Review: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado
Photo by Carli Jeen on Unsplash
Synopsis:
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 out Amelia first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even see her?
Because it’s time people did.
I wasn’t blown away.
“I am endlessly surrounded by messages that tell me to love myself…to be unapologetically me…But I’m also surrounded by messages that I need to lose weight, I need to be tiny to be loved…Is it any wonder then, I still find myself wishing so badly for this body to be smaller?”
I don’t know. I really wanted to like this book. I love the cover (I know I’m obsessed with covers), and I loved the idea behind it, and I think Charlie’s struggles are relatable to everyone. I guess the problem I had with the book was that I didn’t feel truly connected with any of the characters. The lack of development in the side characters, even Charlie’s best friend Amelia, made it really hard for me to fall into the story.
The first part of the book is dedicated to Charlie’s all-consuming crush on golden boy Cal. But after he humiliates her, he just disappears and we never hear from him again. They live in a very small town, they’re supposed to be in the same history class, so how could he just fall off the face of the earth? I guess I was just expecting some final resolution where Charlie either further confronts Cal about his behavior, or Cal realizes the error of his ways and apologizes, but we don’t get any satisfying conclusion to that part of the story.
This was my main problem: Characters just pop in and out depending on the needs of the narrative. There’s a scene towards the end of the book where Charlie goes out with her cousins—who we’ve only seen one other time—and they talk about how Charlie hasn’t really hung out with them since her father died. But this was never mentioned before, so when she decides to commit to spending more time with them, it doesn’t have as much of an emotional impact as it should have.
I also felt like
Charlie’s relationship with her mother could have been fleshed out more. I mean for most of the book, her mother is just terrible! She keeps pushing these diet shakes onto Charlie, and making comments about Charlie’s weight, even in front of other people. At one point, she even tries to force Charlie to commit to a daily weigh-in! The tension between them was so realistic, but there doesn’t seem to be any real resolution. It’s true, they do discuss some of their issues, but her mother’s obsession with Charlie’s weight is never brought up. And Charlie grows so much throughout the novel, it was a shame that she doesn’t tell her mother just how hurtful her behavior is.
Even though I had some problems with the characters and the overall pacing of the story, I did enjoy reading this book. And again, I think Charlie was a very charismatic, relatable main character. Her relationship with her friend Amelia, and her feelings of inadequacy were definitely things I remember feeling myself when I was her age. And I love that romance wasn’t the end all be all, it was more about Charlie finding her voice and finally speaking up about what she wants out of life. But I still wanted a little more from the story and I wanted to know more about the characters.
“Just—promise me girls you won't devalue yourselves for anyone. And I mean anyone. You can't. You have to really be kind to yourself and look out for yourself because the world can be cold and cruel. Don't feel bad, ever, about putting yourself first.”
Content Warning: fatphobia, body shaming, death of a parent, toxic mother/daughter relationship.