Nice Girls Endure

Sixteen-year-old Chelsea Duvay is an overweight introvert and musical theater aficionado trying to survive high school bullies and her mother’s ham-fisted attempts to help her lose weight. After Chelsea is assaulted and humiliated in an alley at her school’s Spring Fling dance, a friendship with eccentric and supportive classmate Melody, anxiety medication, and a school video project help her push back against the trauma she’s suffered. Told from Chelsea’s perspective in chapters that are usually just a few pages long, the story unfolds like a series of stream-of-conscious anecdotes or diary entries, with little plot continuity connecting her musings about her relationship with her parents, the taunts and criticisms she endures, and her hard-to-shake feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment. Struyk-Bonn (Whisper) gives Chelsea a blunt voice and frank wit, and her hard-won triumphs and ability to regain her self-confidence come without resorting to oft-seen and ill-advised weight-loss plotlines. However, she also winds up something of an untethered narrator, flitting from topic to topic. Ages 14–up. [em]Agent: Dawn Michelle Frederick, Red Sofa Literary. (Aug.) [/em]