The Poet X (2018) by Elizabeth Acevedo is an award-winning YA novel-in-verse that just blew me away. The audiobook is narrated by the author, which I especially loved, as you hear the pacing and intonation as she intended. Xiomara (pronounced See-oh-MAH-ruh) lives in Harlem with her parents and twin brother. They are 15 and Dominican,Continue reading “The Poet X”
Category Archives: Fat Positive
The Make-Up Test
The Make-Up Test (2022), by Jenny Howe, is a fat-positive, second chance romance set in the fraught world of the Academy. It’s filled with dogs, geeky medieval literature references, impostor syndrome and extreme competitiveness, and a difficult parental relationship that included a lot of anti-fatness. And the best part is how Howe describes the mainContinue reading “The Make-Up Test”
A Delicate Deception
A Delicate Deception (2019) by Cat Sebastian is the third book in the Regency Impostors series, set in 1824, and it is so much more than the cover shows. The cover seems to show an opposite-sex couple, both with an “ideal” body-size. (I use “ideal” in quotes because I don’t believe in an ideal bodyContinue reading “A Delicate Deception”
The Sound of Stars
The Sound of Stars (2020) by Alechia Dow blew me away! I wish I remembered how I found out about it, given that it’s been out nearly 4 years and I want to read more just like it. Ellie (Janelle) Baker is 17, living in a building in New York with her parents, after anContinue reading “The Sound of Stars”
Full of Myself
Full of Myself: A Graphic Memoir About Body Image (Pub. Date April 2, 2024) by Siobhán Gallagher is a nicely-done, visually-appealing memoir in graphic form, dealing with difficult topics, such as body image, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Siobhán starts off with her childhood in the Canadian Maritimes, as she began keeping a diary asContinue reading “Full of Myself”
At First Spite
At First Spite (February 13, 2024) is the incomparable Olivia Dade’s newest romance, the first in her Harlot’s Bay series, set in a fictional coastal Maryland small town. She is always explicitly fat-positive, and At First Spite is no exception. We first meet Athena Greydon at her engagement party to pediatrician Johnny Vine, where sheContinue reading “At First Spite”
Really Cute People
Really Cute People (pub. date March 12, 2024) is a queer romance unlike any I’ve read before, primarily because it was a polyamorous romance between a nonbinary single person with a queer couple–a queer trans man and a bisexual woman. I so enjoyed it! The nonbinary single person–Charlie Dee–works for a nonprofit and is burnedContinue reading “Really Cute People”
Skye Falling
Skye Falling (2021) by Mia McKenzie was both hilarious and heartbreaking in nearly equal measure. Bad things happen, as they do in the world, but Skye’s perspective and ability to find humor made me laugh through the tears. Skye owns a Black travel agency, leading groups traveling around the world, living her best life. She’sContinue reading “Skye Falling”
Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia
In Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia (pub. January 9, 2024), Kate Manne has gathered current research and writing about fatness, anti-fat bias (fatphobia), and diet culture, and added her own philosophical analysis (she is a philosophy professor at Cornell), creating something completely original. I’ve been aware of the possibility of being a fat person whoContinue reading “Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia”
A Holly Jolly Ever After
Finishing up the year right–with the third fat-positive romance review in a row–is A Holly Jolly Ever After (2023) by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone, the team that brought us A Merry Little Meet Cute. This time, we have Kallum, the “funny” member of the boy band INK, who has moved home to run aContinue reading “A Holly Jolly Ever After”
Reading While Fat 