Literary Feast Discussion: Fat Cat (pp. 251 to the end!)

Well, it's been quite the meal!  The final course of our discussion of Fat Cat is below.  

Shel:  Finally an answer to the Cat-Matt grudge!  And it was close to what I expected, but also not quite as bad as I expected.

Monica:  I am a little disappointed.  On the one hand, I can definitely relate to a classmate saying something horrible which proceeds to destroy your feelings of self-worth, to drive you out of your grade school and to haunt you for years after the fact, but in this case… I was hoping for something more than the wretched complacency of middle-school boys.  (That’s not to say it doesn’t work in the context of the story – I can tooootally imagine Cat reacting exactly the way she does.)

Shel:  Yeah, my nightmare scenario was that he was speaking to a science fair judge, trying to get her disqualified from winning.  Of course, that wouldn't address the way he perceived Cat's body.  But it would have been a truly jerky move.

 Shel:  Moving on, what do you think of all this "imprinting" talk.  Instead of my mind going to cute little ducklings, I keep having creepy Breaking Dawn flashbacks too Jacob falling in love with a baby.  *twitch*

Monica:  Aah!  AAH!  I *had* been thinking of ducklings, dragons of Pern, and of that Bruce Coville book where he hatches an alligator (that was Bruce Coville, wasn’t it?) and other adorable things, and now I’m trapped in Breaking Dawn.  Glaaah.  That part, where he chews open her stomach to get the baby out?  Chews with his *teeth*!?  Yick.

Shel: But despite the Twilight trips, I like the language on page 313:  "The heart is a muscle, too.  And I've been training mine since I was a kid to fall in love with one particular person."  Aww.

Monica:  And that person… is Johnny Depp.  Johnny!  Call me!

Shel: Poor Matt, wait until he decides to get his advanced degree in the sciences and learns how political research is.  Me thinks the boy needs a back-up plan.

Monica:  Shh.  He’s still young and idealistic.  Don’t ruin it for him!  Seriously, though, were you surprised that no one won at all?  *I* was surprised that no one won at all.  Although I suppose when you get right down to it, Cat’s research was sort of all over the place.  (Gotta give her props, though.  I’m impressed she managed to work “Dressing up all hot and going to a dance and making out with a sexy dashing genius man of mystery” into the project with a straight face.)

Shel:  So, how you feeling?  Ready to suffer through our own experiment based off of an ancient civilization?  I claim walking like an Egyptian everywhere!

Monica:  I’ll be right here, photographing you as you go…  ;)

Shel:  As long as you design an Amanda-worthy poster to share the pictures.

Monica:  Now Shel, let me know overall – did you like the book?  Thumbs up or down, gladiator style?  I ended up being fairly fond of it; it was like fluff and teenage angst wrapped in a delicious vegan pastry with honey drizzled on top!

Shel:  I'm going to go thumb up.  I was definitely amused (which is what I was hoping for).  Plus, it made me think about my own eating habits, for better or worse.

How about you dear readers?  Thumb up or thumb down?  If you have something to say about it, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

We'll being diving right into our next literary discussion on Saturday, when we'll be picking up Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith.  

From what I've read so far, I'd describe Eternal as the story of a guardian angel named Zachary who is in love with the girl, Miranda, he is guarding.  But Miranda is going to keep her angel super busy since, she is about to meet her first vampires.

To learn more about the author, you can check out her blog, here.

Cynthia is on the children's creative writing staff at Vermont College (I actually considered going there, but the acceptance letter came a week after I'd already moved to Pittsburgh to attend Chatham).

So, join us on Saturday when Monica and I discuss the first 73 pages of Eternal.