I did not know going into this book that it was a sequel but I enjoyed the message nonetheless. Great representation in this book as well. I would recommend this to teens.

Thank you Netgalley and Candlewick Press for the e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Candlewick Press for the e-Advanced Reader's Copy of Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo in exchange for an honest review. Although I'm grateful for a copy, receiving it will not review or my rating.

I want to say going into it, I was unaware that this was actually the second book of a series. Which for me, did have an impact on the story.
I struggled with writing this review for about two days for a couple of reasons.
The first is I really liked the premise of the book. I found it to be all inclusive with a variety of reps that I identify and don't identify with.
However, the second reason is that I didn't enjoy the book and almost DNF'd it at least three to four times while reading it. This was in large part due to the author's writing style. For me, it was very choppy without any flow to it. I also wasn't a fan of some of the dialogue between characters and inner monologue from the main character Angie. Also, apart from maybe two, I found it difficult to connect with her characters. They all had distinct voices and she wrote their personalities well, but I didn't have any emotions or regard for them.

On the flip side, I liked the plot development and character development for the main character Angie. The setting was written very well. And the story was humorous, full of tension, and hard-hitting, I think all the story needed was a bit of a flow and it would've been really good.

I loved the positive message this book gave about body image. Many teens and students of mine will be able to relate to the character and journey she went through.

Adored this book. Walking with Angie my heard broke for her so many times. Dealing with and interpreting a parent grieving the loss of a child while grieving the loss of a sibling has created major hurdles for Angie. Coupled with her own teenage struggles for self-acceptance and personal discovery, she’s walking a lonely road. Enter Jamboree, Zeke and other unexpected allies. This story is a beautiful ambling walk through life as a teen. Road trips, laughter and the heartache of first loves. Makes me want to revisit my teens and do it right!

This wasn’t really a book I enjoyed, I found it quite sad and hard to read, I hadn’t read the previous book so maybe I needed to do that to understand her character. I must admit I skipped some of the story. Not for me. I gave it only 3 stars mainly because I the bits I did read were written well, but I just not not like the bullying and abuse in such detail. Very upsetting.

Going in I was wondering if I was going to miss something because this is a sequel, but it did not bother me (too much). What did was that Angie is overweight, gay, and being bullied at school and her her BFF is dating Angie's’ tormentor?!? I mean, #WTF! I just had a very hard time enjoying the book because it was like everyone was a douche or a#$hole!!

I liked, the fact that the book delved into so many topics that face teenagers but I just couldn’t get into the book because I had major issues with Angie’s mom! I wanted to like the book but being a Mom, myself, I just couldn't understand how you cannot fully “understand” your own child?!? I know, this is a reality but I just couldn’t “go there” with this book!

I rated this book 2.75/5 stars. Mostly due to my issues with the mom and her BFF. I had a hard time finishing the novel---I did but begrudgingly! Can’t really say, I can recommend reading this, but some may enjoy it.

Thank you Candlewick Press and Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review.

TW: fatphobia, physical assault, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, self-harm, homophobia, panic attacks, depression, anxiety

Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution is a challenging read. Angie is encountering trouble from all angles: emotionally and physically bullied at school, dealing with her mother who wants to send her to a 'treatment center' because of Angie being both fat and gay, reeling from the death of her sister, and having trouble getting through to her friends. My heart ached for Angie and the first half of this book is really difficult to get though, but as soon as Angie embarks on the road trip, I began to see Angie bloom as a character.

The first half of the book just consisted of my empathy for Angie's situation - trapped in a family who doesn't understand her (her mother is just something else entirely), without any friends, and struggling with her grief. Part of what make my heart ache for Angie is how much her mother does not understand her, how emotionally abusive and just downright toxic she is. And so I'm rooting for Angie to prevail, even though basically everything is against her.

There was just something about Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution that immediately caught my eye and made me want to read it. As someone who has always struggled with her weight and had a pretty miserable time during high school, I thought I was going to be able to relate to this story... But I guess it just wasn't ment to be. I'm aware of the fact that I didn't realize beforehand that this was a sequel and this might have played a role in my reaction to this story. I will keep this in mind and any missing background information is of course my own fault. My reaction to Fat Angie and my decision to DNF it are based on my experience with the sequel alone. I feel sad I had to take the decision to DNF as I rarely do that, but I'll try to explain below why I didn't see other way out. First of all I like to state that this is probably another case of this story simply not being a right fit for me. I thought I was able to connect to the main character as I had some of the same struggles during my time in high school. Sadly, I wasn't all that impressed by Angie. She seems over the top, almost like a cartoon and not at all the realistic representation of a teenager struggling with her weight and the other things going on in her life. I was seriously frustrated by the way she behaved and expressed herself and I felt she was being turned into a cliche with almost too many different elements that were supposed to marginalize here being jammed inside her character (weight struggles, panic disorder, suicide attempt, dead sister, being queer, having almost no real friends, bullying, best friend ignoring her etc etc.). It felt like an overload of different elements being dumped on you instead of creating a realistic situation and this made the story less credible. I also really struggled with the writing style. The story didn't really flow for me, it was packed with cliches and between short sentences and interruptions with definitions I struggled to find the motivation to keep reading. The plot moves quite slow, or at least up until the point where I stopped reading (about a third in, and the roadtrip hadn't made its appearance yet apart from a brief mention in a letter). Between the writing style, almost cartoonish extreme reactions and violence, overload of different elements stuffed in the same character and that same character being unlikeable I saw no other choice than to DNF Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution.

<b>*3.5 Stars*</b>

I had already started this when I saw on Goodreads that this was actually a sequel. It didn't bother me all that much though. One can read this without having read this first book.
I wouldn't know how to describe this plot, but I'm gonna try.

So, Angie is gay, fat and bullied because of it. Her whole school only contains idiots and assholes and her best friend is now dating her torturer. So everything is going horribly when she receives a belated letter from her dead sister and she decides to go on a trip to achieve this bucket list her sister meant to do with her. But she doesn't have a car and is supposedly grounded since her mother is the worst. But she goes for it anyway with her ex-friend who ghosted her years ago.

This is a shitty summary but it'd have to do.
This has some good sides and some not so good sides. I felt for Angie most of the time, her entire support system is kind of the worst. She's also very stubborn and has lots of flaws but that only made her more relatable. I enjoyed the road trip but some of the other characters felt too forced and not real, I guess? I don't know what to say. I'm not sure how I felt. I liked this ok but I don't think I'll read the first book in this series... It did make me feel a lot at times though. Especially because of her mother, whom drove me insane.
Anyway, this might have been my worst written review yet but I'm going with it.

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book, I couldn't finish it. I didn't realize it was a sequel so I felt like the book was coming at me hard and fast from the beginning and I was so lost. I also had a hard time digesting the writing style. I felt like I was reading one run on sentence after another. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

At first this book made me really uncomfortable. The amount of violence, fatphobia and homophobia in the first quarter or so of the book was almost unbearable for me to read but I kept going. I was really close to completely give up on it to preserve myself but then the road trip part happened and drastically changed my mind. It was so revigorating to read about Angie, a fat, depressed, lesbian and suffering from panic attacks girl going through this process of freeing herself and learn to be unapologeticaly her in front of others. The moment we met Zeke was the moment I knew I would love this book. It was refreshing to have a main character like Angie and just like her you cannot help but start to love every other character she becomes close to in this story.

Fat Angie Rebel Girl Revolution is the sequel to the Stonewall Award winning Fat Angie. The novel opens with the fallout from the previous novels’ ending. Angie has been dealing with a suicide attempt, the loss of her girlfriend, who moved away, and the death of her military sister. An outcast at school, for being overweight and a lesbian, Angie struggles with intense bullying.

As if what is happening in her life isn’t enough, Angie’s relationship with her mother is toxic. “Why did it have to be the good one?” Angie overhears her mother in reference to her daughter’s death. Without a support system at home, the bullying escalates at school so much that Angie’s mom will be sending her to a faith based rehabilitation facility to focus on her “sexual identity crisis”. With life kicking her when she’s already down, Angie embarks on a journey her deceased sister has left.

There are so many 80’s and 90’s references you’d think Angie lived during that time. Even the road trip quest fits the nostalgic feel. This feel provides a fun balance to the heaviness of Angie’s struggles. The dynamic between Angie and her mom is so heart wrenching I would be interested in seeing how that transcends in the future.

A great read, uncomfortable reading at times but tells an important story that needs to be shared. Great representation, made me cry a few times. This is well worth reading it’s well paced, the characters are well written and relatable. Moving is an understatement

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

While I really enjoyed the overall feel of Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution and the characters, I feel that the narrative was trying too hard. It could very well be a writing style that just isn't my cup of tea.

The characters were well fleshed out and relatable so that was a big point!

Angie's life is in absolute shambles. It is the start of a new school year, her sister is dead, having been killed while serving overseas in the military, her girlfriend has moved away to Texas to live with her father and her best friend has ghosted.

Returning to school, Angie faces extreme bullying and acts of violence. During one particularly heinous incident, she stands up to her bully and breaks his nose. Since no one will come forward and tell the truth, that she was protecting herself from a violent assault, Angie is now facing expulsion.

Her mother, an absolutely atrocious woman who can CHOKE, is threatening to send Angie away to in inpatient treatment center. Suffering from severe depression, grief over the loss of her sister and debilitating panic attacks, Angie is left to navigate what is left of her life essentially on her own.

This book was difficult to read. I was uncomfortable pretty much the entire time and now that I am done, I am not comfortable assigning a star-rating. I know this may seem silly but I just can't narrow down my thoughts to one number.

This book was oddly compelling. The writing was a little strange to me and the narrative was much more 'stream of consciousness'-based than I tend to like but I could not stop reading.

I wanted to know where Angie would end up and how her life would go. She is a character who is in a really bad place, physically, mentally, emotionally and literally, her home is terrible. She doesn't feel positive about anything in her life and was just so down on herself. It hurt to read this.

In addition to all of that, there are horrible scenes of violence, fat-shaming and hate speech. I questioned at times whether or not it was necessary for the plot and I'm not sure. At times, it almost felt like certain aspects were thrown in more for shock value but I don't know, life does get messy sometimes. Ugh, I am just so torn on this one, you guys.

As a consumer reviewer, I can tell you this story made me uncomfortable, but I feel by 'judging' (aka. adding a rating) it, I am in essence casting judgement on the author's story. 'Isn't that what we always do?' you may ask. In a way, yes, but this story just felt so personal, probably due to the 'stream of consciousness' narrative, and it did have a lot of aspects to it that I liked and respected but other things that felt 'off'.

I am making zero sense right now, I know. That is what this book will do you.

I wouldn't know where to begin in recommending this book to anyone. Trigger warnings are too numerous to list but there was a lot of diversity and a lot of serious topics that should be explored more.

The road trip aspect of the story was my favorite element. Basically, before Angie's sister was killed, she wrote a letter to Angie listing a bunch of things she wanted to experience with her, via a road trip in their state, when she got back home. Since she never made it back, Angie, along with her sister's urn, convinces an old friend to take her parent's RV and drive them to the different locations listed in the letter. They are joined by two additional characters and your typical road trip hijinks ensue.

It is important to note that this book is a continuation to a prior book, titled Fat Angie. I never read that first book and I don't feel like I was missing anything. This felt like a complete story to me. If you are interested in this one, and haven't read the first, it is my opinion that you do not need to go back and read that first one.

This is not my typical review. In fact, I have been dreading writing this. No gifs, no attempts at humor, this story just doesn't seem the place for it. My final decision is to not add a star rating. I want people to read this. I want to hear other's opinions on this. I think there are so many important issues throughout this that should be discussed more, not just the 'real life' issues but how we express and take in those topics via literature.

