Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot (Heather Wells #2)
Published: 2006
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
E-book, English edition, 344 pages

Blurb:

Former pop star Heather Wells has settled nicely into her new life as assistant dorm director at New York College—a career that does not require her to drape her size 12 body in embarrassingly skimpy outfits. She can even cope (sort of) with her rocker ex-boyfriend's upcoming nuptials, which the press has dubbed The Celebrity Wedding of the Decade. But she's definitely having a hard time dealing with the situation in the dormitory kitchen—where a cheerleader has lost her head on the first day of the semester. (Actually, her head is accounted for—it's her torso that's AWOL.)

Surrounded by hysterical students—with her ex-con father on her doorstep and her ex-love bombarding her with unwanted phone calls—Heather welcomes the opportunity to play detective . . . again. If it gets her mind off her personal problems—and teams her up again with the gorgeous P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives—it's all good. But the murder trail is leading the average-sized amateur investigator into a shadowy world. And if she doesn't watch her step, Heather will soon be singing her swan song!

Ulasan:

Masih bersama Heather Wells, si mantan selebritis yang tidak meneruskan karir menyanyinya. Ia sudah bekerja cukup lama sebagai asisten direktur asrama mahasiswa di New York, jadi ia bisa memperoleh beasiswa untuk kuliah di tempatnya bekerja. Sayangnya, ia harus mengulang ujian matematika. Tempatnya bekerja mendapatkan bos baru. Dan reputasi tempatnya bekerja jadi buruk karena ada kasus yang diceritakan di buku sebelumnya.

Tapi Heather masih bekerja di tempat itu. Dan kuliah juga. Mungkin hidupnya akan berjalan normal seperti biasa, walaupun masih dirongrong mantan pacarnya yang selebritis. Sampai ditemukan adanya kasus lagi. Kematian brutal seorang mahasiswi. Bagian tubuhnya ditemukan di kantin asrama.

Dari kasus sebelumnya, Heather jadi mengenal detektif kepolisian New York. Dan ia diperingatkan agar tidak ikut campur. Heather setuju, karena ia sudah pernah mengalami bahayanya. Tapi ia terus-menerus dapat petunjuk, baik sengaja atau tidak, tentang kasus ini. Ia jadi terlibat jauh. Karena sudah kepalang tanggung, ia nekat menceburkan diri langsung ke dalamnya.

Yah, jadinya aku terbiasa dengan pemikiran Heather yang melompat-lompat ini. Di kasus ini kesannya hampir sama seperti kasus sebelumnya. Tapi lebih sadis. Penyelesaiannya juga sama. Dramatis. Aku jadi berpikir New York tempatnya berbahaya. Kriminalitasnya tinggi. Jujur saja, kasus ini sedikit menakutkanku. Tapi masih tetap seru untuk diikuti.

Ada beberapa karakter baru, ada yang likeable dan yang menyebalkan. Di buku ini juga memberikan ruang untuk berkembangnya karakter lama dan berkembangnya cerita hidup Heather di samping kasusnya. Seperti ayah Heather yang baru keluar dari penjara, misalnya. Secara keseluruhan ceritanya cukup menghibur. Dan sadis.


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Tentang penulis:

Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, during the Chinese astrological year of the Fire Horse, a notoriously unlucky sign. Fortunately she grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, where few people were aware of the stigma of being a fire horse -- at least until Meg became a teenager, when she flunked freshman Algebra twice, then decided to cut her own bangs. After six years as an undergrad at Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City (in the middle of a sanitation worker strike) to pursue a career as an illustrator, at which she failed miserably, forcing her to turn to her favorite hobby--writing novels--for emotional succor. She worked various jobs to pay the rent, including a decade-long stint as the assistant manager of a 700 bed freshmen dormitory at NYU, a position she still occasionally misses.

She is now the author of nearly fifty books for both adults and teens, selling fifteen million copies worldwide, many of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, most notably The Princess Diaries series, which is currently being published in over 38 countries, and was made into two hit movies by Disney. In addition, Meg wrote the Mediator and 1-800-Where-R-You? series (on which the television series, Missing, was based), two All-American Girl books, Teen Idol, Avalon High, How to Be Popular, Pants on Fire, Jinx, a series of novels written entirely in email format (Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl, and Every Boy's Got One), a mystery series (Size 12 Is Not Fat/ Size 14 Is Not Fat Either/Big Boned), and a chick-lit series called Queen of Babble.

Meg is now writing a new children's series called Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls. Her new paranormal series, Abandon, debuts in Summer of 2011.

Meg currently divides her time between Key West, Indiana, and New York City with a primary cat (one-eyed Henrietta), various back-up cats, and her husband, who doesn't know he married a fire horse. Please don't tell him.