Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

With diet being such a large part of our lives and social commentary now I was looking forward to reading this. It is very funny in places and I really enjoyed the dark satire but the story was a little slow-paced.

Loved this. I feel like the author did a great job capturing what it feels like being a yo yo dieter. What’s good and not good for you seems to be constantly changing. I really enjoyed it & read it fairly quickly.

*Thanks to the publisher for providing an arc of this edition via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A brilliant humorous look at a dark topic, The Fatness tackles that giant elephant in the room - the obesity epidemic. Not political, but a bit dark at times, this dystopian and funny story is a great break from reality.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGallery and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I was excited by the premise of this book. I had high hopes for this imaginative dystopian story. I was disappointed however because the story seemed to go on excessively without the plot moving forward as much as it needed to. If this book was shorter and had some of the fat trimmed, pun intended, readers wouldn’t hit a lull and find the middle of the book a never-ending slog. I appreciated the quotes and facts intertwined. The romance was a nice addition however it didn’t play a significant role until later. There are great ideas here, there just needs to be some refinement. I will happily read what Mark A Rayner does next.

Sorry but I'm in the group who quickly got bored with this one. Clever idea, nice start but it got repetitive.

I thought this sounded great imagine being in a prison for fat people in Canada, if your BMI is too high, I am afraid to say I would definitely be a prisoner, and I thought the idea was funny and quirky.It was but not a lot really happened, I felt like it was an opportunity some what wasted, the main character was ok if a bit tiresome in a way and the humour was a bit the same it was great fun at first but then it seemed a bit stuck , I wish it had had more of a plot really I found my attention drifting a bit, I don't expect it to be action packed all the way through but it did get a bit like groundhog day , sorry great idea and I just felt it could have been better , but then I am not a writer and I really don't like being over critical about some thing that I can't do myself.I would say it was worth a read and I'm sorry it wasn't a perfect fit for me.Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an ARC.

I was initially drawn to this book because if this book were our actual reality, I would be an inhabitant in one of the CRC's. That was enough of a hook to bring me to this book and give it a shot. But once I started to read the story, I was quickly captivated by the character development and the story arc and knew that I had not made a mistake by choosing to read this book. Mark A. Rayner does an excellent job of making you care for the protagonists, and loathe the antagonists. At times this book was hilarious, and at others, it was all too real. The story itself is rooted enough reality that one cannot help to feel that the Fatness could be a component of our future. This is a biting satire focusing on everything from governmental control to private healthcare to corporate greed to societal norms. You do not have to be an individual who has struggled with their weight to enjoy this book, but those of us that have ever fallen into the 30+ "bimmi" category with certainly identify with Keelan and company.

The facts and quotes added between each chapter was a nice touch as well. While not officially advancing the story, this factoids allowed a greater level of insight into the plight of Keelan and the other characters, while demonstrating how this book was not purely a fantastical exaggeration. And if you finished the book and could not already tell, reading the final notes at the end of the book confirms just how personal this subject is for the author, and how the struggle assisted him in writing this excellent piece of satire.

The Fatness follows the story of Keelan, a man living in a prison-like institution called a CRC - a Calorie Reduction Centre, These centres are the government's reaction to the obesity crisis, and house thousands of people whose BMI labels them obese.

Mark Rayner's sharp take on our attitudes towards weight and healthy eating makes for some truly funny moments, including scenes between Keelan and his weight loss advisor, who puts him on a series of well meaning but bizarre extreme diets and prides herself on being technically underweight.

During the novel, the corruption both within the CRCs and among those who run them becomes clear, and as events escalate the CRCs are privatised and run for profit, with increasingly sinister measures taken to ensure control.

At the heart of the book is a touching love story between Keelan and Jacinda, an activist lawyer investigaing the truth behind the CRCs. Their romance is a sweet counterpoint to the political and sociological aspects of the book, highlighting how dehumanising current attitudes towards obesity can be,

The Fatness is funny, but also challenging, with an unflinching commentary on how our society puts pressure on all of us to look a certain way. It is a bitingly clever satire with a great big heart.

I agreed to preview this book at the request of the author, despite my concerns that it would not resonate with me. After trying to read it, I found that my initial concerns were realized - there is absolutely nothing with the book, the writing is good and the plot is clever with lots of snarky satirical commentary, but I simply couldn't get into the story despite those things. I communicated this directly with the author.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

The Fatness tells the satirical story of Canadian citizens literally incarcerated in a facility for people deemed fat (BMI of 30 or higher) because at that size, government-subsidized insurance is not available to them. Allegedly designed to help the residents reach a “healthier” size, the facility does exactly the opposite, by serving foods that are neither nutritional nor healthy. The government allegedly provides physical training, but, like the nutrition, is a joke. The protagonist, Keelan, becomes an activist of sorts, and eventually engineers a prison break (much like the one a few seasons ago in “Orange is the New Black.”

There is a thriving black market for all sorts of illicit substances, from Big Macs to illegal substances. Things only get worse when a new government comes to power.

