While the pervasive magic and concept of the Fates as a religious system add interest, other fantasy elements are haphazardly incorporated without enough time devoted to building a cohesive world. The writing style fluctuates from clever and original to overly verbose and often confusing in its jumble of senses. The bargain they strike sends her on a dark and magical journey throughout the land.

Evangeline desperately prays to the Prince of Hearts, a dangerous and fickle Fate famed for his heart that is waiting to be revived by his one true love-and his potentially lethal kisses. Despite inheriting a steady trust in magic, belief in her late mother’s homeland of the mystical North (where fantastical creatures live), and philosophy of hope for the future, her dreams are dashed when Luc, her love, pledges to marry Marisol instead. When her father passes away, Evangeline is left with her cold stepmother and kind but distant stepsister, Marisol. Readers who are looking for high-school pettiness should go for Nico Medina’s Fat Hoochie Prom Queen (2008).Īfter praying to a Fate for help, Evangeline discovers the dangerous world of magic. Skip this one, and try Charles Butler's The Fetch of Mardy Watt (2004) instead, a far superior fantasy about a self-loathing fat heroine and her male best friend. Touching the folds of flesh that weren't there all those years ago.' Final messages about inner beauty are drowned in waves of fat hate and eating-as-disorder. Through defeating the devastating magic that would destroy her home, Gwen learns to love her body (more or less), but not before regaling readers with overwhelming self-loathing: 'I cringe as I force away the mental image of him.

Yet inexplicably, the boy who's been her BFF since first grade still likes her, despite being rich, popular and attractive! There must be something creepy afoot, and indeed there is. Now Wish-whose Facebook photos all depict a tanned surfer god- is returning home, horrifying Gwen. Her 'cheeks look like two fat red balloons' or 'two giant pimples on the verge of popping.' For four years, Gwen's been carrying on an e-mail relationship with her childhood best friend, Wish, who moved to California at 12. Gwendolyn ('Dough') is fat -and lest readers think she might have other characteristics, Gwen speaks of nothing else. It takes dark magic to make attractive people love fat girls.

Drowned by Cyn Balog