The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding
CW: Parents Not Believing Their Child, Emotionally Bad Experience with a Cop, Fat-phobia, Fat-shaming, Queerphobia, Heteronormativity, Self-esteem Issues, Capitalism, Bad Parents, Unpaid Internship, Diet Talk
5/5
It's official! This is the 84th book that I have read this year, breaking my record of 83 in 2021! It was a very good choice of book to do that with. The Summer of Jordi Perez is a cute queer teen romance with a fat main character! Author, Amy Spalding, is plus sized herself, giving the book an "Own Voices" element. I, the reviewer, am also fat. Further down I will talk about my personal relationship to the book and its themes.
The Summer of Jordi Perez (and The Best Burger in Los Angeles) is about Abby Ives, a gay teen fashion blogger experiencing her first big crush. When she starts her summer internship, she's blindsided with the news that she'll be sharing it with her classmate, Jordi Perez. What's even worse is that they'll be competing for a job set to start in the fall. Instead of hating each other though, they fall for each other. Unfortunately, first relationships are hard to navigate and neither girl is as sure of themselves as they seem. They'll have to be patient if they want things to work.
This book is cute, sweet, and just the right amount of serious. Abby has had small crushes before Jordi, but over the course of the book she experiences a lot of "firsts" for crushing and then "firsts" for dating. She obsesses over Jordi, second guesses every interaction, gushes to a friend, and more. While the relationship between Abby and Jordi is cute to experience, the characters also deal with important matters. They both have parents that don't see the best in them. Abby's mom is disappointed in her weight and her lesbianism. Jordi's parents don't trust her to behave. They deal with self-esteem, heteronormativity, capitalism, mistakes, and more. I appreciate everything Spalding takes the time to tackle in The Summer of Jordi Perez.
I only disliked one part of the book, the subtitle. "And The Best Burger in Los Angeles" refers to the subplot between Abby and her new friend, a jock named Jax. However, I'm not sure it needed to be included in the title. Jax needs to rate burgers to help out with his father's new app idea. He wants to do it with Abby. It is a sweet subplot, but the burgers quickly become something they do off-page. The subtitle raises their importance, but the book ends the quest in an anticlimactic way. I don't mind how it ended, but the title would be better off without the subtitle.
As I mentioned above, Abby is a fat girl. She loves fashion and blogging about it, but she doesn't like to share photos of herself in the clothes she suggests. Over the past few months I have started working with my therapist on body image issues and my relationship with food. My journey isn't precisely the same as Abby's, but I feel we are both at the middle point of our journey and have had the same negative influences. I have spent the last week taking at least one selfie a day so that I can be more comfortable in pictures. Jordi is a photographer, so Abby is forced to face a similar challenge. We both have different things that we’re more comfortable with already and different things we need to grow towards in the future. Spalding really captures the struggle of knowing it's okay to be fat in theory, but failing to apply that to oneself.
The Summer of Jordi Perez worked its way into my life at the right time. The fat girl trying to navigate dating is exactly the kind of representation I needed. I hope that this book will speak to others as well. A little bit of fat neutrality and a little bit of fat positivity, piled on top of "Healthy At Every Size" is the perfect recipe. I highly recommend Spalding's book to all!
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