Each chapter ends with a fat factoid or quotation that are quite interesting. However, I’m not sure that this information belongs within a satirical story. They could have been combined into a brief essay that could have been used as a prologue or afterward.

The Fatness is a decent farce with a thinly disguised message about the challenge of healthy living once fat - you don’t stay thin for long - and the dangers of power and government control and misguided public policy. The points are accurate. They are not executed with much sophistication, but such is the nature of satire. The characters, even in satire, are relatable, and some very sympathetic.

•
•

MY REVIEW OF “THE FATNESS “ BY MARK A. RAYNER

I have to give credit to Mark A. Rayner, author of “The Fatness” for his unusual and unique way of addressing the problem of obsesity. The genres for this novel are satire, dark humor, wit, fiction and suspense. This novel takes place in present time in Canada, where socialized medicine is practiced.

In this novel of fiction, the government has decided that anyone with a BMI of 30 or more will not get health insurance unless they go to “Caloried Restriction Centres”.(CRI) The premise is that trained professionals would work with these overweight “Clients”. Please keep in mind that this is the working of a government. In a blurb from the description of the book, “ The Fatness” is a contemporary satire of socialism,capitalism, and the so-called obsesity epidemic.”

The author describes the characters as complicated and complex. Some have evil intentions, and are greedy. Keenlan Cavanaugh is considered obsese with a BMI of 30-31. He has been in the CRI for two years. He does get to meet an attorney, Jacinda Williams, and sparks fly. There are constant changes in the CRI, and there is also a criminal element that is bringing in McDonald’s, and anything if you have money.

Does it appear that the CRI doesn’t want their clients to leave? After another group takes over from the government, the BMI requirements go down to 29. There are armed guards securing the location. Are the “clients” now inmates?

In this book the author describes that it is not advisable or generally the case that “normal weight” people would want to be with overweight people. There are references to discrimination, the thin vs. the fat people in society. The only fat people that are not part of this system are the one’s that can afford private health insurance.

These inmates cannot leave the premises and are treated like criminals. There are some surprises and twists and turns.

This book would be for readers who have a dark sense of humor and appreciate satire and the symbolism in this book. I received an ARC of this book for my honest review.

I'd be hard-pressed to give a good description of this book in only a few words. There is so much IN the novel!

Set in Canada, The Fatness shows one-way society could address the epidemic of obesity. Canadians have voted to create 'fat camps' where anyone with a BMI (bimmie) over 29 can elect to enter in the hopes of losing enough weight to be healthy. Otherwise, you have to fork over a lot of money for your health insurance.

Keelan has spent nearly 3 years in one of these Calorie Reduction Centres, yet is still shy of his goal. He is extra motivated as he needs to be there by the 3-year mark if he wants to keep his job. Sadly, the CRCs don't seem to be set up for success. The trainers and nutritionists offer solutions that are mostly doomed to fail. Then there is the underground market for contraband goods (e.g. McDonalds) to thwart you. There's even one person willing to cut off a limb so you might fall under the 29 mark!

Jacinda is an activist lawyer researching this new system. It is just about love at first site for both Keelan and her. Together, they begin to work on a way to get him out while also exposing the failure of this new system. However, they have a lot of obstacles as post-election the government turns things over to a weight loss company originally based in the US. They are so focused on the bottom line that ever leaving the centre turned prison seems impossible.

Sprinkled throughout the novel are interesting quotes and statistics which fit with the overall theme of the obesity epidemic. The novel challenges readers to think not only about how we treat those who are suffering from obesity, but what can truly be done for them.

While entertaining, this was not a novel I could devour in just a few nights. As someone who has battled with weight and how I think others perceive me, there were many things that struck a chord in my own life.

The Fatness focuses on Keelan, an obese man who has been forced to enter a Calorie Reduction Centre in Canada to lose weight or be forced to pay for his own health care. I love the concept of this dystopia, the humorous approach was spot on, and weirdly it doesn't seem that far fetched in today's society, especially as the the book progresses and the restrictions get tighter and tighter until the CRC's basically become prisons.

While I really enjoyed this book as a whole, I did find myself wondering why it needed to be so long. The pacing was very odd. We spent chapters and chapters focusing on Keelan getting his BMI under 30, and then we weren't even in the room when it happened. Rayner seems to have forgotten the old "show, don't tell" adage, because this happened quite a lot. Lots of build up and then a casual mention that that isn't something worth talking about anymore. Each chapter was also preceded by a scientific Myth or Fact, which while interesting, really took you out of the story and slowed the pace down even more.
Overall enjoyable, and even a little bit educational, but verrrry disjointed and slow in parts.

I really enjoyed this book. It is funny and brilliant and really well written. I was totally engrossed from the start. The idea of trying to keep society below a BMI of 30 and all the problems it would cause made for compelling reading and a lot of laughing. The humorous way the book is written is brilliant. There is a lot of truth in this book about the problems of dieting and who is profiting from people trying to lose weight.

A very strange book and quite hard to get into, it was a sad story that probably could happen soon in our world where the gov is owning us more and more,

I gave up on this pretty quickly. It was just too stereotypical and cliched.