[.ca] Fat Kid Rules The World (ISBN 0142402087)

checkers 1:
Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally there is a book that interests me in rock and a hard life. K.L. Going is going to go far with this book. Troy is a troubled fat kid with no friends. Curt is an awesome guitar player and becomes friends with Troy. Troy then learns to play the drums and they form a band(there is twice as much exciting events). This book is awesome. It is very suspenseful, exciting, and it has the talk of a teenager. Like they swear and they smoke but its all part of a real life rock band, and it is a life of a teenager. There better be a sequel. 5 STARS!!!

Excellent!:
I loved this book! I fell in love with the characters. I actually laughed out loud and cried.

Nirvana + One Fat Kid =:
The ultimate love letter to a rocker long dead. Remembering reading a myriad of different reviews for this book when it first came out, I can recall some of the strongest criticism of it at the time. "Oh the book's too adoring of Kurt Cobain". "Oh the book spends too much time idealizing a dead drugged out rocker". "Oh the book can't be good because it's subject is so grimy". I'm paraphrasing of course, but these were the general comments directed at K.L. Going's first young adult novel. So I picked it up and read it and found that I relearned something that I need to constantly be reminded of time and again. Sometimes reviewers haven't a clue about really well written and worthwhile material. With that statement in mind (and me perfectly aware that I'm going to follow it up with, bum bum ba dum, a review) I present to you a book that I felt was deeply moving, touching, and downright hilarious. We open with our hero, Troy Billings, contemplating whether or not his suicide in front of a subway train will be amusing to the passersby. Troy is, after all, gargantuan. He's seventeen, six feet tall, and about three hundred pounds. He's lived his life in the face of constant ridicule and for once he's contemplating ending it there and then. His life is spared, however, by a chance meeting with a dirty grungy krustypunk kid sitting on the ground. This kid, as it turns out, is Curt MacCrae, local dropout rock god. An unlikely friendship blooms between these two, and Curt becomes absolutely 100 percent convinced that Troy is the drummer for him. Troy, of course, hasn't touched drums since the seventh grade, but Curt is oblivious to the problem. As the book follows these characters, Curt saves Troy's life in a myriad of different ways and Troy, ultimately, finds a way to save Curt's. This is the ultimate anti-b.s. book. Troy says exactly what he's thinking without fooling either himself or the reader. No fool, Troy is constantly aware that people find him peculiar to look at. To the book's credit, when Troy is convinced that something is going to fail he sometimes does. And Troy is capable of some magnificent failures in this story. At the same time, he's witty and urbane. And \oattractive\c. This guy is like any other seventeen year-old boy, and he's really got a thing for the wrists of attractive waitresses. The book uses slang without sounding dated or affected, and there's enough good natured profanity to lure kids into reading it. Curt is also the perfect spaz foil to Troy's oversized self. A sneaky slimy but ultimately fantastic friend to T (as he likes to call Troy) Curt is what Kurt Cobain could have become if he'd just befriended someone like the T-man at age twenty. You never doubt Curt's love for his new friend, even though his steadfast acceptance of Troy and all of Troy's fears is somewhat difficult to understand. Troy himself doesn't understand it fully, but it's everything he's ever wanted. This is the story of the unpopular fat kid getting picked by the popular punk at school and how it changes both their lives. I was hoping to get all the way through the book without hitting any snags or plot devices. For the most part, this book's pretty snag free. Sadly, though the book was written by a woman, the women portrayed in the story are few and far between. They pretty much end up being either waitresses or groupies. Hopefully Going's next book will give her gender a little more breathing room. Also, after reading through this tale I did end up wishing that Going had left it up to the reader to understand why Troy gained weight after his mother's death without explaining it, but it ties in nicely with the ways in which Troy's dad and brother also dealt with the tragedy. I loved how Troy could detect fear or emotional distress while watching others eat. And I just liked Troy. He's a likable guy, which is a huge bonus if you're going to read a book like this. If you didn't like either Troy or Curt you'd have a rough time getting through the story. Fortunately, Going is a skilled enough writer that you can read Troy's many worries and fears about his size without finding him whiny or oppressive. He has a sardonic sense of humor that saves him every time. I was disappointed by the ending of the book, though. Up until then, I had been pleased to see that Going wasn't making anything easy for her characters. Unfortunately the finale (and I won't give it away) seems a bit too pat. Too neat. And, in a way, too easy. I didn't want an unhappy ending, mind you, but I didn't like the way in which Troy instantly becomes close to his father and brother after years of estrangement. One last note on Going's writing. This is a woman who knows how to write a good musical sequence. I haven't read such poetic descriptions of rock since Emma Bull's lively, "War of the Oaks". This is a woman who knows how to make the pages wail with sound and color. When Troy feels elated at his first concert, you stand right there feeling elated with him. The book's all right. It's perhaps not the best teen novel out there these days, but it's a pretty good one just the same. I suggest you try it on for size. Even if you can't stand rock or Nirvana, this tale has the ability to take you out of yourself and into the head of a three hundred pound boy. It's an experience to enjoy.

Fat Kid Rules!:
This is an impressive debut novel from author, K. L. Going. Curt and Troy (aka Fat Kid) have formed an unlikely partnership to start a new punk rock band. Curt is already a legend and inexplicably has chosen Troy to be his new drummer. Curt's decision seems odd considering the fact that Troy doesn't know how to play drums and is consumed with self loathing over his obesity. But Curt keeps the faith, even after a memorable debut performance during which Troy vomits profusely over his drum set. But Troy isn't the only one consumed with fear. Curt is homeless and barely surviving living on the street, but he refuses to allow anyone to help him for long. Curt and Troy are both on a journey to learn how to conquer their inner demons. This is a story about faith, family, and conquering the fear that paralyzes you from accomplishing your dreams.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too:
Troy knows that everyone is watching him. And laughing at him. Of course they are. At seventeen years old and almost 300 pounds, wearing what appears to be the same pair of tan pants daily, every move he makes is laughable. Will he be able to get out of the car? How many burgers will he eat? Even his effort to breathe is laughable as he huffs and puffs his way along. He worries that he smells. You don't understand. It's not that he's a pig or anything, he just has a hard time fitting in the shower. Poised over the subway tracks, Troy contemplates whether he can find a form of suicide that will be so serious, so severe, that no one will laugh. Enter Curt. Semi-homeless teen, school dropout, legend at his high school, and uber amazing guitar player, Curt attaches himself to Troy after saving him from the tracks. He's an itch that can't be scratched, a tick burrowing under the skin. Before Troy realizes it, he's agreed to buy Curt dinner and join his band as a drummer, even though he hasn't played since seventh grade. Who is he kidding? He can't do this. He sees it in the eyes of his perfect kid brother, Dayle, as well as his military dad, the "disappointed dysfunctional parent." But with Curt's help, Troy learns to look past himself. He finds support in unexpected places. But it's not until Curt is hospitalized that Troy finally has the guts to really take a risk. This is a fast-paced book. K. L. Going immerses the reader in the world of punk rock through the eyes of the fat kid who yearns to have people really look at him. She has a great sense of humor that shines with lines of comparison, like when Troy compares himself to Dayle before the big gig. Troy thinks Dayle looks like he's "ready to win the Super Bowl, while I'm ready to heave into one." Ms. Going does an amazing job of getting into the psyche of the fat kid. There is a fair amount of rough language, but even so, this book rocks! Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger