Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have Reviews

• 
  Heather

  Sometimes when I read "fat kid" stories, they kind of bug me. They tend to follow a pattern - fat kid hates him/herself, decides to make a change, then either ends up changing and feels great or accepts him/herself for who he/she is. And although there is definitely some of the "acceptance" theme here, it's done in a very cool way. Andy, the main character, doesn't really hate himself. Maybe he hates himself a little, but no more than the average teenager. He doesn't like the way he looks, but his food is his comfort and he has so much going on that he needs that in his life to cradle him. The point is, while Andy might dislike himself, he needs food more. And we see him take comfort in food in this way that I can SO identify with.
  
  Andy has a sense of humor about himself and the rest of the school that is just killer. The narrative voice in this book is awesome - it really was like being inside a teenage boy's head, which was pretty disturbing but also awesome (fortunately Andy is smart and sometimes sweet so it wasn't a bad head to be stuck in). But the funny lines were also mixed in with some heartbreak - stuff happens to him and you're just like, "REALLY? Did you really just do that to Andy? Jerk!"
  
  And the other characters, as seen through Andy's eyes, are fully developed and have stories of their own. The football coach is kind of a riot. April, the girl Andy has a crush on and spends the novel trying to impress...well, I won't say anything about April because I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that some of the things you find out about April make for an intriguing commentary about the people we choose to be. I also adored the character development in Andy's family - they all interact with each other (and food) in such a crazy way that it's kind of fascinating.
• 
  Kristi

  Three words; touching, heartfelt, humorous!
  
  This novel was so refreshing! I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a novel about an obese person trying to fit in, in High School. Usually with this type of story, I'm frustrated and cringing. But with FG&OTIVH (yeah I'm not going to type that out again!) I couldn't stop turning the pages about this likable, realistic and charming character.
  
  Andrew is classic. He is a very believable high school guy. He's not the fattest kid in his school, he's the second fattest, and in some sort of warped sense that's even worse, because Andy can't even be the best at being fat. He knows he eats to much, but he uses food as his coping mechanism for all the crap that's going on in his life; divorce, bullying, crushes, football. Andrew doesn't do a complete 360 in this novel and lose a hundred plus pounds, but it's almost better that way. It's realistic. He does however, resolve some of the issues that aren't helping his weight, and hopefully that will ultimately lead to a healthier lifestyle.
  
  The writing was awesome, the plot was engaging, and the characters were spectacularly portrayed.
  
  Definitely recommend it.
• 
  Brooke

  3.5 stars.
  
  I very much enjoyed Allen Zadoff's first young adult Novel. Having been overweight himself, the author has created a protagonist who felt very real, you believed what he said and you wanted to learn things about him.
  
  I think the thing that really frustrated me about Andy was that he didn't like the way he looks, but he doesn't really have the want to change his lifestyle. He knows that he eats far too much, but like many overweight people, he eats to cope with the emotions and stress of his daily life (bullying, his parents divorce, high school crushes etc.). I wanted to see him change and succeed, and I suppose I was left feeling a little underwhelmed with the way the story played out. Don't get me wrong, I was grinning and chuckling throughout the story, but it just wasn't really what I expected.
  
  Nevertheless, a quick and enjoyable read. I'll be sure to check out Mr Zadoff's other young adult novel in the near future.
• 
  Allen

  I wrote it, so of course I have to love it. You can't abandon your babies. But instead of taking my word for it, check out the the very cool
  Books By Their Cover Blog that posted an early review of Food, Girls. Thanks, Yan!
• 
  Sherrie Petersen

  I almost stopped after the first two lines in this story. I'm not a fan of books that open with, "My name is Andrew Zansky. I'm 15 years old and blah, blah, blah." I mean, isn't that the ultimate sin of telling?!
  
  But I'm glad I kept reading because aside from the opening misstep, this book is really good. Written from the perspective of a 300 pound boy in high school, the story is full of laughs, pathos and unusually sympathetic characters. There are so many great one-liners that I just wanted to pull out my highlighter and mark them up so I could remember them all!
  
  I heard the author speak at SCBWI-LA (which is where I bought the book) and he too struggled with obesity in high school. (Notice the similar initials between the MC and the author?) This YA debut won the Sid Fleishman award for humor and it was well deserved.
• 
  Josie M.

  If you are looking for an enjoyable read I definitely reccomend you pick this book up. This book is about so much more than an overweight high school junior who joins the football team to get the attention of a girl, to fix his problems at home and being viewed as more than just the fat kid. This book is about so much more. It's about expecting one result but geting something totally different. Its about friendships and relationships and breaking out of your shell. It's about finding yourself.
  I really appreciated a lot of things the author did in this book. I like the way he displayed frendships and relationships. I loved the main character in this book I thought he was unique and an interesting character to read from. I found myself really rooting for him. I thought there was quite a bit of attention on character intention throughout this book and by the end this element really had me thinking.
  The character development in this book was amazing. You could really see the main character's growth and change by the end of the book. Towards the end of the book the main character has an a-ha moment, it was totally something I would have seen coming and put together but I didn't and I liked that surprise and change of thinking that occured during that moment in the book.
  The ending of this book was perfect and I wouldn't change a thing about it. Now toward the end of the book a lot of things are thrown at you and a lot of things are brought together or brought out and I found myself getting a little confused.
  One of the things that I defintely learnt from this book was you might expect things to happen one way but they turn out completely different and that's okay because we can still learn from these thngs. I also gathered that life isn't perfect, especially high school and that we may not know where we fit in right away. Molding yourself into someone you're not totally comfortable with doesn't make you happy. Also this book definitely taught me about other peoples and your own intentions as well.
  This was definitely a book that kept me thinking and reflecting even after I read the last page. It definitely boggled nmy mind and confused me in a good way. It was amazing and I really enjoyed it. if you are looking for a great coming of age story then I definitely reccomend this book.
• 
  Colby

  This book came with multiple promises--first, a good book about a fat main character, which is pretty hard to find, I guess. Not that I've been looking for it or anything. Second, it promised a humerous book. Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have is about a fat kid who decides he's tired of conforming and not doing what he should be able to just because he's fat. I won't say it fell flat in every way. It kept me entertained. Was it funny? Meh. It made me grin once or twice. Did it provide a good MC who didn't fit the standard MC mold? Yeah, I guess you could say so. So that means that it was the story that I didn't like. First, I didn't really buy much of the football parts at all. I don't pay attention to the sport at all, but Center seems like an improtant position. I get the whole 'this guy can kill you' part, but still, wouldn't the coach put in somebody who had, I don't know, played before? And you can really tell that the author is into theatrics. The story does lots of things that wouldn't happen in real life. Uh...yeah. So there's that. Anyways, I give this 3/5 stars. It's a pretty good book, but the whole thing was just sort of fake feeling, if you know what I mean.
  
• 
  Eram Hussain

  "Everything fells better when I'm eating."
  
  This is the first book I have read about a guy with body shape issues, usually it is only shown in girls. It is a fast paced and funny book. The characters are realistic and original. Obviously there is a main hero, his best friend, a girl he likes and a bad guy like every other book.
  This book follows the same pattern like every book with obesity. The fat guy hates himself for his weight, the society makes fun of him, he tries to change himself, towards the end does something great and then accepts himself for who he is.
  But it is also about friendships and relationships, breaking out of your comfort zone and discovering yourself.
  The part I did not like was about Football. For me it all looked quite fake and set up from the start. How easily he got in even without any experience in the field. I mean he could barely run.
  Doesn't Andrew's sister have an eating disorder? Or only I thought about it?
  
