Fat Reader

What I've been reading lately

Happy Friday from the Fat Dispatch!

This post is coming a little later than normal because, well, I got stuck in a book.

A couple weeks ago, I was venting to my friend about how I might need to use an accessibility device in the upcoming school year. She told me what I already knew but needed to hear— “If you need to use it, there’s no shame.”

Then she said, “Have you read Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros?”

I hadn’t, but I checked it out as soon as I could.

The story of Fourth Wing follows 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail, the protagonist with weak joints and brittle bones, who has to claw her way into the ranks of dragon riders in her fictional homeland of Navarre.

At one point, her weakness is too much, and she has to use an accessibility device to be able to do what she needs to do.

And you know what? She’s still a badass.

Reading about Violet—who probably has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome like her author, Rebecca Yarros—is so valuable because it shows me how a disabled person can embrace their perceived weakness and still be badass.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve read The Empyrean Series (Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm)…twice. Violet’s story had such a hold on me because I could see myself in her.

It really makes me want to write a book of my own, where I can share even more in common with a character. Maybe my protagonist will be fat. And disabled. The possibilities are truly endless.

What books have you been reading lately? Inspired to write your own?

Peace and solidarity,

Amanda Martinez Beck