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Alternate Beauty: A Novel
She couldn’t change the way the world looked at her, so she changed the world.…
Ronnie Tremayne is a big girl with big she wants to be a fashion designer. But as her model-thin mother never fails to remind her, in fashion, image is everything—and Ronnie is a size 28. When she learns that her job managing a plus-size boutique is in jeopardy because her weight is “disturbing” to the clientele, Ronnie loses control. After a late-night binge, she dozes off wishing for a world where fat is beautiful. When she awakens the next morning…it is.
Now the ideal woman, Ronnie is thrust into the spotlight. She attends the best parties. She has her mother’s approval. Her boss invests in her clothing line. And the men ! But as her appetite for life grows, Ronnie’s appetite for food shrinks. She soon becomes unrecognizable—inside and out. And while navigating the giddy highs and miserable lows of this so-called perfect world, Ronnie discovers what she should have known all it’s not the size of your body that matters, but the size of your heart.
Wise, witty, and compassionate, this stunning debut novel speaks to anyone who has ever engaged in the battle of the bulge—or the exasperatingly elusive pursuit of perfection.
Ronnie Tremayne is a big girl with big she wants to be a fashion designer. But as her model-thin mother never fails to remind her, in fashion, image is everything—and Ronnie is a size 28. When she learns that her job managing a plus-size boutique is in jeopardy because her weight is “disturbing” to the clientele, Ronnie loses control. After a late-night binge, she dozes off wishing for a world where fat is beautiful. When she awakens the next morning…it is.
Now the ideal woman, Ronnie is thrust into the spotlight. She attends the best parties. She has her mother’s approval. Her boss invests in her clothing line. And the men ! But as her appetite for life grows, Ronnie’s appetite for food shrinks. She soon becomes unrecognizable—inside and out. And while navigating the giddy highs and miserable lows of this so-called perfect world, Ronnie discovers what she should have known all it’s not the size of your body that matters, but the size of your heart.
Wise, witty, and compassionate, this stunning debut novel speaks to anyone who has ever engaged in the battle of the bulge—or the exasperatingly elusive pursuit of perfection.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 6, 2009
The tagline here is “What if you woke up in a world where big is beautiful?” Ok, interesting idea, and Veronica “Ronnie” Tremayne is just that lucky. She goes to sleep one night on the verge of losing her job at a clothing shop for larger women because she’s too big, to waking up in a world where she’s a total sex object. It’s weird and it takes her about, oh about a week, to get used to it, but then she completely loves it. What it does allow her to do is get really comfortable with who she is, and after that all of the using food to medicate her dissatisfaction disappears and, you guessed it, she loses a lot of weight. Typical fat girl becomes skinny girl story, but in a new venue.
In the end, Ronnie goes back to her world and discovers she’s been missing without a trace for a year. Her mother is thrilled she’s thin, and her boyfriend is just thrilled to see her period. She’s learned all sorts of lessons about self-acceptance and about how to deal with discrimination in the time that she’s been gone. And she’s thin. Woo.
I don’t have a lot of patience for this type of tale. I mean, I think I may have had my fill of the fat girl story. And they inevitably end with the fat girl getting skinny. If the fat girl could find self-acceptance without taking off her weight, well, things would be at least slightly new and charming. But the lesson seems to be that self acceptance comes in SMALL packages, even when the fat girl lives in the land of the fat. Her image of inner beauty doesn’t change even though she takes advantage of the situation – getting dates, meeting men, being desirable, letting people help her set up her new business, getting into fashion, etc. When she gets the boot in that world because she’s too THIN, do you think she’s depressed really? I don’t buy it. She’s not upset that the weight is gone, she’s upset that skinny is discriminated against, because discrimination is wrong. Who you are should be regardless of your size or your weight or your figure, but I think that these things are impossible to just separate from your self image. Is this making a statement about the world we live in? YES. And that’s good. But is it telling us anything we don’t know? No.
I skimmed a lot in the middle while Ronnie became successful and dumped her previous friends so that she could make the connections to the fashion world that she wanted/needed in order to truly launch herself. These are typical devices, and you can totally see the crash coming. So I skipped to the crash. Not that I’m a glutton for punishment, but the resolution is not far off. This is the lowest things get - and you thought you were low before, Ronnie.
