“Counting will make you calm.” “Can’t you just be normal?” “You are special.” Fat Angie hears these lines over and over from her therapist, her “couldn’t be bothered” mother, and her teachers. Meant to be helpful, they really serve as constant reminders. Reminders of the fact that she is living the nightmare of being the school freak, tormented at every turn by the “queen of sting” Stacey Ann and even her adopted brother. Reminders that she is living without her sister, the “glue” that held her family together and who was shown on T.V. being held hostage in Iraq and is presumed dead by everyone but Angie. Fat Angie is overweight, awkward, infamous for having unsuccessfully tried to kill herself in front of the entire school last year, and doesn’t have a single friend to whom she can turn. Things start to look up when K.C. Romance, a stunning, quick-witted, and unconventional girl from the “Hills” comes to sleepy Dryfalls, Ohio. Fat Angie finds friendship, “gay-girl gay” romance (the way she and K.C. refer to their relationship), another unexpected friendship with “jockazoid” Jake, and learns, to her surprise, that she is not the only one suffering in this story. Fat Angie only begins to see herself as just “Angie” after making a decision inspired by her new relationships and her MIA sister’s words, “Visualize, follow through and let go.”
e.E. Charlton-Trujillo provides readers with a way to “walk in the shoes” of each character in this book, not just Fat Angie. She challenges us to avoid presuming to know others by their outside appearance and highlights the fact that even in the lowest of times, we have the power to create change. She helps us to recognize that we are all figuring out who we are and where we belong in this sometimes unloving and unforgiving world. I would definitely recommend this book to any who enjoys realistic fiction that challenges the social “norms” that can so easily sabotage the forming of meaningful relationships.
~Suzanne F.
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