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Losing It
Millie was at one time quite well known for various TV and radio appearances. However, she now has no money, a best friend with a better sex life than her, a daughter in Papua New Guinea and too much weight in places she really doesn't want it.
When she's asked to be the front woman for a new diet pill, she naively believes that all her troubles will be solved. She will have money, the weight will be gone, and maybe she'll get more sex.
If only life was really that easy. It doesn't take her long to realize it's going to take more than a diet pill to solve her never-ending woes...
When she's asked to be the front woman for a new diet pill, she naively believes that all her troubles will be solved. She will have money, the weight will be gone, and maybe she'll get more sex.
If only life was really that easy. It doesn't take her long to realize it's going to take more than a diet pill to solve her never-ending woes...
461 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2015
19 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
April 23, 2015
Losing it... I nearly lost the will to live, very rarely I give up on a book, but I had to with this one. Persevered for quite a few chapters hoping it would become the the "hilarious" & "laugh out loud" book it was promised to be in all the blurb. (Didn't even raise a smile) Wish I had read more reviews on it, before instead of after, as I may not have bothered with it at all, & so many of them said they had given up & abandoned it.
July 25, 2015
Nothing funny about it. I had to give up because Millie is one of those awful characters to whom things happen and who are so weak that they can't stick up for themselves at any level, even to the extent of not being able to correct someone who persistently gets her name wrong. "Avoid at all costs" would be my advice.
dnf
February 21, 2017I read the first chapter... and I cannot force myself to try more. The heroine Millie didn't seem like my kind of a heroine and well, I simply do not want to read about her.
March 14, 2015
Read half of it, waiting for it to get funny and then gave up. Usually read a book a week or less, still trying to get through this ages after starting it and had to abandon.
March 31, 2015
I'm with Chris and Jill. Wanted to romp through this, laughing along with the characters... I just felt sad... Dull!
June 7, 2015
Awful... just awful
August 10, 2015
Well this has been a long time coming, one of the Countries best loved Comedienne’s has finally written a debut novel, and this has been worth the wait.
Losing It is a very easy to ready novel that you will find hard to leave alone, it moves along at an easy pace and is packed with laugh out loud moments.
Set in London and the central character Millie who has reached a mid-life crisis a divorcee now facing losing her home, short of money and rapidly short of patience and add to this depressed. Millie was a successful writer as an agony aunt for a Women’s magazine but her star has waned in recent times and now Millie is struggling to cope with her world that seems to crashing all around her, the only thing on the ‘up’ is her weight and here the story really starts.
Out of the blue, Millie has been approached to become the face of a new diet pill and all the fame and more importantly fortune that goes along with this. There is of course one drawback (as there always is) Millie has to lose three stone in three months.
It is impossible not to like Millie and even some of her ‘friends’ as you will discover when you read Losing It. Millie decides to ask for an advance ahead of the weight loss and heads off to foreign shores to visit Mary, her daughter. While there she hopes to pick up a rather nasty illness that will make her weight loss easier if that is at possible. Add to the plot loan sharks who are after their money and various hideous weight loss programmes such as colonic irrigation, laxatives and various other dubious ideas.
When you read Losing It there is a chance that you will lose it, this reviewer read this while in hospital having a major colon procedure so it is at times really very funny and has so many great moments that many will relate to. Though how many will admit to colonic irrigation as an aid to weight loss that point I think we will gloss over quickly.
For a debut novel Lederer has written a charming, at times moving but most memorable a very funny book that is worth visiting.
RECOMMENDED
Losing It is a very easy to ready novel that you will find hard to leave alone, it moves along at an easy pace and is packed with laugh out loud moments.
Set in London and the central character Millie who has reached a mid-life crisis a divorcee now facing losing her home, short of money and rapidly short of patience and add to this depressed. Millie was a successful writer as an agony aunt for a Women’s magazine but her star has waned in recent times and now Millie is struggling to cope with her world that seems to crashing all around her, the only thing on the ‘up’ is her weight and here the story really starts.
Out of the blue, Millie has been approached to become the face of a new diet pill and all the fame and more importantly fortune that goes along with this. There is of course one drawback (as there always is) Millie has to lose three stone in three months.
It is impossible not to like Millie and even some of her ‘friends’ as you will discover when you read Losing It. Millie decides to ask for an advance ahead of the weight loss and heads off to foreign shores to visit Mary, her daughter. While there she hopes to pick up a rather nasty illness that will make her weight loss easier if that is at possible. Add to the plot loan sharks who are after their money and various hideous weight loss programmes such as colonic irrigation, laxatives and various other dubious ideas.
