Nonethless, I love the genre. So, I was quite excited when I read the back cover for The Makedown. The first words...."Anna Norton used to be fat"....captured me and I definitely needed to read this book. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was far less interesting and downright nasty at times. On the opening page you find "....In these years, I was notable only for my proclivity to answer teachers' questions with long and pedantic responses".... WHAT? I hated, hated the way this author writes. While the storyline might have been one of interest to me (in some parts), I cringed at the writing. I was never certain if the author was using big and fancy words as some sort of "sarcastic" look at his own plotline or if he really thought that he was adding some kind of literary penchang to his book. Either way - it did not work for me. This book is 322 pages and I felt every page of it. The storyline could have been clever - a former fat girl (still a fatty inside her own head) decides to "convert" her perfect boyfriend into a guy no other girl will steal away from her. Except that here again, Anna is just plain mean and horrible. She treats her boyfriend horribly and in between her fits of "i am not worthy" she is an absolute shrew. So, nope, this book did not work for me in any aspect whatsoever!!!! Is there a fancier word for YUCK????