Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution by E. E. Charlton-Trujillo (review)

It’s a new school year, but Angie can’t escape the remnants of the past one—her sister’s very public death in Iraq, her own failed suicide attempt, and the relentless bullying by her classmates. Now Angie’s best friend, Jake, is dating a girl who bullied her, her girlfriend KC has moved away, and her mother is making things worse by insisting on a garish statue to commemorate her “good” daughter, in contrast to Angie and her brother, whom her mother finds disappointing. At the dedication ceremony, a soldier gives Angie a letter from her sister that lists the sites she wanted to share with Angie on a road trip when she returned from Iraq. One bullying incident too many spikes Angie’s already grief-laced anger, earning her a school suspension and a threat from her mother to send her to a school that includes conversion therapy as part of its curriculum. Enlisting the help of a former friend with an RV, she embarks on a quest to fulfill her sister’s wishes. As with the previous book, some of the events here lapse into wish-fulfilling implausibility, but Angie’s grief arc is credible and even laudable, especially as she focuses her anger on apt targets this time instead of herself. Readers will need to be familiar with the first book (Fat Angie, BCCB 4/13) to understand the full details of her previous year, but the multiple references allow readers to infer the basis for her emotional state and follow and applaud her progress from victim to rebel.