THIS GIRL ISN’T SHY, SHE’S SPECTACULAR

Focusing on secondary characters from This Book Isn’t Fat, It’s Fabulous (2008), this companion novel falls flat. Samantha, Riley’s friend from fat camp, becomes the protagonist, the focus of the third-person narration as she returns from that (implausible) fat-camp-and-boarding-school to spend senior year in New York City. Riley’s best friend D, another rich Manhattanite, is a secondary main character, but obscurely, with little insight. He makes a decision to stop partying and hooking up with girls, but neither his supposed romantic callousness nor a real self emerges clearly. Sam dislikes her own blandness, which got her rejected from a college’s creative-writing program. The rejection letter mentions “a certain amount of passion missing,” which also holds true for Beck’s watery characterizations. Gone is the sparkle and hilarity of Riley’s voice—here, even Riley’s lost her zest. When the tension- and suspense-free climax finally occurs, it’s hard to care. (Fiction. 12-14)