Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost–but not quite–dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?
- Enjoy a drunken night out.
- Ride a motorcycle.
- Go camping.
- Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
- Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
- And… do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…
Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert is about Chloe, a small-fat Black woman as she navigates her chronic illness while attempting to broaden her life and open herself back up to adventure. It’s told through the perspective of Chloe and Red, an artist who is trying to find his way back to his career and happiness after getting out of an abusive relationship. We follow Chloe and Red as they banter, bicker, and argue their way through Chloe’s “Get A Life” list while trying to keep their hands off of each other!
This book, for me (Yeli), was the perfect enemies to lovers fat-positive romance that I’ve been waiting for my entire life. The reader gets a close and personal view of what it’s like for Chloe to manage her fibromyalgia. Some days she takes her medication and functions with no huge issues, but other days she sleeps in until noon and buries herself in soft blankets and painkillers, and she’s equally cherished and valued either way. It was so nourishing to see Chloe treat herself with kindness and gentleness on these days when she needed extra care.
Chloe’s relationship with Red is an amazing model for how to be supportive and understanding of people in your life with chronic illness. Red picks up on Chloe’s pain cues when it’s something he understands, and when he doesn’t, he asks. Simple as that. I also LOVE that Red truly just finds Chloe to be the sexiest thing ever, regardless of what day it is. Chloe and Red have GREAT sex in this book, and it’s so important to see, because fat folks rarely ever get positive sexual representation, and are often desexualized in harmful ways. In this book, Chloe gets to be fat, sexy, ill, and desired, all at once. And it’s delightful. In our podcast episode, Julie reads one of her favorite quotes to us: “[Red] was probably the worst kind of monster, because Chloe was sick, but he still thought she was unbelievably sexy. Then he remembered that she was always sick, so maybe poor health wasn’t something that should desex a person.”
Julie mentions in Find Your Food Voice episode 274 that our relationship to food often parallels our relationship to pleasure, which is so interesting and rings true in this book as well. Chloe is never shamed (externally or internally) for her love and enjoyment of sex or food. Especially because so much of the time folks with chronic illnesses are told to deny their pleasure, it was a delight that Chloe is able to embrace pleasure in so many forms.
Another huge thing we enjoyed was how the portrayal of chronic illness isn’t rooted in toxic positivity. Chloe models a really understanding, gentle, compassionate way of caring for herself when her fibromyalgia flares, whether that’s cuddling up in super cozy pajamas and sleeping all day, or putting on her painkiller patch and gently getting her job done. She never shames herself for it, and she doesn’t cut out any foods or do any other diet-culture-y “fads” that are often sold to folks with chronic illnesses. It’s wonderful to see Chloe treat herself with kindness and care.
What did you think about Chloe and Red? If you have thoughts, send us an email to info@juliedillonrd.com!
Click here to listen to the FULL episode of Find Your Food Voice, where Julie and Yeli talk in-depth about how much they LOVED THIS BOOK.