*Please note, I did not want to give this a star-rating.

This book chronicles Angie's life after she finds out that her sister, who had been captured by enemy forces while overseas, is dead. Her mother is the opposite of comforting and her brother is hardly around. Angie was incredibly close to her sister, and no upon the discovery of her death, she is torn apart with no hope of ever getting over it.

Angie struggles with her sexuality and her mother's view of it and after yet another breakdown, she goes on a road trip with a group of unlikely companions.

So, I gave the first book in this series a 5 stars. I absolutely loved it and thought the writing was great and the characters were relatable. This book follows a bit of a new cast, and I can't say I really liked them all that much.

I couldn't really stand their negative attitudes about everything - including each other. We also saw a lot more of Angie's mother and I obviously couldn't stand her. However, it wasn't because she treated Angie cruelly, it was because she was completely unrealistic.

I did, however, enjoy Angie's character arc and her growing relationship with her former friends and her brother. We saw the worst of people, but also were given an insight into how forgiveness can change people.

I still enjoyed reading this book and am grateful that NetGalley provided it to me in exchange for a review.

I felt like I wanted to protect Angie the whole way through. The mother is pure emotional abuse and I felt really angry with her character.

It tells the story of Angie as she tries to work through her grief after her ‘perfect’ sister dies whilst deployed with the army. She is also having to deal with the bullies who verbally & physically attack her because she is fat, gay & attempted suicide in school when her sister had just died.

I think this book could be really relateable for those battling depression, bullying, grief and being openly gay in high school.

The book focuses on the worst things happening in Angie's world; her best friend has suddenly flaked on her while her former(?) girlfriend has fucked off across the country, her sister's memorial seems more like a ploy by her mother to gain public notice and/or sympathy, and going to school is torture after an abundance of bad things happened the previous year.
Super cheesy (and at times straight-up awkward) writing made it hard for me to get through, until about the halfway point where the true story kind of begins. There's a lot of set-up, most of which is important, but some that I think is more of the 'you should read go back and read the first book for more info' category. I ended up loving the book regardless of this, it incorporates a lot of issues (without making them the main theme) into a brilliant story dealing with self-confidence, bullying and ultimately, navigating difficult relationships.

This novel gave me all the feels! The characters are so real and so complicated; I wanted to reach through the screen and hug Angie on multiple occasions. Great story, great pacing, and the ending was perfection.

More trouble at school and at home — and the discovery of a missive from her late soldier sister — send Angie and a long-ago friend on an RV road trip across Ohio.

Sophomore year has just begun, and Angie is miserable. Her girlfriend, KC, has moved away; her good friend, Jake, is keeping his distance; and the resident bully has ramped up an increasingly vicious and targeted campaign to humiliate her. An over-the-top statue dedication planned for her sister, who died in Iraq, is almost too much to bear, and it doesn't help that her mother has placed a symbolic empty urn on their mantel. At the ceremony, a soldier hands Angie a final letter from her sister, including a list of places she wanted the two of them to visit when she got home from the war. With her mother threatening to send Angie to a “treatment center” and the situation at school becoming violent, Angie enlists the help of her estranged childhood friend, Jamboree. Along with a few other outsiders, they pack into an RV and head across the state on the road trip Angie's sister did not live to take. It might be just what Angie needs to find a way to let her sister go, and find herself in the process.

I loved this book! Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution is the continuation of Fat Angie which won the Stonewall Award and follows the story of Angie, a fat, queer girl who is on a journey to discover her identity while enduring the ruthless bigotry of her fellow classmates as well as mourning the loss of her soldier sister. This is the follow up I had hoped it would be. While there are some dark moments, this book sparks hope for the reader and is complete with 80s music references, an epic road trip and some amazing new characters. This book is a celebration of queer and fat bodies and I can't wait to read more.

Fortunately and refreshingly, the text gives Angie no weight-loss arc…A welcomingly awkward, offbeat journey for a "gay-girl with many heartaches.