Waking Beauty

I disagree with the reviews saying this is a bad book. If you like books like Jane Green's Jemima J and Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed, you'll like this book too. This book is for anyone who thinks they are less than perfect. Whether you are too fat or too skinny or even just right... you will enjoy reading about Allison's journey from being fat and frumpy one day and a goddess the next. Many people (me included) wish that 'If only I could wake up tomorrow in the perfect body, my life would be perfect'. This is how the story starts. It's a wonderful book with a fairy tale twist and a beautiful ending. Don't make a mistake and pass this book up.

Heroine: Stout, then willowy At the ripe old age of 22, Allison Penny is already sick of life. Her alcoholic mother berates her at every possible chance. The young woman is barely making it as a cleaning lady. And she is rooming with a sex fiend who only serves to remind Allison that her own love life has always and will always be in the toilet because, in a word, Allison Penny is ugly. Well, two words. Not just ugly, but fat. But all that changes one morning when Allison miraculously awakens to find herself in a new body, one that transcends the supermodel class. Yet after all those years of being certain that a new appearance would be the answer to the pain in her heart, Allison-the-beauty discovers that perfection personified isn't necessarily all that it's cracked up to be. What worked for me: This was a very funny book that took a tongue-in-cheek look at the realities of what a person's appearance means in the world--especially a woman's. The choice of characters and settings were excellent, even if they weren't always fully developed. They really helped the reader to delve into the subject of a caste system based upon personal beauty or lack thereof. I felt that the author made it easy to relate to Allison, both before and after her "miracle". I fully understood the need for Allison-the-ugly to run away into fantasyland and daydream the way she did. And I have to admit there was a certain pleasure to riding along with Allison-the-beauty during her payback times, but the vendettas I enjoyed most weren't a direct result of her new attractiveness. The ly adverbs that popped up here and there kept catching my eye, but other than that I really enjoyed the writing style in this book. Some of the visuals that the author painted were just wonderful. Size-wise, prior to turning into a living Barbie doll, Allison was squat, flat, and flabby with unattractive features all the way around. But not only females suffered from beauty discrimination in this novel. Allison's guy pal Nathan was overlooked many times because he was merely average in appearance. What didn't work for me:     There were times when reading this book left me feeling downright depressed, but I don't want to give anything away so I can't tell you why. I would have liked to have had some concrete idea of why and how this change occurred in Allison. Overall:        A great book for the bubble bath or beach, but there is plenty of deeper thinking here about the nuances of the human psyche that would make it a terrific subject for a women's studies discussion group. Warning: there are some coarse words and some sexual scenarios, as well as weight loss, in this book. If you liked "Waking Beauty" you might also enjoy "Jemima J.", "Fat Chance", "Separation Anxiety", "The Way It Is", "Inappropriate Men", "Coffee and Kung Fu", "What a Girl Wants", "Getting Over It", "Bridget Jones's Diary", "Good in Bed", "Last Chance Saloon", and "Having It and Eat

Instead of a rags-to-riches Cinderella story in which a poor girl becomes a princess, Elyse Friedman gives us a beast-to-beauty story in which the altogether uncomely 22-year-old Allison Penny wakes up one morning to find she is suddenly beautiful - and instantly a whole new world of fortune, fame, and love is available to her. The story is complete with a wicked "stepmother" in her adoptive mother and "stepsister" in her roommate. As in some other stories with a similar premise, Allison's first reaction to her astonishing transformation is to take revenge against those who denied her love and friendship because of her previously unlovely appearance. But beyond that, does Allison eventually decide that it's what's inside that counts? What I like about this book is that it doesn't "grow" the character in that obvious direction. Elyse Friedman isn't trying to kid us that what's outside doesn't count...a lot. Allison learns something else. You may be more likely to enjoy this book if you consider yourself one of the beauty-challenged.

this is a fiercely funny book. It's not silly or frivolous, but it is incredibly funny, sharp and has lots of great twists and turns. Nothing is as you expect in WAKING BEAUTY, but you'll enjoy every minute of reading it. I was actually disappointed when i finished it because I wanted it to be longer.

This book is infinitely better than your average chick lit. Elyse Friedman is one of the sharpest, funniest, most observant writers I've read in a long time. The story of her heroine, Allison, could just be turned into a fairytale or wish-fullfillment fantasy, but it winds up being an extremely funny and edgy romp, laced with a lot of black humor and razor-sharp observations about men, women and society. Some of the scenes with Allison's evil roommate, Virginie, or the smoothly handsome suitor George (a Prince Charming who turns out to have some weird sexual proclivities) are worth the price of the book alone.This will definitely appeal to the Bridget Jones crowd, but it's Bridget Jones with a bite that Bridget never had, and it's far sexier and funnier. This is one of those rare novels that's really worth your money. Read it and enjoy.