Troy Billings is a miserable teenage boy. At only seventeen, he weighs 296 pounds and is constantly gawked at by peers. His mother died of cancer years ago, his little brother hates him, and his father is disappointed in him. Friendless and ostracized, Troy starts to contemplate suicide.
While staring at subway tracks, wondering whether it'd be funny if he was splattered by a on-coming train, Troy meets a ratty-looking fellow his age. Skinny beyond belief and incredibly dirty looking, Troy is surprised to find out that he's met the local music legend Curt MacCrae. No one at their school has heard from him in a year and many think he's dead. As it turns out, he's dropped out and is now living as semi-homeless. Troy is even more surprised when Curt tells him he has to pay for his lunch in debt for saving his life.
Before the end of the day, Troy is in a punk rock band with Curt. The problem? Troy can't play drums.
Fat Kid Rules the World is a 2003 coming-of-age novel by K. L. Going. In 2012 it received a film adaptation, in which Curt is renamed Marcus.
Fat Kid Rules the World provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Curt's step-father hates him and repeatedly threatens to kill him (admittedly, because Curt keeps on breaking into his house and stealing his food, but their relationship was bad even before Curt got kicked out).
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Troy's younger brother Dayle is embarrassed by him and bullies him as a result, when he doesn't just ignore Troy.
- Big Eater:
- It's heavily implied that Troy began overeating after his mother died.
- Curt is also shown to eat a lot.
- Bullied into Depression: The protagonist Troy is an obese teenage boy who's miserable and depressed because of his weight, which is caused by stress eating started after his mother's death and only got worse because of the bullying.
- Domestic Abuse: Curt hates his abusive, wife beater of a step-father. His step-father doesn't like him either.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Troy's father dictates his son in a militaristic lifestyle, forcing him to cut down on snacks and run on a daily basis to offset Troy's obesity.
- Driven to Suicide: Averted, Troy tries to literally throw himself under the bus but Curt pulls him out.
- Entitled Bastard: Curt keeps dragging Troy into playing drums for a band and asking him for lunch money just for saving Troy's life when Troy intended to commit suicide.
- Extreme Doormat: Troy just about lets everyone walk all over him. He has a mentality wired into obeying people to do what they tell him to do regardless of how it affects him. He does show signs of rebelling against both Curt and his father's orders to pursue drumming, but it's hard for the viewer to sympathize with him for that.
- Friendless Background: Curt hasn't had friends since he was in elementary.
- In-Series Nickname: Curt calls Troy "(Big) T". Being nicknamed is one of the reasons Troy became attached to Curt.
- Interrupted Suicide: Curt's small-talk interrupts Troy's suicide attempt at the start.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Troy's father is very controlling towards his son, but genuinely does have ideal intentions for his son nonetheless.
- Lazy Bum: Troy is not just a fat boy with an overeating problem, he also refuses to get any exercise, dislikes the outdoors and mostly plays video games all day.
- Loser Protagonist: Troy's a hormonal, friendless nearly-300 pound 17 year old. He has an element of Unreliable Narrator due to his poor self-esteem, but Troy is still not a popular kid.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: Fat Kid Rules the World is about a depressed, friendless obese teenage boy who meets a Kurt Cobain lookalike and joins his band. Over the course of the book Troy opens his horizons and becomes more sociable.
- Missing Mom: Troy's mother died of cancer when he was in fourth grade.
- Mistaken for Suicidal: Troy keeps on saying he wasn't really going to jump, he was just thinking about what would happen, but his frequent suicidal ideation brings that into question.
- No Name Given: Mr. Billings (Troy's father)'s first name is never given out.
- Shout-Out: The line "Double-O Fat Kid and Curt Powers" references 007 and Austin Powers.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: In the film adaptation, Marcus is this to the Billings. Though Mr. Billings isn't agitated by his freeloading off of food, shower water and bed, he specifically tells Troy that Marcus can only be in the house at night.
