In the community of Seagate, abstaining from food brings you closer to god and eating for pleasure is forbidden. However, when Beatrice discovers an old cookbook, her world is turned upside down. By the same author as The Seep , The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter brings a dystopian tale about desire. I absolutely loved Porter's first novella and wanted to love this book as well, but unfortunately I found that The Thick and the Lean bites off more than it can chew. It's overly ambitious, cramming in a kitchen sink of social themes that it isn't able to thoroughly follow through on, resulting ultimately in a half-baked novel. I also wish the setting itself had been explored and fleshed out more--especially since this book takes place on another planet. For instance, toward the beginning, it's mentioned in passing that the moons are causing high tides and a shrinking land mass, and yet, the effects of gravity and climate on the population aren't actively address...