Fat Chance, Charlie Vega

By Crystal Maldonado

Publisher Description

Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard. Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.

A NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD WINNER!

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?

Because it's time people did.

A sensitive, funny, and painfully honest 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.

An NPR Best Book of the Year!
Named to the TAYSHAS Reading List
A POPSUGAR Best New YA Novel!
A Cosmopolitan Best New Book!
A Bustle Most Anticipated Debut!

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1496 Reviews

4.0

Ana Alarcón

Created 3 days ago

alexdt

Created 4 days ago

“Was it a little cheesy? Yes. Was it giving Freshman? Yes, but Charlie and her friends are goals and I couldn’t help but root for her. I really enjoyed the deeper mother daughter aspect to this book. I kind of wish we could of explored that nuance a little more in relation to her boyfriend. Overall loved the diverse characters and the friendships forged.”

Believable Change and grow Diverse representation Strong relationships Predictable Realistic Easy to read Funny Straightforward Easy to follow Conversational Bigotry Fat phobia

Jasmine 🏳️‍🌈

Kate9586

Rebecca

“I ended up loving the story more than I thought I would. The main character was very relatable and the author did a great job expressing all the feelings, insecurities and worries of a teenage girl. It just really hit home. Just wanted to give Charlie a big hug.”

Believable Change and grow Diverse representation Multilayered Relatable Satisfying conclusion Steady pacing Engaging

About Crystal Maldonado

Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author of inclusive romcoms for fat, brown girls. She has written the award-winning novels The Fall of Whit Rivera; Fat Chance, Charlie Vega; and No Filter and Other Lies, as well as a middle grade novel called Camp Sylvania: Moon Madness, co-written with #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy. Her forthcoming YA romcom, Get Real, Chloe Torres, releases in spring 2025. Follow her everywhere @crystalwrote.