Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity by Kristin Elizabeth Clark

Abstract

Reviewed by: Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity by Kristin Elizabeth Clark Karen Coats Clark, Kristin Elizabeth Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity. Farrar, 2016 [272p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-374-38006-9 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-374-38007-6 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 8-10 Jess is finally eighteen, so she has begun to transition from being Jeremy by taking the hormone treatments her father denied her. With the urging of her long-term best friend, Chunk, she decides to travel to Chicago to attend the wedding to confront her father as the girl she is transforming into. Jess is too caught up in her own drama to see that her best friend is hurt every time Jess calls him Chunk (his real name is Chuck) and uses fat-shaming as her ultimate insult, even though Chuck has been rock-steady through all of Jess’s changes. Throughout the trip, Chuck drops hints about Jess’s self-involvement that Jess deflects, rationalizes, and sometimes turns against Chuck himself. Their road trip is full of tropes and clichés, including the inevitable breakdown and the visits to weird America roadside attractions, but it is punctuated more thoughtfully by Jess’ need for transfriendly hotels and restaurants and her worries about passing. However, she never really grasps the point that other people need support as well, so her happy ending feels contrived and unmerited by her character, with a plot twist that comes as a narratively unwarranted surprise. The story is therefore overshadowed by an authorial presence that wants both an accommodating world and a more emotionally giving transgender teen to meet somewhere in a happy middle, but readers may still have sympathy for Jess as she negotiates the country and her identity. Copyright © 2017 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois