Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution by E.E. Charlton-Trujillo
Angie’s life is in absolute shambles. It is the start of a new school year, her sister is dead, having been killed while serving overseas in the military, her girlfriend has moved away to Texas to live with her father and her best friend has ghosted.
Returning to school, Angie faces extreme bullying and acts of violence. During one particularly heinous incident, she stands up to her bully and breaks his nose. Since no one will come forward and tell the truth, that she was protecting herself from a violent assault, Angie is now facing expulsion.
Her mother, an absolutely atrocious woman who can CHOKE, is threatening to send Angie away to in inpatient treatment center. Suffering from severe depression, grief over the loss of her sister and debilitating panic attacks, Angie is left to navigate what is left of her life essentially on her own.
This book was difficult to read. I was uncomfortable pretty much the entire time and now that I am done, I am not comfortable assigning a star-rating. I know this may seem silly but I just can’t narrow down my thoughts to one number.
This book was oddly compelling. The writing was a little strange to me and the narrative was much more ‘stream of consciousness’-based than I tend to like but I could not stop reading.
I wanted to know where Angie would end up and how her life would go. She is a character who is in a really bad place, physically, mentally, emotionally and literally, her home is terrible. She doesn’t feel positive about anything in her life and was just so down on herself. It hurt to read this.
In addition to all of that, there are horrible scenes of violence, fat-shaming and hate speech. I questioned at times whether or not it was necessary for the plot and I’m not sure. At times, it almost felt like certain aspects were thrown in more for shock value but I don’t know, life does get messy sometimes. Ugh, I am just so torn on this one, you guys.
As a consumer reviewer, I can tell you this story made me uncomfortable, but I feel by ‘judging’ (aka. adding a rating) it, I am in essence casting judgement on the author’s story. ‘Isn’t that what we always do?’ you may ask. In a way, yes, but this story just felt so personal, probably due to the ‘stream of consciousness’ narrative, and it did have a lot of aspects to it that I liked and respected but other things that felt ‘off’.
I am making zero sense right now, I know. That is what this book will do you.
I wouldn’t know where to begin in recommending this book to anyone. Trigger warnings are too numerous to list but there was a lot of diversity and a lot of serious topics that should be explored more.
The road trip aspect of the story was my favorite element. Basically, before Angie’s sister was killed, she wrote a letter to Angie listing a bunch of things she wanted to experience with her, via a road trip in their state, when she got back home. Since she never made it back, Angie, along with her sister’s urn, convinces an old friend to take her parent’s RV and drive them to the different locations listed in the letter. They are joined by two additional characters and your typical road trip hijinks ensue.
It is important to note that this book is a continuation to a prior book, titled Fat Angie. I never read that first book and I don’t feel like I was missing anything. This felt like a complete story to me. If you are interested in this one, and haven’t read the first, it is my opinion that you do not need to go back and read that first one.
This is not my typical review. In fact, I have been dreading writing this. No gifs, no attempts at humor, this story just doesn’t seem the place for it. My final decision is to not add a star rating. I want people to read this. I want to hear other’s opinions on this. I think there are so many important issues throughout this that should be discussed more, not just the ‘real life’ issues but how we express and take in those topics via literature.
Original: Book 2 for
Contemporary-A-Thon
!!! I will be using this for two challenges:
1. my most recently acquired Contemporary novel
2. read a book with blurple on the cover