  "Small food,small people. Extremely hard to resist."
• 
  Jacqueline

  When my daughter brought this book home on school assignment, there was no way I wasn't going to read it. In a nutshell: high school fat nerd goes from bully bait to football star as team center. Unlikely? Read between the politics. Spoilerette: the protagonist's voice, setting and background reads disturbingly like that of my former husband. I promise you this is not an insult but a tribute. If you knew him and loved him, read the book.
• 
  John Silva

  Food, girls and other things I can’t have is a very interesting young adult novel by Allen Zadoff which tells a very fiction-like, yet believable story, including a lot of comedy elements, which makes the story have a more authentic feel to it, being told from the perspective of a high schooler.
  In high school, everything seems like a challenge. Becoming “popular”, getting good grades, taking care of your appearance and especially balancing all those things out so none of them fall apart. The book talks about these struggles in a fairly realistic way, from the perspective of Andrew(Andy) Zansky, a 307 pounds high school sophomore who doesn’t really have any friends, but that’s about to change as he meets April, the girl of his dreams, “asian edition” as he says, and starts to drastically change his lifestyle in order to gain her attention, even getting to the point of trying out for football.
  The characters in the book all have an unique personality which develops more and more as you progress into the book, and they all fit really well into the high school setting. Andy, the main character, is an overweight high schooler, but he isn’t even the fattest kid in school, he’s the second fattest, so he can’t even brag about that. He has the self deprecating characteristic that basically makes up his character, with all of his insecurities about weight and what other people think of him, but it doesn't get to a point where it feels excessive or unrealistic, he just sounds like a typical high school boy.
  This book is told from the perspective of Andy’s head, and all of the characters presented are given a description based on what he thinks of them. This gives the book a more humorous feel when it comes to the situation on it since they’re told from a more naive perspective.
  This book might not be your favorite pick if you're not specifically a fan of this genre, as it is very similar in formula to other “life in high school” books. They all follow the life of the kid who doesn't fit in and suddenly has a calling to do something heroic which no one expects him to do, succeeding in it until the eventual plot twist comes towards the end.
  Therefore, I would say that Food, girls, and other things I can’t have is a great young adult novel, with a kindred story and believable characters which you will definitely enjoy if you're a fan of the genre.
  
• 
  Tabitha Olson

  It’s not easy to make me laugh. I’m not sure why, really. It’s not that I don’t find things funny. I do. But something has to be truly hysterical for me to laugh out loud—and even that doesn’t last longer than a few seconds. *shrug* I have no clue why.
  
  Anyway, this book made me laugh out loud. Many times. And there were a few scenes that had me positively howling with laughter, clutching the ache in my side and tears streaming down my face. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard for so long!! I’ve certainly NEVER laughed like that for a book before. So, if you like funny, this book is definitely for you.
  
  But it doesn’t stop there. Huh, that just made me feel like an infomercial—“But wait! There’s more!” Except there really is more with this book. It’s got a solid plot, quick pacing, and fabulous characters. Andrew is awesome, and the way he reinvents himself is both believable and unpredictable, which is the best kind of combination.
  
  Plus, Zadoff does an amazing job illustrating the mental anguish that teens have with being overweight, but he does it through humor. This allows him to show more of what it's really like to be an overweight teen than he could probably get away with in a more dramatic story. Genius. There is so much in this story, and Zadoff pulls it off well.
  
  I’m buying a copy of this book to add to my ‘favorites’ shelf. Go get yourself one. You’ll be glad you did.
• 
  Heather

  Andy is not the fattest kid in his high school - he's the second fattest. In a weird way, that's worse. It's like he isn't the best at anything - not even his weight. Andy gets picked on and doesn't really fit in any where until he is tapped to try out for the football team and ends up on the varsity squad. Now his sophmore year is about to take a major turn, but he can't figure out which direction to go.
  