In the end, Ronnie goes back to her world and discovers she’s been missing without a trace for a year. Her mother is thrilled she’s thin, and her boyfriend is just thrilled to see her period. She’s learned all sorts of lessons about self-acceptance and about how to deal with discrimination in the time that she’s been gone. And she’s thin. Woo.
I don’t have a lot of patience for this type of tale. I mean, I think I may have had my fill of the fat girl story. And they inevitably end with the fat girl getting skinny. If the fat girl could find self-acceptance without taking off her weight, well, things would be at least slightly new and charming. But the lesson seems to be that self acceptance comes in SMALL packages, even when the fat girl lives in the land of the fat. Her image of inner beauty doesn’t change even though she takes advantage of the situation – getting dates, meeting men, being desirable, letting people help her set up her new business, getting into fashion, etc. When she gets the boot in that world because she’s too THIN, do you think she’s depressed really? I don’t buy it. She’s not upset that the weight is gone, she’s upset that skinny is discriminated against, because discrimination is wrong. Who you are should be regardless of your size or your weight or your figure, but I think that these things are impossible to just separate from your self image. Is this making a statement about the world we live in? YES. And that’s good. But is it telling us anything we don’t know? No.
I skimmed a lot in the middle while Ronnie became successful and dumped her previous friends so that she could make the connections to the fashion world that she wanted/needed in order to truly launch herself. These are typical devices, and you can totally see the crash coming. So I skipped to the crash. Not that I’m a glutton for punishment, but the resolution is not far off. This is the lowest things get - and you thought you were low before, Ronnie.
June 10, 2009
I am very torn about the body image messages in this book. The basic premise is that a fat woman wakes up in a world in which being fat and increasing in size is a beauty goal. So suddenly she's fabulous, everyone wants her, she's successful and having sex all the time. All the while, though, she finds food less and less attractive. Whereas she had been fat because she was an emotional eater, now that she has everything she wants, she's stopped eating and becoming thinner.
This causes a strange struggle. Because she always wanted to be thin and now she is, so inside she's rejoicing. But now she again no longer fits societal desires and people start to reject her.
When the whole fantasy comes crashing down, she ends up back in the normal world at her new, small size, only now she appreciates the boyfriend she'd always had who always liked her in both realities anyway. And now she understands that real beauty is on the inside! But she gets to keep her beauty on the outside too. Because I guess if she didn't, then this wouldn't -really- have been a happy ending.
The language throughout is fat-negative. At first this made me mad at the author, but the story is first person, and I believe now that she was using the words that the main character herself would have used. So the fat-negativity is appropriate given that even when the main character is in a world that values fat, she personally doesn't.
It was weirdly aggravating. Like an attempt to do something nice and different and yay! fat people are people too! Except that it also seemed to miss.
This causes a strange struggle. Because she always wanted to be thin and now she is, so inside she's rejoicing. But now she again no longer fits societal desires and people start to reject her.
When the whole fantasy comes crashing down, she ends up back in the normal world at her new, small size, only now she appreciates the boyfriend she'd always had who always liked her in both realities anyway. And now she understands that real beauty is on the inside! But she gets to keep her beauty on the outside too. Because I guess if she didn't, then this wouldn't -really- have been a happy ending.
The language throughout is fat-negative. At first this made me mad at the author, but the story is first person, and I believe now that she was using the words that the main character herself would have used. So the fat-negativity is appropriate given that even when the main character is in a world that values fat, she personally doesn't.
It was weirdly aggravating. Like an attempt to do something nice and different and yay! fat people are people too! Except that it also seemed to miss.
October 9, 2012
I had some issues with this book. It's pretty light and reasonably entertaining to some extent, which I expected from a "chick lit" kind of book. But, well. I'm a fat woman, so while on one hand, I'm kind of the target audience for a book that involves a scenario where fat people are considered the pinnacle of beauty and thin people are ostracized for being thin, on the other hand, there were so many things that bothered me about the book. Thing the first was the idea that because the main character was fat, she obviously was obsessed about food and was a binge eater. I know this can be difficult for people to grasp, but *not all fat people are binge eaters*. Or obsessed with food. Actually, the vast majority of fat people eat roughly the same amount of food as non-fat people.
