Synopses & Reviews
The diet revolution is here. And it’s armed. Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. Or mocked. Or worse. With her job answering fan mail for a popular teen girls’ magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. Only then can her true life as a thin person finally begin.
Then, when a mysterious woman starts following her, Plum finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into an underground community of women who live life on their own terms. There Plum agrees to a series of challenges that force her to deal with her past, her doubts, and the real costs of becoming “beautiful.” At the same time, a dangerous guerrilla group called “Jennifer” begins to terrorize a world that mistreats women, and as Plum grapples with her personal struggles, she becomes entangled in a sinister plot. The consequences are explosive.
Dietland is a bold, original, and funny debut novel that takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight loss obsession—from the inside out, and with fists flying.
Review
June 2015 Indie Next Pick An Amazon Best Book of May 2015
A Publishers Marketplace Buzz Book
“Walker’s first novel leaves chick lit in the pixie dust, treading the rougher terrain of radical critique and shadowy conspiracies — territory closer to Rachel Kushner than Helen Fielding.”—New York Magazine, One of Vulture's "8 Books You Need to Read This May"
“Plum Kettle, a ghostwriter for a popular teen mag, is lured into a subversive sisterhood in this riotous first novel. Finally, the feminist murder mystery/makeover story we’ve been waiting for.”—O, The Oprah Magazine, One of "10 Titles to Pick Up Now"
"Read [Dietland] not only because it’s smart and timely, but because it’s heartbreaking and tragic and very very comic (as long as you like your laughs dark) and because it will guarantee that you never look at a lipstick or a pair of stilettos or a bathroom scale the same way again. Sarai Walker is some kind of twisted sister. And of course I mean that as the highest possible compliment."—Sara Nelson, Amazon Editors' Top Picks for the Best Books of May
"This novel is like a roller coaster. Before you know it, you’re racing through an edgy and exciting mix of mystery, crime, and social critique of gender and beauty standards at breakneck speed. Vivid characters and sometimes surprising acts of violence make the story pop." —Library Journal, starred
“Through her protagonist, debut novelist Walker gives a plaintive yet powerful voice to anyone who has struggled with body image, feelings of marginalization, and sexual manipulation. Her robust satire also vibrantly redefines what it means to be a woman in contemporary society.” —Booklist "Hilarious, surreal, and bracingly original, Walker's ambitious debut avoids moralistic traps to achieve something rarer: a genuinely subversive novel that's also serious fun...Part Fight Club, part feminist manifesto, an offbeat and genre-bending novel that aims high—and delivers." —Kirkus, starred
"Sarai Walker has written a call to arms. Devious, subversive, delightful, Dietland is a SCUM Manifesto set to a pop music beat and Plum Kettle is a feminist hero for the modern age.”—Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones
"Sarai Walker's audacious, hilarious-yet surprisingly touching-novel begins by spoofing the weightloss industry and moves on to a devastating fantasy in which an avenger known as 'Jennifer' targets men who prey on women. Through it all marches Plum, a fat woman who learns to love herself as she is, and whom I loved at all stages of her education. Keenly intelligent, daring, and original, Dietland has something important to say to us all."—Alice Mattison, author of When We Argued All Night and The Book Borrower
"The first rule of Dietland is you should definitely talk about Dietland. And I suspect you’ll want to. Gather your book clubs, gather all the Jennifers you know! At first you’ll think you’re reading a familiar story: a woman who works at a women’s magazine tries to lose weight. And then POW! Dietland lithely moves in ways and to places you won’t expect. Sarai Walker has a wonderfully curious mind, and this is an impressive, ambitious first novel.”—Gabrielle Zevin, bestselling author of The Storied Life of AJ Fikry
"Dietland is a book I have been waiting for someone to write all my life, and it hit me hard right where I live, right where so many of us have wasted too much time living. It's courageous, compassionate, intelligent, pissed off and much more fun than it has any right to be. I can think of twenty people I want to buy it for,
without even trying." —Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted
"Sarai Walker is an immensely talented writer and her debut novel, Dietland—filled with wit, wisdom and wonder—is a pleasure." —Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life
Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Year So Far A New York Post “Best Novel to Read This Summer”
An Us Weekly “Hot Summer Novel”
O, The Oprah Magazine, "10 Titles to Pick Up Now"
A USA Today “New and Noteworthy” book
One of Vulture's "8 Books You Need to Read This May"
One of New York Daily News's "10 Books for Your Summer Reading List"
An Indie Next Pick
“Dietland completely blew me away. It's audacious and gutsy and heartbreaking and I want to grab women on the street and shake them until they promise to read it—and also buy copies for their daughters.” —Jennifer Weiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Good In Bed, In Her Shoes, and others
“Walker’s first novel leaves chick lit in the pixie dust, treading the rougher terrain of radical critique and shadowy conspiracies — territory closer to Rachel Kushner than Helen Fielding.”—New York Magazine, One of Vulture's "8 Books You Need to Read This May"
"If Amy Schumer turned her subversive feminist sketches into a novel, dark on the inside but coated with a glossy, palatable sheen, it would probably look a lot like Dietland—a thrilling, incendiary manifesto disguised as a beach read...It’s a giddy revenge fantasy that will shake up your thinking and burrow under your skin, no matter its size."—Entertainment Weekly (
Synopsis
A fresh and provocative debut novel about a reclusive young woman saving up for weight loss surgery when she gets drawn into a shadowy feminist guerilla group called "Jennifer"—equal parts Bridget Jones's Diary and Fight Club
Synopsis
A Best Book of the Year
Entertainment Weekly Bustle Amazon Women s National Book Association Kirkus Reviews BookPage Kobo LitReactor
Audacious and gutsy and heartbreaking Dietland completely blew me away. Jennifer Weiner
The diet revolution is here. And it s armed.
Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. With her job answering fan mail for a teen magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. But when a mysterious woman in colorful tights and combat boots begins following her, Plum falls down a rabbit hole into the world of Calliope House an underground community of women who reject society s rules and is forced to confront the real costs of becoming beautiful. At the same time, a guerilla group begins terrorizing a world that mistreats women, and Plum becomes entangled in a sinister plot. The consequences are explosive.
A giddy revenge fantasy that will shake up your thinking and burrow under your skin (Entertainment Weekly), Dietland takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight-loss obsession with fists flying."
Synopsis
AN AMC ORIGINAL SERIES
FROM EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MARTI NOXON,
STARRING JOY NASH AND JULIANNA MARGULIES
A Best Book of the Year
Entertainment Weekly - Bustle - Amazon - Women's National Book Association - Kirkus Reviews - BookPage - Kobo - LitReactor
"Audacious and gutsy and heartbreaking -- Dietland completely blew me away." -- Jennifer Weiner
The diet revolution is here. And it's armed.
Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you're fat, to be noticed is to be judged. With her job answering fan mail for a teen magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. But when a mysterious woman in colorful tights and combat boots begins following her, Plum falls down a rabbit hole into the world of Calliope House -- an underground community of women who reject society's rules -- and is forced to confront the real costs of becoming "beautiful." At the same time, a guerilla group begins terrorizing a world that mistreats women, and Plum becomes entangled in a sinister plot. The consequences are explosive.
"A giddy revenge fantasy that will shake up your thinking and burrow under your skin" (Entertainment Weekly), Dietland takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight-loss obsession -- with fists flying.
Synopsis
An Amazon Best Book of the Year So Far A New York Post “Best Novel to Read This Summer”
An Us Weekly “Hot Summer Novel”
O, The Oprah Magazine, "10 Titles to Pick Up Now"
A USA Today “New and Noteworthy” book
One of Vulture's "8 Books You Need to Read This May"
An Indie Next Pick
"Witty and wise."—People
"A giddy revenge fantasy that will shake up your thinking and burrow under your skin, no matter its size."—Entertainment Weekly (
About the Author
SARAI WALKER received her MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. Her work has appeared in Seventeen, Glamour and Mademoiselle, among others. She was an editor and writer for Our Bodies, Ourselves (2005) and has taught creative writing and literature at several universities.