  I really enjoyed reading this book. Andy is such a great character. He doesn't like the way he looks, but he doesn't really want to change it either. He knows he eats too much, but he eats to cope with all the other issues in his life (crushes, bullying, his parents split, football). He doesn't fit in, but isn't sure where he wants to belong. In other words, Andy reads like a very believable high school guy. You can't help but root for him, even though you see him making mistakes.
  
  Zadoff does a great job with all his characters. I found each character to be multidimensional. Yeah, there are some things that are skirted around (like the fact that Mom is a caterer, Andy is fat and his sister seems to be well on her way to an eating disorder that no one every acknowledges) but no one is all good or all bad - even Andy.
  
  I highly recommend this book for middle school and up. The sports angle should make it an easy sell to guys, but girls will enjoy this one too.
• 
  Sunny Stone

  Andrew disgusts me a lot at first. I can't stand a guy who thinks he loves a girl only because she's hot... For me, Andrew is superficial enough to like April---a bitch who steals her friend's boyfriend while manipulating Andrew to get what she wants. Ok, other than bad taste for girls, Andrew also has some moral issues going on such as despising classmates who are being real friendly to him for their unpopularity.
  However, all of these start to change toward the end, when Andrew gradully realizes the importance and ease of being himself. He also learns to appreciate more of a person's inside rather than outside. When he stops following the popular crowd, I see the cute fat kid goes back. And I really enjoy reading his lunch time with Nancy Yee.It's not romantic but made me feel warm. And It's Nancy's words made me come to realization that there's nothing wrong with wanting to be popular. Everybody dreams of that, but Andrew is the brave one who acctually takes actions to break through the "gravitational force" to make it come true. It's just he gets lost and forgets who he really is during the pursuing.
  This book is also very funny. Overall, a 5 star book. I'm happy that I picked it up in the library.
  
• 
  Brittle Pages

  Loved it so much, it made me feel for the main character so much and I felt so mad that he didn't end up with April but still a good ending tho. Love this and will always recommend.
• 
  Patrick

  Not a bad little book. I actually had much the same experience as the character in this book. The difference being that I was press ganged into football in Junior High, and I stayed with it. I even ran a trick play where I carried the ball from the offensive guard spot. That, and I loved the game going in. And I stayed with it through the end of High School. I did, like the main character, decide to leave the game behind eventually, though.
  
  Good: pretty accurate depiction of being a fat kid trying to fit in and broaden his horizons.
  
  Bad: nothing you haven't seen before, really. Plus, the author didn't seem to have a firm grasp on some of the finer points of the game he was writing about. Unless he put the errors in to reflect the character's ignorance (which he may have), I have to ding him for it.
  
  Not a must-read, but fun, if you were a high school weirdo (or felt like one).
• 
  Brandi Rae Fong

  I'm not really sure this comparison will make sense, but this book felt like the teen guy equivalent of chick lit. In a good way. It had the incredibly likable main character (Andy) who you can't help but root for as he navigates through his personal obstacles, girls and sports. That being said, I'm not entirely sure who will pick this book up...it isn't enough about sports to attract the readers who only like sports books and for readers who like just realistic guys in school kinds of books it didn't really have enough of just guys in pursuit of girls and hanging around with each other. It was very much a personal and kind of touching (albeit funny) underdog coming of age story. I'd probably give it to fans of John Green or maybe Jordan Sonnenblick. Regardless, this was a great book for the right reader.
• 
  Diane Ferbrache

  Andrew Zansky is fat, geeky, and definitely NOT one of the in crowd. As he begins his sophomore year, he meets a girl and when the football coach asks him to play football, he agrees hoping to change his life. At first things seem to be going well -- the very popular quarterback befriends him, April is paying attention, and even the school bully is avoiding him. But he finds that his former friends want nothing to do with him and things are not really going as well as they seem.
  