The second thing that bothered me was how the main character, once she was in an environment where binge eating was encouraged or acceptable and where her body type was considered to be very beautiful, which made it easier for her to love her body, stopped bingeing and therefore lost weight, fairly rapidly. The message there being, well, of course if you eat less you will lose weight. This is not necessarily the case- weight loss being much more complex than calories in, calories out- and even if it was the case for this person, it's kind of portrayed as being an overall solution for every person who is overweight. Loving your body does not necessarily equal weight loss.
The third issue was the oppressed turned oppressors in the alternate reality. I want my body type to be seen as acceptable to society at large (heh), but I don't see any reason why that should have to come at the expense of other people. I can't explain it any better than that, but it was very uncomfortable.
And finally, the thing that may have bothered me the most (aside from the binge eating thing) is that when Veronica comes back from the alternate reality, she's thin and she stays that way. It seemed to miss the whole point of being accepted for who you are and accepting yourself for who you are, not how you look.
So, in other words, interesting premise, but very flawed execution.
The second thing that bothered me was how the main character, once she was in an environment where binge eating was encouraged or acceptable and where her body type was considered to be very beautiful, which made it easier for her to love her body, stopped bingeing and therefore lost weight, fairly rapidly. The message there being, well, of course if you eat less you will lose weight. This is not necessarily the case- weight loss being much more complex than calories in, calories out- and even if it was the case for this person, it's kind of portrayed as being an overall solution for every person who is overweight. Loving your body does not necessarily equal weight loss.
The third issue was the oppressed turned oppressors in the alternate reality. I want my body type to be seen as acceptable to society at large (heh), but I don't see any reason why that should have to come at the expense of other people. I can't explain it any better than that, but it was very uncomfortable.
And finally, the thing that may have bothered me the most (aside from the binge eating thing) is that when Veronica comes back from the alternate reality, she's thin and she stays that way. It seemed to miss the whole point of being accepted for who you are and accepting yourself for who you are, not how you look.
So, in other words, interesting premise, but very flawed execution.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 16, 2010
This was the WORST book I have ever read and I’ve read some pretty crappy Sylvia Brown books but this book takes the cake. I ASSUMED Alternate Beauty, with its marketing blurbs about having a message for women of any size, would be inspirational and uplifting. I was sadly mistaken as the book was a train wreck that I can’t believe I bothered to read in its entirety.
It was cheesy, clichéd, poorly written, melodramatic, uninteresting and ridiculous. Every character was unlikable and there was even dialogue between the main character and her cat.
The main character, whose name I don't care enough to remember, ends up in an alternate universe where fat is the standard of beauty and she just happens to be the height of that standard. Through the writing it is clear Waggner does not find “fat” to be beautiful, though she is a larger women herself, and makes it seem she feels people are only fat because they overeat.
If you want an entertaining girly book I suggest Jennifer Weiner.
It was cheesy, clichéd, poorly written, melodramatic, uninteresting and ridiculous. Every character was unlikable and there was even dialogue between the main character and her cat.
The main character, whose name I don't care enough to remember, ends up in an alternate universe where fat is the standard of beauty and she just happens to be the height of that standard. Through the writing it is clear Waggner does not find “fat” to be beautiful, though she is a larger women herself, and makes it seem she feels people are only fat because they overeat.
If you want an entertaining girly book I suggest Jennifer Weiner.
September 21, 2007
Ever had a day where you didn't exactly feel comfortable with how you looked? Who hasn't? This book does a fabulous job with reminding us ladies about what REALLY matters... It's a little self-help, a little romance, a little fashion, a little bit of a chick-book, is set in beautiful and trendy Seattle, and it even has a somewhat surprising ending.
March 2, 2008
What if .... BIG was most beautiful?
December 29, 2008
Being a big girl myself - I really enjoyed this book. What if big really was beautiful?
