The FAT ANGIE Giveaway!

Many of our readers know the award-winning filmmaker and author, e. E. Charlton-Trujillo, from her young adult novels, FEELS LIKE HOME and PRIZEFIGHTER EN MI CASA.

We were delighted to get an advanced ready copy (ARC) of her newest young adult novel, FAT ANGIE which releases March 12, and to share this copy with one our YA Fresh commenters!

Her sister was captured in Iraq, she’s the resident laughingstock at school, and her therapist tells her to count instead of eat. Can a daring new girl in her life really change anything?

“Charlton-Trujillo offers a hard-hitting third novel that swings between incredibly painful low moments and hard-won victories.” Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

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While we don’t often review books on YA Fresh, I was already a fan of e. E. Charlton-Trujillo’s writing, and became captivated by the publisher’s blurb referring to it as a “darkly comic anti-romantic romance,” so I jumped right in as soon as the book arrived.

Right from the get-go, it’s clear that Angie’s problems far outweigh the average teen’s.  She feels “broken--by her can’t-be-bothered mother, by her high-school tormenters, and by being the only one who thinks she varsity-athlete-turned-war-hero sister is still alive.”  She has attempted suicide inside the crowded school gym.  Her only solace is junk food--until a new girl, KC, arrives at school who “is one hundred and ninety-nine percent wow...and who knows too well that the package doesn’t always match what’s inside.”

FAT ANGIE wasn’t an easy book for me to absorb.  I put it down a few times to get a breather from the high-arcing tension and the characters who could have helped her, yet whose actions exacerbated Angie’s problems and pain.  Keeping the pages turning through the tough scenes for me was Charlton-Trujillo’s spot-on, wry prose, and the strong attachment she’d helped me develop to Angie, making me want to be there for this girl when others weren’t, and to root her on to the happiness I knew she would find, through KC, and her own evolving character.

With an age range of 14 and up, I give a full “five stars” to this tough, yet compelling  read.

And I’d like to share a couple “teaser” photos from the book trailer currently in progress, which I believe to be showing the actresses playing Angie, and some of her high school tormenters.

 

When the trailer is available, I’ll be sure to post it here for full viewing.

So now, for our giveaway.  Please drop down and leave us a comment, simply telling us why you’d like to win a ARC of FAT ANGIE!