  This is a heartwarming, funny, sad, bittersweet story that (unfortunately) protrays high school in a realistic fashion. Teens should be able to relate to his problems. This is a quick read -- short chapters that keep the reader turning pages. I couldn't wait to see how it would turn out. I wasn't disappointed with the ending -- satisfying and realistic. A really good teen read.
• 
  Brittany

  So, if there was a specific genre for high school drama popularity issues and body image finding yourself along with true friendship books (too long?), this would be at the top.
  
  It is the perfect mix of unique and feel-good, it's like snuggling with a blankie and having a giggle.
  
  
  I really loved it and there were some great messages.
• 
  Brenna McGaughy

  I loved this book! The way the book is written really made me feel like I was watching a movie or t.v. show. This book will make you laugh with every new situation that happens. I recommend this book to readers looking for a easy read and a good story.
• 
  Kim Baccellia

  This book is hilarious! Andy is sure to be the new hero of YA! Check out my review at
  www.yabookscentral.com
  
• 
  Caitlyn Jordan

  In the book “Food, girls, and other things I can’t have” by Allen Zadoff, Andrew Zansky’s life used to be simple, hanging out with the Model UN guys, avoid gym class, and eat and eat and eat. He’s never fit in: into his family, his sport’s-crazed school, or his size 48 pants. But Andrew has just met April, the new girl at school and the love of his life. But how is someone like him going to win over a perfect girl? Then O. Douglas, heartthrob quarterback and high school legend, saves Andy from getting beat up, and the plan seems so clear. Get on the football team, get popular, and get the girl. Andy is about to found out everything about himself and high school. The protagonist in the book is Andrew Zansky. The antagonist is Ugo. Andrew Zansky is a troubled kid, getting bullied for his weight. He is avoiding gym class, because the girl he likes is in there, and he told his friend they were together when they aren’t. Ugo is a kid who likes to pick on Andrew for his weight. Andrew should be considered a dynamic character. Ugo should be considered a static character. Andrew affects the overall plot by making it more suspenseful. Ugo affects the overall plot by bullying others and working it up to the highest point in the book. I recommend this book because it gives a lot of life lessons.
• 
  Thia Lee

  3.8 stars...
  
  I was online browsing and I came across this book. I decided to give it a chance because you don't really find too many books with male MCs. Plus I liked that fact that it was about a MC struggling with his weight. Honestly, in the beginning I didn't like the book because all Andy kept talking about was himself being fat over and over and over again. It was really annoying to me, but I pushed on and after about the first 50 to 70 pages it started to get better. It was a funny read. I did like Andy, but I didn't understand if his weight was such a big problem to him, why didn't he tried to do something about it except eating more food. Even when he joins football, it's not to lose weight, but it's for a girl. I understand that he had issues at home that added to his eating, but even in the end of the book he is still eating though things are alright.
  I liked how the book ended and I am happy Andy made the decisions he did, but I really wished he had done something different about his eating habits and or excercise. Overall, I ended up really enjoying this book. It made me laugh and it made me upset and it made me sad. I give it a 3.8 stars!
  
  Content:
  Sex: It does have a lot of sexual references here and there. There is no actual sex though.
  Language: There is moderate cursing throughout the book and inapproriate talk/jokes here and there.
• 
  Valerie

  I read this book for the ATY 2019 Reading Challenge Week 49: A book related to food.
  
  A coming of age book what do I expect reading young adult books, right!? Andy is really, really fat and in high school. A brainiac is also somewhat of a loser because he stereotypes himself. The school bully intimidates all 306 pounds of him. However, as the story progresses Andy, and the rest of us, discovers that all he needs is confidence. He learns who he is and that he can use his brains to create success for himself. Then, he learns to look for what makes him happy. He becomes a strong person. Will he ever tackle that weight problem?
• 
  George Crowder

  With the success of YA writers like John Green, it's a wonder that this book is not better-known. The characters are witty, articulate, and completely lack the artificial, smarmy character that sometimes infects young people when adults try to write about them. The football players reminded me of the bad boys in Holes-- loved them so much. Terrific read and I will seek out more from this gifted author!