Get Real, Chloe Torres (publication day May 13, 2025) by Crystal Maldonado is young adult chick lit of the finest kind–it centers on rekindling an old friendship, through a cross-country road trip and boy-band fandom!
Newly-graduated Chloe is working at her summer job as a non-Disney princess at little-kid birthday parties, when she realizes that a cousin of the birthday girl is Sienna–her longtime former crush, and one of her former two best friends, who went to a different school for high school and who she hasn’t seen for 4 years. Chloe has ADHD and is super-awkward when they interact. Then, later that night while she’s supporting her own cousin in a drag competition, she sees the third member of their friend group–Ramona–at the club, and hides behind the bar so she is not seen.
Chloe has a lot of feelings about leaving home to go to college–in this case, Rhode Island School of Design–and, after her father gets her tickets to see the famed boy band in Las Vegas for her birthday, hatches a plan to invite her two former best friends to take a road trip across the country (they are in Massachusetts). So she writes a letter to them inviting them on the trip and explaining why she’d like to rekindle their friendship.
And they both actually come! There are awkward moments, but Chloe is relieved to find that her former crush on Sienna is completely over. But she finds herself very drawn to tattooed Ramona, who had disclosed her own feelings about Chloe 4 years ago which resulted in Chloe ghosting her and the end of their friendship. So she has some bad behavior to make up for.
All three are different varieties of queer; Chloe is neurodiverse and fat; and all three are Latina–Maldonado does a good job of writing fat characters–I reviewed her Fat Chance, Charlie Vega two years ago. And I loved the road trip aspect, especially because Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Zoo had a small feature in the book.
I highly recommend if you’re looking for a YA road trip book primarily about friendship with great queer and fat representation!
Reading While Fat 
One thought on “Get Real, Chloe Torres”