Title: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega
Author: Crystal Maldonado
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Holiday House (Penguin Random House)
Date published: February 2, 2021

A complimentary digital copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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 Review ⬻

My experience with Fat Chance, Charlie Vega was unique. I spent a large portion of the book feeling frustrated…not because I disliked the writing or because I disliked anything at all really. My frustration came from the way Charlie handled certain things because she handled them the same way that I did in high school. Also, some of the people in her life…

I won’t go into too much detail on this in order to avoid spoilers, but when I think back on high school, the emotion that is at the forefront is anger at myself for wasting so much time worrying about what people who shouldn’t have mattered thought of me.

I would never want to return to that time willingly, but if it were forced on me, I know that I would probably be a lot happier because I have become more comfortable in my own skin and confident in my abilities since leaving that teenage angst behind me.

I was becoming more and more frustrated with Charlie, and also the people around her and it was definitely affecting my overall experience of the book. But this changed when I watched an interview conducted by my friend Dayla with the author, Crystal Maldonado, on Indigo’s Instagram. I was a little over halfway through at this point and was really struggling with picking the book up again. The interview between Dayla and Crystal Maldonado made me realize that I was approaching the book from the wrong perspective while also making me face my frustration with my own past self.

Right after the interview ended, I dove back into Fat Chance, Charlie Vega with a different mindset and really enjoyed the rest of the book! After reading the last page I sat there and really thought about how real the author made Charlie Vega feel for it to bring up all of my own high school emotions.

While I can’t speak on what Charlie experienced due to her racial background and will turn to own voices reviewers for thoughts on that (also encouraging you to do the same), everything else was so relatable for me that it was legitimately painful. This is a great coming of age story and if you do find that you struggle with the first bit as I did, I recommend that you push through because it’s worth it.

⤖ About the Authors ⬻

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.

⤖ Places to Purchase the Book ⬻

⤖ Let’s Chat ⬻

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS!