DIGITAL DOMAIN
In Sugarfiend, by Caroline Burau, diet junkie Estelle heads off on a cruise. The summary says: "If her life is a box of chocolates, acid-tongued, sugar-obsessed Estelle Brown should learn how to pick them better. Her boyfriend's left her for a bulimic hand model, her roommate's skipped town, and her boss is in love with her. In the middle of her latest of a lifetime of doomed diet attempts - cutting sugar cold turkey - Estelle decides to quit quitting for good, pack her bags, and lose herself on a 7-day Caribbean cruise. But even on a floating monument to binge eating, the diet industry follows her. Across from every buffet is a studio full of treadmills. Next to every plate of fried calamari is a large diet Coke. As a ship full of wary passengers ducks for cover, Hurricane Estelle wages her own personal war against moderation. But the consequences land her in the belly of the beast: broke, alone, and forced to take a job as -of all things - a detox consultant for the ship. Is Skinny the answer to Happy? Is Sweet 'n Low the new black? Is that Denise Austin chick ... for real? No, no, and yes . . . oddly. But for a Sugarfiend, it's not the destination that matters, it's all the cupcakes you get to eat along the way." Burau is a freelance writer from Minnesota.