Review of Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly deVos (digital arc)

 

 

Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly deVos

 

Don’t miss this unforgettable debut novel, told in two timelines, about smart fashion, pursuing your dreams, and loving yourself!

FAT.

High school senior Cookie Vonn’s post-graduation dreams include getting out of Phoenix, attending Parsons and becoming the next great fashion designer. But in the world of fashion, being fat is a cardinal sin. It doesn’t help that she’s constantly compared to her supermodel mother—and named after a dessert.

Thanks to her job at a fashion blog, Cookie scores a trip to New York to pitch her portfolio and appeal for a scholarship, but her plans are put on standby when she’s declared too fat too fly. Forced to turn to her BFF for cash, Cookie buys a second seat on the plane. She arrives in the city to find that she’s been replaced by the boss’s daughter, a girl who’s everything she’s not—ultrathin and superrich. Bowing to society’s pressure, she vows to lose weight, get out of the friend zone with her crush, and put her life on track.

SKINNY.

Cookie expected sunshine and rainbows, but nothing about her new life is turning out like she planned. When the fashion designer of the moment offers her what she’s always wanted—an opportunity to live and study in New York—she finds herself in a world full of people more interested in putting women down than dressing them up. Her designs make waves, but her real dream of creating great clothes for people of all sizes seems to grow more distant by the day.

Will she realize that she’s always had the power to make her own dreams come true?

 

My thoughts:

 

I thought this was a great debut.  I highly suggest reading the author’s note.  It explains why the book is written the way it is and how it started from a personal experience on a plane.

 

Fat Girl on a Plane is told by one narrator, Cookie Von.  But it is told in alternating chapters starting two years apart.

 

Cookie is a high school senior.  She is in love with her best friend, Tommy, and is over 300 pounds.  Cookie’s mom is a supermodel and her dad is a doctor.  But neither are there for her and she lives with her grandma in Arizona.  Cookie wants to be a fashion designer.  Right now she blogs and makes clothes at home.  The story starts with Cookie trying to go to NYC to interview a fashion designer, Gareth Miller.   But Cookie runs into a huge problem at the airport.  She is told that she has to buy a second seat and may have to take another flight if the current one is full.  It doesn’t matter that she just got off a plane and fit in the seat.  They looked her over and decided she was too big for one seat.  Cookie is embarrassed and has even bigger issues when a rude teenager wants to sit in her extra purchased seat.

 

Cookie decides that she needs to lose weight.  She has goals and fat girls aren’t treated well in fashion.  So she joins a diet program and starts exercising.  Everything becomes about losing weight, designing clothes, and getting into her dream school, Parsons.

 

The skinny Cookie chapters start two years later.  She is down almost 200 pounds and now looks like her mom.  She is going to NYC to interview Gareth Miller.  She never got to the first time around, but now she’s thin and beautiful.  Everyone looks her in the eyes now.  They talk to her and treat her like she’s perfect.  Cookie confronts Gareth on why he doesn’t make fashion for plus sized girls, especially when the average size is a 12-14.  Gareth’s recent line doesn’t do well, so he decides to work with Cookie.  She ends up working and living with him.  They start a relationship and she needs to decide if she wants the perfect life handed to her or if she wants to work and earn things herself.

 

I really liked this book.  It was such a unique way of telling the story.  We see Cookie struggling in different ways when she’s overweight and when she’s thin.  I loved her growth in personality towards the end of the book.  Her best girlfriend, Piper, was amazing, too.  I would actually love a whole book about her.  I also loved Cookie’s grandma.  Her parents sucked, but her grandma loved her more than anything.

 

I gave this book 4  1/2 stars (rounded up to 5 on goodreads).  Thank you to Harlequin Teen and Edelweiss for my copy for review.

 

Fat Girl on a Plane will be published June 5th, 2018 by Harlequin Teen.

 

I am loving all these books lately with plus sized girls that learn to love themselves no matter what size they are.  Which ones have you read?  Some others I recommend are:  The Summer of Jordi Perez, Rebel with a Cupcake, Dumplin, and Puddin.