The Fall of Whit Rivera (2023) by Crystal Maldonado didn’t deserve to sit on my TBR shelf for as long as it did, because it is a sweet fat-positive YA romance from the author of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and Get Real, Chloe Torres.
Whit (Whitney) Rivera is getting ready to have the best senior year ever, even though her boyfriend Aidan, moved away and they’re trying to make things work, and she hasn’t seen her friends too much over the summer because she’s gained weight and is afraid to tell them about her PCOS diagnosis. Her autistic baby sister, Lily, is going to be a freshman, so they’ll be at the same school, and she has a plan to run for president of the Fall Fest committee.
When her ex Isaiah (Zay) is named c0-chair of the Fall Fest committee with her shortly after he skateboards into her, spilling her coffee all over her, and Lily doesn’t want Whit to walk her to the bus when Whit has a meeting after school, she’s glad she reconnected with her friends because nothing else is going as she had planned.
But Zay actually has good ideas about the Fall Fest, and Lily is growing up. And when Aidan ghosts her on their FaceTime date, she ends something that should have ended a while back, and it’s OK. Though they are just friends, she is enjoying reconnecting with Zay and wonders what might have happened when they realize that his ghosting was just an epic miscommunication.
Full of yummy Hispanic food descriptions, apple picking and pumpkin spice lattes (PSLs), I loved reading how Whit and Zay find their way back to each other, even through a health scare. Whit’s planning for the Fall Fest has become important since she has to take it easy for a bit. But Zay is there, and Whit is even able to plan an epic proposal for him to go to the Fall Fest with her.
Maldonado has done it again–The Fall of Whit Rivera checks so many of my boxes–fat positive, queer characters, and my second-favorite season (fall can’t compete with spring for the sheer joy of growing things after the dead of winter).
Reading While Fat 