KIERAN’s Reviews > Spoiler Alert > Status Update

Girl, there's trust issues, and then there's what you did. I mean, you said it yourself; Marcus has been nothing but anti-fatphobia in the whole time you've known him. He has been gentlemanly, courteous, and gracious.

Well, aside from him writing that fic as BAWN.

But thank heavens this part of the story is over.

April has finally come to her senses and realized that a guy whose hobbies are exercise-heavy would naturally eat breakfasts full of protein. Thank heavens.

But Marcus writing a fic about the issue kind of feels manipulative, especially considering that he KNOWS April is Ulsie and April doesn't know Marcus =BAWN.

Alex has got a point. Marcus does tend to disassociate from himself and his various identities quite frequently.

A fully grown, confident woman with a career in STEM, who is moving towards further self-acceptance should not be this touchy when the concept of exercise comes up.

If April were an insecure teenager, or just a younger, more insecure person all around, it would be fine. But it doesn't. It completely detracts from the rest of her characterization.

I don't know. It STILL comes across as insecure, as leaping to conclusions, especially considering how mature and thoughtful her explanation of fatphobia is to the Lavineas shippers.

Marcus is being way too understanding right now. It's insecure behavior, flat-out. Plus, outside the narrative, it contributes to another fatphobic trope of fat people being inherently anti-exercise, a.k.a. "lazy".

And yes, Ms. Dade, fat people often do have fraught relationships with exercise, thanks to fat-shaming.

But fat people, like everyone else, also do exercise for non-weight loss related reasons like: having fun, because it's an opportunity to socialize, mental health benefits, to make their muscles stronger, or even just to wake up in the morning.

Like, the guy probably eats oatmeal, hard-boiled eggs and fruit b/c he's a gym bro, not because he thinks you need to lose weight!

Would he have even asked you out in the first place if he agreed with the fat-shamers? Would he have even responded to that comment thread in the first place?

Girl, not every invitation to work out is about fat-shaming. You have way too much of a complex about it.

April is kind of reading as incredibly insecure right now.

Also, April reacting this badly to a casual gym hangout probably makes fat people look worse overall.

After slogging through Zodiac Academy, it's nice to see the main characters being attracted to the other party's brains/intelligence/personality.

So many authors-of all stripes and genres-seem to think that good looks is all it takes to make a main character appealing.

I get that Chuck is supposed to be a sexist, racist douche but he's probably right about not drinking water at the site. Regulations are written in blood, April.