I picked up Fat Angie (2013) by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo in the YA section of my library; I hadn’t seen it before. After reading, I have very mixed feelings, though it received a Stonewall Book Award.
As the book opens, Angie is involved in a fight during gym class. There’s a mean girl, Stacy, and though Angie goes on the offensive, and defends herself, the focus is on Angie’s identity as fat–different from everyone else, not only because of her body size, but because she had had a nervous breakdown in school. Her older sister had enlisted in the Air Force and was, at the time of the novel, a hostage in the Middle East, still missing. Angie is repeating her freshman year because of the breakdown that happened after her sister was reported missing–she had tried to kill herself during a pep rally.
Angie’s parents are divorced; her adopted older brother is mean to her; her mother won’t buy her new clothes until she loses weight, so she has to walk around in too-tight clothing. At the end of the opening scene gym class, in walks KC Romance, a tall girl wearing a short skirt and fishnets–she is the one person in school who looks at Angie with interest. KC seems to genuinely like Angie, but Angie can’t quite figure out why–she is awkward and anxious and was diagnosed with PTSD after her freakout at the rally.
But they become friends, of a sort, and then more. And KC admits to having been a cutter. Angie decides to try out for the varsity basketball team, like her sister had, and practices every day. She makes the team, but the other freshman that made it is mean girl Stacy. By the end, we find out that Angie’s sister isn’t missing any longer–they found her body. Angie starts running and doesn’t stop.
The anti-fat bias is so, so hard to read–Angie is bombarded with it from everywhere, except from Jake, her neighbor and friend, and from KC. However, she doesn’t let the bullying stop her from pushing herself physically, not necessarily for weight loss, but primarily so she can feel closer to her sister and make the basketball team. So that’s somewhat fat positive. The author also included some scenes of disordered eating by Angie, which perpetuates fat stereotypes.
I did like the relationship between Angie and KC, and how KC made Angie feel braver, and there are some truths, like:
It’s so hard when the person you look like on the outside doesn’t really match how you feel on the inside.
So I have to consider this one mixed anti-fat and fat positive, probably a lot more anti-fat. The fat positivity is much more subtle.
Reading While Fat 