Double feature crisis show!

Today we’ve got not one but two — TWO! — reviews for the price of one click. Really, these two books — Fat Angie and 17 & Gone — have very little in common, but they are both March pubs and have some thematic overlap, dealing as they do with girls in distress. Not damsels in distress, but the kind of deep-seated internal anguish that is too often intrinsic to teen girls, saddled as they are with expectations and beliefs and the need to always be aware.

Fat Angie, e.E. Charlton-Trujillo
Candlewick, March 2013
Reviewed from ARC

One of the things I (Joy) am very aware of as a reviewer is how my life experience influences my perception of accuracy. This conversation started to develop when we discussed The Lucy Variations and I find it relevant to my reading of Fat Angie as well.

The premise is tragic with a side of quirky: our titular protagonist is an overweight teenager dealing with the bullies at school, a cold mother, a mean adopted older brother, and a sister who has almost certainly been killed in Iraq. Charlton-Trujillo explores Angie’s coming-of-age, which is precipitated by the arrival of new girl, KC Romance, who sparks Angie’s interest and then desire. Accuracy is the significant guideline for my reading of this work because despite the stylistic flair frequently on display in the text, the characterizations aren’t just flat, they come across as flat-out wrong.

I take particular issue with Angie’s classmates. High school is full of angst; teens are mean; every school will have bullies—these are realities I am willing to accept exist in varying degrees in every school across the country at this moment. But Angie isn’t just overweight and a little odd; this is a girl who, after reports of her sister’s death started to flood the news, attempted suicide in front of the entire school at a pep rally. That one girl, Stacy Ann, could bully Angie mercilessly makes sense because Charlton-Trujillo gives that character a backstory to explain her anger (in a slightly inelegant revelation, but it works within the narrative). It’s much harder to accept that a large group of teenagers led by Stacy Ann could be so cruel to a girl in crisis. Maybe I’m an idealist or maybe I have a skewed perspective because in my professional career working with teenagers, I’ve never seen bullying on this kind of scale. Regardless of why, I don’t buy for one second the bullying that Angie experiences in this novel.

There are more than just problematic bullies here; Angie’s champions are similarly perplexing. KC Romance seems to have no clear reason for her gravitation to Angie other than instinct, which doesn’t entirely make sense given KC’s cool, mysterious persona. Sure, KC recognizes that Angie’s an outsider and picked on, but that doesn’t explain how they become so close. (Also, her name is KC Romance. This is trying way too hard to sound like a funky bad-girl name.)

There are elements in the book that really work beautifully; the nature of loss and how it affects already fragile teens is thoughtfully woven throughout the story. Charlton-Trujillo has a strong voice and style, playing with rhythm and form, in a third-person limited narrative that often feels like first (in a good way). The more I think about this one though, more and more flaws come to the surface, making it impossible to truly consider this a contender this year. Perhaps you feel differently?