June 16, 2021
Part romance, part sci-fi, part social commentary, this novel juggles its many balls with flair. The concept of find oneself in alternate realities has been explored in many novels; this one argues that getting what you wished for doesn’t make things any easier if internal problems aren’t resolved. Wherever you go, there you are…
The story takes us convincingly through our overweight protagonist’s inner dilemma as she struggles to rationalize and reconcile the different standards of beauty from her old reality and her new one. Veronica at times has a laissez-faire attitude towards the actual workings of her transport between these realities. She doesn’t know exactly how she traveled, make any real attempts to find out nor mention it to anyone, including a physicist who’s actually studying the concept of alternate realities.
Thus, the focus is unflinchingly focused on Ronnie’s efforts to fit in and take advantage of her fortunate altered circumstances and her clawing her way to a new and better sense of self worth.
This is a Bizarro world of epic proportions, tough insights and it ends on a bright note as the heroine gets the world she wants and the man she learns to appreciate.
The story takes us convincingly through our overweight protagonist’s inner dilemma as she struggles to rationalize and reconcile the different standards of beauty from her old reality and her new one. Veronica at times has a laissez-faire attitude towards the actual workings of her transport between these realities. She doesn’t know exactly how she traveled, make any real attempts to find out nor mention it to anyone, including a physicist who’s actually studying the concept of alternate realities.
Thus, the focus is unflinchingly focused on Ronnie’s efforts to fit in and take advantage of her fortunate altered circumstances and her clawing her way to a new and better sense of self worth.
This is a Bizarro world of epic proportions, tough insights and it ends on a bright note as the heroine gets the world she wants and the man she learns to appreciate.
October 28, 2022
This reads as a bad self-insert fan fiction where the poor obese heroine can't avoid all the nasty little skinny bitches who are, like, totes obsessed with her. I couldn't believe how bad it was. Let's normalise loving all women of all sizes and varieties, and not tearing anyone down to feel temporarily better.
September 27, 2023
light read
Not thanks stuff of Pulitzers, but definitely a light, easy-going read. It seems like a book for young teens, but still enjoyable.
Not thanks stuff of Pulitzers, but definitely a light, easy-going read. It seems like a book for young teens, but still enjoyable.
April 29, 2008
What is reality? Is it a tangible thing, the people, places, and things that are around us? Or is reality whatever we make it to be? I've always prescribed to the second theory, that you could change your reality by changing the way you look at life. What about an alternate reality? Is that simply other people looking at the world through different colored glasses, or an actual plain of existence different from the one we currently reside on? By reading the story of Veronica "Ronnie" Tremayne, the heroine of Andrea Rains Waggener's ALTERNATE BEAUTY, I discovered that it doesn't really matter one way or the other.
Ronnie is an overweight woman living in a world where women over the size of ten are looked down upon and ridiculed. You know the world I'm talking about-the one we're living in now. Ronnie, a size twenty-eight, has, in my opinion, a good life. She has a wonderful boyfriend, Gilbert, who, although not the smartest or most gregarious of men, has one wonderful thing going for him-he loves Ronnie for who she is, and her weight doesn't factor in to it. Ronnie also has a job at Luscious Landing Large Women's Clothing Boutique, where she's the manager. But over a lunch of-what else? Salad!-with her skinny mother, Ronnie discovers that the owner of the boutique, Cheryl, wants Ronnie to lose weight before she loses her job, because her overly-large size is disturbing some of their "smaller large" customers.
That night before bed, Ronnie makes a statement that will ultimately change her life. "Oprah's wrong. The key to happiness is living in a world where fat is beautiful." Thus begins Ronnie's trip into her alternate reality.
Suddenly, Ronnie's size twenty-eight is for the first time in her life an asset. This world Ronnie is in scorns thin women. The bigger the better, at least in this new reality, and for once, skinny women feel bad in her presence, and construction workers are whistling at her as she walks by. There's no Gilbert in this strange new world, but there are plenty of men who want to be with her, all nearly three-hundred-pounds of her, who can't get enough of her big, beautiful body.
Ronnie believes she's in heaven. For once, big is beautiful, and she has all the attention that she's ever wanted. Except now that she has what she wants, she can't seem to eat-and the glorious pounds that make her so desirable start dropping off. Now she's the object of disdain because she's losing weight instead of gaining it, and Ronnie begins to wonder if this reality is any better than the normal one.
Ms. Waggener has penned a fantasy romance that any woman, regardless of her size, will be able to appreciate. What woman doesn't have something about her body that she wishes she could change? It doesn't matter if you're a size eight or a size thirty, everyone has something that they don't like about themselves-or something that they fear others look down upon them for. ALTERNATE BEAUTY is a whimsical trip into the world of what-if, so settle in for an entertaining ride.
Ronnie is an overweight woman living in a world where women over the size of ten are looked down upon and ridiculed. You know the world I'm talking about-the one we're living in now. Ronnie, a size twenty-eight, has, in my opinion, a good life. She has a wonderful boyfriend, Gilbert, who, although not the smartest or most gregarious of men, has one wonderful thing going for him-he loves Ronnie for who she is, and her weight doesn't factor in to it. Ronnie also has a job at Luscious Landing Large Women's Clothing Boutique, where she's the manager. But over a lunch of-what else? Salad!-with her skinny mother, Ronnie discovers that the owner of the boutique, Cheryl, wants Ronnie to lose weight before she loses her job, because her overly-large size is disturbing some of their "smaller large" customers.
That night before bed, Ronnie makes a statement that will ultimately change her life. "Oprah's wrong. The key to happiness is living in a world where fat is beautiful." Thus begins Ronnie's trip into her alternate reality.
Suddenly, Ronnie's size twenty-eight is for the first time in her life an asset. This world Ronnie is in scorns thin women. The bigger the better, at least in this new reality, and for once, skinny women feel bad in her presence, and construction workers are whistling at her as she walks by. There's no Gilbert in this strange new world, but there are plenty of men who want to be with her, all nearly three-hundred-pounds of her, who can't get enough of her big, beautiful body.
Ronnie believes she's in heaven. For once, big is beautiful, and she has all the attention that she's ever wanted. Except now that she has what she wants, she can't seem to eat-and the glorious pounds that make her so desirable start dropping off. Now she's the object of disdain because she's losing weight instead of gaining it, and Ronnie begins to wonder if this reality is any better than the normal one.
Ms. Waggener has penned a fantasy romance that any woman, regardless of her size, will be able to appreciate. What woman doesn't have something about her body that she wishes she could change? It doesn't matter if you're a size eight or a size thirty, everyone has something that they don't like about themselves-or something that they fear others look down upon them for. ALTERNATE BEAUTY is a whimsical trip into the world of what-if, so settle in for an entertaining ride.
March 30, 2008
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise was very interesting, about a girl who wakes up in a world where big is beautiful, and people are on diets to gain weight, and dealing with her "sudden" beauty based on her size. Of course, she still has all her "thin-world" hangups but as she starts to worry lessa bout how she is perceived she starts to lose weight and blah, blah blah.
It's worth a read if you don't have anything else to do, and the idea is very interesting, but I wanted something more, and I wanted to like Ronnie.
It's worth a read if you don't have anything else to do, and the idea is very interesting, but I wanted something more, and I wanted to like Ronnie.
August 24, 2009
This wasn't my typical type of read. I just couldn't find the desire to read on. I found it a little to cliche and as you all say "chick lit" for me. If anyone reads it I would be interested to hear how it turned out.
July 5, 2012
It was a really interesting concept and I had a hard time at times wrapping my head around it because it's the opposite of all we know. It was quite funny to see skinny women put down and to read about all the ways women were trying to gain weight. I'd recommend it!
May 27, 2013
This is a refreshing story about a world where being large is considered the most beautiful way to be. I love reading about this world! Interesting plot development and character changes too. I want more books like this!
June 18, 2008
I loved the book though was a little disappointed how it ended. The important part was the message of self acceptance.
June 24, 2009
This book was quite interesting. It was unique in the fact that the world this lady lived in was ooposite of ours. Where fat was beautiful and thin was not in.
February 7, 2010
I had major problems with the premise of this book: A fat girl finds herself in a world where fat is beautiful. That would be fine in and of itself, but the plot resolution is seriously flawed.
September 8, 2012
I picked the book because I'm a not so small size of girl like Ronnie but, I'm sorry, I was disappointed. The plot seemed interesting but I found it boring. Life is not that depressed!!
April 21, 2014
Great story
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews