| Cutting & Self-Harm |
| Depression |
| Romance |
| Social Themes |
| Young Adult Fiction |
| LGBTQ+ |
Summary
Summary
Winner of a 2014 Stonewall Book Award
Her sister was captured in Iraq, she's the resident laughingstock at school, and her therapist tells her to count instead of eat. Can a daring new girl in her life really change anything?
Angie is broken - by her can't-be-bothered mother, by her high-school tormenters, and by being the only one who thinks her varsity-athlete-turned-war-hero sister is still alive. Hiding under a mountain of junk food hasn't kept the pain (or the shouts of "crazy mad cow!") away. Having failed to kill herself - in front of a gym full of kids - she's back at high school just trying to make it through each day. That is, until the arrival of KC Romance, the kind of girl who doesn't exist in Dryfalls, Ohio. A girl who is one hundred and ninety-nine percent wow! A girl who never sees her as Fat Angie, and who knows too well that the package doesn't always match what's inside. With an offbeat sensibility, mean girls to rival a horror classic, and characters both outrageous and touching, this darkly comic anti-romantic romance will appeal to anyone who likes entertaining and meaningful fiction.
Author Notes
e. E. Charlton-Trujillo is an award-winning filmmaker and YA novelist. They live in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Angie clings to the hope that her missing-in-action sister is alive in Afghanistan, no matter what her pessimistic family believes. Her mother never has a kind word for Angie, and her adopted brother treats her with disdain. Things are no better at school where malicious Stacy Ann and her minions make Angie's life miserable. Known as Fat Angie to her classmates, she's seen as the friendless girl who tried to kill herself in front of a gym filled with people. Bullied and tormented, she's understandably leery when beautiful new girl KC Romance arrives in Dryfalls, Ohio, and attempts to befriend her. As their relationship grows, Angie begins to see herself through KC's eyes, and they help each other come to terms with who they really are. Narrated by Angela Dawe, Charlton-Trujillo's book (Candlewick, 2013) comes across as flat. The characters sound bored and disaffected in spite of the plot's drama and tension, and Dawe's reading shows little variation in tone and inflection from character to character. The narration also draws attention to narrative quirks that may have been overlooked in the book's written form, such as hearing the narrator repeatedly say Fat Angie. Similarly, the idiosyncratic slang that KC uses makes her seem more like a caricature than a real teen. While this is not Dawe's fault, her performance makes clear that the book tries too hard to be relevant at the expense of fully realized, well-developed characters. An additional purchase.-Audrey Sumser, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Mayfield, OH (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
High school freshman Angie sees herself the way everyone else does, as "Fat Angie," until KC Romance, "a model kind of beauty beneath the bad-girl garb," breezes into her small, conservative Ohio town. Angie is relentlessly bullied at school, as well as belittled by her mother and adopted younger brother. Angie's heavily medicated family can barely communicate with each other, let alone face the loss and presumed death of Angie's older sister in Iraq. When Angie and KC bond-first platonically, then romantically-over broken homes, classic TV shows, and their respective troubled pasts, Angie gradually becomes motivated to change inside and out. Charlton-Trujillo (Feels Like Home) offers a hard-hitting third novel that swings between incredibly painful low moments and hard-won victories. The abuses Angie suffers are hard to stomach-her mother can be truly cruel ("No one is ever going to love you if you stay fat," she tells Angie at one point)-making the happiness the teenager is able to find, both through KC's help and her own persistence, come as a relief. Ages 14-up. Agent: Andrea Cascardi, Transatlantic Literary Agency. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Fat Angie's mother ignores her, her classmates bully her, and her beloved sister is presumed dead in Iraq. So Angie is surprised when beautiful new girl KC Romance treats her like an equal and a friend--even a love interest. Charlton-Trujillo's choppy third-person narration is unique but distancing, allowing readers to observe Angie's traumas and successes but not fully experience them. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Entrancingly eccentric prose, a protagonist "jam-packed with awkward" and a military sister missing in action coalesce into a memorable romance that's rockier than might be expected--and more realistic. Fat Angie's sister, "the fulcrum of their family machine," was captured nine months ago and shown "on Iraqi television, tied to a chair, blindfolded and bruised." Family, national news and everyone in Dryfalls, Ohio, presume she's dead--except Fat Angie. After a very public meltdown, Fat Angie faces bullying at school and "all kinds of weird sadness" at home, including maternal comments like "No one is ever going to love you if you stay fat." Into this anguish materializes KC Romance, a slang-talking new girl in combat boots and skull-and-crossbones fishnets. She defends Fat Angie; she likes Fat Angie; she calls her, simply, Angie. Angie falls "heart-forward into KC's dark eyes," and the girls are "gay-girl gay" together (their affectionate term). But Angie's tongue-tied, and KC has secret pain; a "sad awkward" keeps cropping up. Like their relationship, and like Angie's lionhearted attempt to emulate her missing sister's backbone on the basketball court, Charlton-Trujillo's prose has a peppery flavor, pointedly carbonated ("You break it. You know? My heart") and wryly funny. Unfortunately, fatness is a misery symbol--it's postweight-loss, "not-so-plump Angie" who finds happiness. Creative prose and sharp interactions, marred only by some stereotyping; a fresh read nevertheless. (Fiction. 12-16)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Angie is fat. And miserable. And she has her reasons. Her sister, a star basketball player turned soldier, has been captured in Afghanistan. Everyone thinks she's dead. Angie's lawyer mother busies herself with work. Her adopted Korean brother busies himself being obnoxious. And Angie goes around wearing her sister's too-small b-ball T-shirt, trying to stay out of the mean girls' way. At one point, she tries to slit her wrists and comes out bleeding onto the basketball court. Then KC comes to town. Cool and cute, she makes a beeline for Angie and no one can figure out why (including the reader). But as the world turns, so do the pages, and Angie decides maybe she can play varsity basketball like her sister, and maybe she can have a gay-girl-gay relationship with KC although KC's cutting gets in the way. Some of the characters don't push much beyond stereotype, but Angie's anguish and the dysfunction of her family seem quite real. As the story spins toward its conclusion, elements may seem preordained, but the emotion with which they're infused gives them new life.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