When you read Losing It there is a chance that you will lose it, this reviewer read this while in hospital having a major colon procedure so it is at times really very funny and has so many great moments that many will relate to. Though how many will admit to colonic irrigation as an aid to weight loss that point I think we will gloss over quickly.
For a debut novel Lederer has written a charming, at times moving but most memorable a very funny book that is worth visiting.
RECOMMENDED
May 14, 2015
Had to abandon this. Kept waiting for the laugh out loud funny (which I needed at time of reading) and it never happened. What kept me going was the glowing review from Stephen Fry who said it was 'desperately funny'. Got to page 258 then did an obligatory skim to the end.
Writing very choppy, with declarative sentences, one after the other. Meant to be a deadpan style, I guess. But it just didn't work, the way, say Brigitte Jones Diary did.
Wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about the main character, Millie. Was she empty-headed, smart, or what. It bounced around, never really settling into a believeable character. She swallowed the Feng Shui thing whole, plus read self help books and The Secret without questioning, yet was meant to be a fairly successful writer and adept poet. Nobody else in the book made up for Millie's lack, either.
Writing very choppy, with declarative sentences, one after the other. Meant to be a deadpan style, I guess. But it just didn't work, the way, say Brigitte Jones Diary did.
Wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about the main character, Millie. Was she empty-headed, smart, or what. It bounced around, never really settling into a believeable character. She swallowed the Feng Shui thing whole, plus read self help books and The Secret without questioning, yet was meant to be a fairly successful writer and adept poet. Nobody else in the book made up for Millie's lack, either.
January 1, 2016
I read this book almost one year ago and still I can't forget it, which usually is a good sign, but not in this case. It confused the hell out of me, and the humour was on the border of absurd and it felt much too pushy and much too forced, and - in fact - it wasn't funny at all. It seemed the author has just tried too much and, unfortunately, failed. I couldn't conect with the characters and well, I kept reading hoping that it's going to turn into something different, something worth my time. Sadly, not. The writing style with its choppy, short sentences was probably meant to be like this, on the modern side, a deadpan style, but It. Just. Didn't. Work. Shame - had great hopes about this one.
January 1, 2015
Millie was at one time quite well known for various TV and radio appearances. However, she now has no money,a best friend with a better sex life than her, a daughter in Papua New Guinea and too much weight in places she really dosen't want.
When she's asked to be the front woman for a new diet pill, she naively believes that all her troubles will be solved. She'll have money, the weight will be gone, and maybe she'll get more sex.
If only life was that easy. It doesn't take Milly long to realize it's going to take more than a diet pill to solve her never-ending woes.
The author Helen Lederer of Losing It is best known for her role as the dippy Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous.
When she's asked to be the front woman for a new diet pill, she naively believes that all her troubles will be solved. She'll have money, the weight will be gone, and maybe she'll get more sex.
If only life was that easy. It doesn't take Milly long to realize it's going to take more than a diet pill to solve her never-ending woes.
The author Helen Lederer of Losing It is best known for her role as the dippy Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous.
February 8, 2017
Utterly awful. Got as far as page 75 & gave up. Not one of the characters, including the heroine was the least bit likeable & neither was the book the slightest bit amusing. I think Stephen Fry must have been paid a lot to write on the front that he found it 'Desperately funny' because it SO isn't. Must be very annoying to writers with real talent who can't get published to see this get to print just because the author is moderately famous & has some comedians for friends. Glad I only paid 50p for it from a charity shop!
March 21, 2015
I can't say I enjoyed this. It was our book club choice. I didn't find it funny and didn't relate to the characters. I felt the same about Bridget Jones Diary. I persevered in the hope it would get better but unfortunately it didn't
April 16, 2015
Sorry, didn't find it funny at all, and didn't relate to any of the characters. Must just be me....
November 12, 2016
Very disappointing!! I have a good sense of humour but this book didn't even make me smirk. It was a book that was trying too hard to be witty and funny!
My advice - don't bother!! ☹️
My advice - don't bother!! ☹️
July 21, 2017
Not a great book. I found the main character annoying and the storyline a bit boring but quite an easy read.
