Hello, friends! I am unbelievably excited to be talking about Fat Chance, Charlie Vega today. This book is so very close to my heart and I cannot wait for all of you to read it and love it the way I do.
I would like to extend my gratitude to Turn the Page Tours for having me on this tour and to the publisher for granting me an e-ARC. My opinions are not affected by this fact and are entirely my own.
Be sure to check out the other blog tour stop today at Leann Reads Books. Find the tour schedule here.
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Title: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega
Author: Crystal Maldonado
Age Category: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Holiday House
Release Date: 2 February 2021
Length: 352 pages (Hardcover)
Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard.
Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.
Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.
People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.
But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.
A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.
My Rating:
Content Warning(s) for the book: fatphobia, internalised fatphobia, mentions of racism and internalised racism
Representation in the book: mid-to-super fat and biracial (white and Puerto Rican) MC, small fat and Korean-American love interest with one Korean-American and one white mom in a sapphic relationship, Black and pansexual best friend in a sapphic relationship
Note: the categorisation I’ve done here are based on the fatness spectrum by The Fat Lip podcast and based on my reading of the book. The author did not denote or state these categorisations.
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega was everything I have always wanted from a book about fat acceptance. Most books about fat acceptance are such fairytales. Fat person hates their body, they fall in love, and they start loving their body. Only if it was that easy. Which is why I appreciated the nuance of Charlie’s relationship with her body so much. It wasn’t just simple hate she had for her body, it was something so much more complicated.
Charlie, who regularly interacts with the fat acceptance movement online, understands that thin bodies does not equal healthy bodies, gets into fights with her mom about her always pushing Charlie to lose weight, dresses fashionably and understands that her body is not inherently bad, but society tries very hard to convince her of that. It was the subtle and refined point of view that we needed to see from a fat protagonist. Another deviation from the norm was how Charlie was not the self-pitying, narcissistic fat protagonist I have seen a million times. She understood how her race and economic situation, as well as others’, was perceived by the world.
This book is unabashedly fat in the way it brings out those insecurities and treatment that fat people face in the world without a lens of judgement. I loved every ugly and unassumingly vile thought that Charlie had, because it was so damned relatable. They were the exact same thoughts I have had and will continue to have, with regards to always being picked second, constantly comparing myself to my thin friends, wishing my body to be smaller every time I went shopping, yearning for love and affection all the while believing I was undeserving of it. I was incredibly heartbroken when it was revealed that Brian had asked her best friend Amelia out before he started going out with Charlie, because I could understand exactly what Charlie felt in that moment. When you spend your life being second best to someone just because of your fatness, it leaves a deep resentment that doesn’t make us hate that person, but our own self.
Another aspect of this book that I really admired was the fact that the abrasive treatment that Charlie had received throughout her life wasn’t paraded around like a cruel montage of the worst moments of her life. It was apparent in the way those moments had shaped the way she thinks and operates. It might not seem like a big deal, but it was important to me to not have to consistently experience fatphobia second-hand in everyday life, at hospitals, in buses, through the words of Charlie’s mother and more.
There is so much to appreciate in this book — the way Charlie’s fatness complicates her relationship with her mom, how her own best friend makes flippant remarks without realising that Charlie’s fatness makes her different from her, and the way the love interest doesn’t take the protagonist’s abrupt breaking-up lying down. He doesn’t just accept fault for Charlie’s thoughts and insecurities, he questions them and demands to be treated better; but, ultimately, is understanding. There were so many things I was afraid of while going into this book — of witnessing a public humiliation moment for Charlie, of reading a bad third-act breakup that was absolutely inane followed by a crappy apology, and of Charlie falling in love with some white guy, who is thin and athletic. Not that there is anything wrong with the last part, but I did not want to see this beautiful, fat, brown girl fall in love with a person who is everything that people tell her to strive for. So, it was important and wonderful for me to see her fall in love with a small-fat Korean boy who understood fatness and race, and how those two intersected. I liked how this book navigated some of the most popular tropes of YA romance books. Rather than giving Charlie is huge public embarrassment scene, it chose something smaller that was just as heartbreaking and awakening. It’s romantic wake-up call did not rely on some silly misunderstanding, but on Charlie’s insecurities, self-doubt and self-sabotage all of which was rooted in her life experiences and was valid.
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega is a story of learning to deal with your insecurities, always having room for growth, finding and believing yourself deserving of love. Although, its ending is very cliché with Charlie slowly letting go of her insecurities and a happily ever after, I do believe that fat people deserve these clichés too. It did not just make me feel seen , it told me that I too had room for growth and am deserving of love. It is beautiful exploration of moving through this world unseen but for your fatness, and I can hardly believe that its a debut. I would very highly recommend this book if you are looking for a feel-good romantic story about self-growth and learning to love oneself.
Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author with a lot of feelings. Her debut novel, FAT CHANCE, CHARLIE VEGA (Holiday House), will be released on Feb. 2, 2021.
By day, she is a social media manager working in higher ed, and by night, a writer who loves Beyoncé, shopping, the internet, and being extra.
She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.
Connect with Crystal Maldonado: Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Enter to win one (1) finished copy of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado! Open USA only. There will be 1 winner.
Giveaway starts: Monday, February 8, 2021
Giveaway ends: Monday, February 15, 2021 at 12:00 a.m. CST
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