February 17, 2015
Losing It centres around Millie and because it is very much ALL about her – she can be pretty self-absorbed especially at the beginning of the novel – Millie dominates the book. She’s such a great character that some of the others have a hard time asserting themselves and were more of a chorus to Millie’s daily dramas. It would have been easy for Millie to become a comedic monster over the course of the novel but Helen avoids that by putting the joke as much, if not mostly, on Millie herself. Millie may sometimes be biting and very close to the mark in her observations of others but she is also highly critical of herself. Her own worst enemy, if you like. This leads to Millie getting herself embroiled in painfully humiliating situations. But each time she fails or suffers a setback, she never gives up on life or gives up trying, including at those things which she perhaps shouldn’t have been trying in the first place.
I hope I wouldn’t do half the things that Millie does but I couldn’t help rooting for her and hoping that she would come through everything with a modicum of dignity left intact. She is desperate, behaves desperately but she is also desperately funny. And oh, so very flawed and human. Her thoughts run in every direction and we’re happily privy to them, while her friends and family and business contacts thankfully only get the highlights. And it’s this that makes Losing It so funny and why it worked so well for me. I enjoyed hearing the unedited version of someone’s commentary on their life and everyone in it.
Losing It made me laugh. Big belly laughs. It made me laugh at Millie, at myself and at the crazy things we put ourselves through, and the stupid pressures to which we fall subject. But it also made me think about those very same things: what we sometimes do to get a job, a date, a drink, or simply some notice, or validation. Cloaked in humour and very visual jokes, Helen makes some acute observations about a woman of a certain age in today’s society. Learning to laugh about that might just be the best way of dealing with it all when it spirals out of control and it could help us become more accepting of ourselves and our lives, so we can concentrate on what’s actually important.
I hope I wouldn’t do half the things that Millie does but I couldn’t help rooting for her and hoping that she would come through everything with a modicum of dignity left intact. She is desperate, behaves desperately but she is also desperately funny. And oh, so very flawed and human. Her thoughts run in every direction and we’re happily privy to them, while her friends and family and business contacts thankfully only get the highlights. And it’s this that makes Losing It so funny and why it worked so well for me. I enjoyed hearing the unedited version of someone’s commentary on their life and everyone in it.
Losing It made me laugh. Big belly laughs. It made me laugh at Millie, at myself and at the crazy things we put ourselves through, and the stupid pressures to which we fall subject. But it also made me think about those very same things: what we sometimes do to get a job, a date, a drink, or simply some notice, or validation. Cloaked in humour and very visual jokes, Helen makes some acute observations about a woman of a certain age in today’s society. Learning to laugh about that might just be the best way of dealing with it all when it spirals out of control and it could help us become more accepting of ourselves and our lives, so we can concentrate on what’s actually important.
November 19, 2015
I fear the celebrity who takes to writing books: please don’t let this be a painful exercise in ego. So I was wary of Losing It, the debut novel from actress Helen Lederer, who is well-loved for her role of dippy Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous. I shouldn’t have worried. Lederer is hardly a stranger to the typewriter, having an extensive portfolio of her own comedy material already notching up her word count. And it shows in Losing It.
The story of Millie, a fifty-something, one-time QVC starlet, who agrees to be the front woman of a new diet pill in a bid to lose weight, pay off her debts, and get a sex life is packed full of laughs. Every other line of this sharp mid-lit novel is a joke, and Millie’s riotous adventures gallop along faster than the personal trainer that’s been forced upon her. From randy second-best friends with testosterone implants, to dodgy next door neighbours with a bad line in yoga pants and erect sundials, the cast of characters in this book are as lovable as they are hysterical.
A triumph of observational wit, Lederer’s style is reminiscent of the late Sue Townsend. As an author her fearless confrontation of life’s humiliations had me crying with laughter and routing for Millie. And what a bloody great delight to read a funny, fast-paced novel, where the heroine is a fifty-something woman who, shock, horror, and gasp, is interested in sex. (At least she thinks she is). When I grow up I want to be Millie. Minus the explosive food poisoning incident.
The story of Millie, a fifty-something, one-time QVC starlet, who agrees to be the front woman of a new diet pill in a bid to lose weight, pay off her debts, and get a sex life is packed full of laughs. Every other line of this sharp mid-lit novel is a joke, and Millie’s riotous adventures gallop along faster than the personal trainer that’s been forced upon her. From randy second-best friends with testosterone implants, to dodgy next door neighbours with a bad line in yoga pants and erect sundials, the cast of characters in this book are as lovable as they are hysterical.
A triumph of observational wit, Lederer’s style is reminiscent of the late Sue Townsend. As an author her fearless confrontation of life’s humiliations had me crying with laughter and routing for Millie. And what a bloody great delight to read a funny, fast-paced novel, where the heroine is a fifty-something woman who, shock, horror, and gasp, is interested in sex. (At least she thinks she is). When I grow up I want to be Millie. Minus the explosive food poisoning incident.
July 26, 2018
I managed to finish this in the hope it would all come together in some great reveal at the end to reward the effort I made ploughing through it.
None of the characters are very likeable and make decisions and choices which make no sense. It's written in a sneery tone which no character escapes meaning everyone is ridiculed and there is no one for the reader to identify with.
In the Quarter and A at the end Lederer says the story was based on the experiences of a friend recruited to front a weight loss product. This could have been a very interesting plot but instead it reads like a revenge story. Lederer knows who she has cast from real life in each role and seems determined to settle some scores. I hope the book achieved that for her at least because it hasn't achieved much else.
None of the characters are very likeable and make decisions and choices which make no sense. It's written in a sneery tone which no character escapes meaning everyone is ridiculed and there is no one for the reader to identify with.
In the Quarter and A at the end Lederer says the story was based on the experiences of a friend recruited to front a weight loss product. This could have been a very interesting plot but instead it reads like a revenge story. Lederer knows who she has cast from real life in each role and seems determined to settle some scores. I hope the book achieved that for her at least because it hasn't achieved much else.
March 22, 2015
Millie’s battle to shift the pounds and resist the Toblerone is full of frequent pitfalls and Helen Lederer delivers laughs a-plenty as we follow Millie from throws of despair to her weight loss highs.
Millie’s support network of friends and family are a joy to read about too. Often brutally honest in their observations they can be seen dragging Millie to feng shui guru’s, colonic irrigation clinics and support meetings: each of which they genuinely believe will be of some assistance.
Not my normal choice of read but lots of fun
Millie’s support network of friends and family are a joy to read about too. Often brutally honest in their observations they can be seen dragging Millie to feng shui guru’s, colonic irrigation clinics and support meetings: each of which they genuinely believe will be of some assistance.
Not my normal choice of read but lots of fun
December 31, 2015
I found this book incredibly confusing at the start and that overall it was an absurd story. I will admit I did enjoy the second half of this more than the first, but really think it could have been a lot better. If you want something that is trying its hardest to be funny but not quite managing it, then you may have better luck. Was also shocked that in a book that deals with weight loss in various forms, including some crash dieting, and close to starvation type techniques there wasn't any form of proper health impact on the main character at all these methods.
April 6, 2016
I really enjoyed this, which I wasn't sure I would. It was silly, but in a good way. I personally found the humour dry rather than laugh-out-loud, but highly enjoyable in any case. There were some great characters, especially the main character Millie, who in some ways was quite selfish and obnoxious but somehow likeable despite it. The one thing that annoyed me was the constant use of 'complimentary' for 'complementary'. But that's a pretty small issue really!
November 27, 2018
This book didn't appeal to me at all. Didn't seem to have a proper plot which just felt every where and parts of this book just seemed to be shoved in for no point at all. All the characters felt the same to me and we're all annoying and had barely any good qualities. Oops. Not much else I can say on this one.
November 27, 2018
I hated this book. I finished it so I could be sure that the whole book was awful. It was.
The heroine is nasty, dishonest, unreliable and completely lacking any maturity.
The plot is ridiculous, including the random trip to Papua New Guinea.
I’m so glad I’ve finished this book, and I’m able to warn people not to bother reading it.
The heroine is nasty, dishonest, unreliable and completely lacking any maturity.
The plot is ridiculous, including the random trip to Papua New Guinea.
I’m so glad I’ve finished this book, and I’m able to warn people not to bother reading it.
April 6, 2015
Very amusing throughout, I can really identify with Millie, by she does appear very gullible and doesn't think in any depth about anything. This I found annoying and unbelievable at times, but as I liked the character , it didn't stop me enjoying the book very much, overall.
May 16, 2017
I rarely read novels but was after an audiobook that was read by the actual author. Although it was somewhat silly at times, I think that was the point and I found Millie's antics and observations all rather amusing. I particularly enjoyed Helen Lederer's reading of her novel.
November 10, 2016
I didn't lose any socks or split any sides, but I smiled a lot. Not sure I'd want to be trapped in a lift with Millie, but I enjoyed the story. It's a bit silly but good fun.
January 18, 2017
English chick lit. Fun rubbish
May 2, 2017
Funny story about a woman's continual battle with loosing weight and her love of food!
August 13, 2017
Truly awful.
August 24, 2017
Laugh out loud in parts but could have been 50 pages shorter.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews