[Book Review] Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

 4 STARS 

This is technically a re-read for me, but it has been long enough that the details were a bit blurry. I remember being a little disappointed. Fortunately, I think I liked it more this time versus last one, but I do have some problems overall.

I really enjoyed the characters. I did have some conflict with Willowdean because some of the stuff she said were things I would have said (and did say) in high school that I find highly problematic. She says she's about body positivity, but she finds herself calling skinny girls "twiggy" while also heavily judging Millie for being obese and Hannah for having big teeth. On one hand, I think she definitely grows and becomes more accepting. On the other hand, she doesn't exactly face any consequences for her judgements. I am not sure if I got across that she learned to be less judgemental, she definitely learns to see Millie and Hannah as more than their obvious physical features but I am not sure if I feel like that experience will prevent more judgement. I do like that although she loves her body and she says she loves her body, she does have insecurities. It made it more real. She's confused on why someone as good looking as Bo likes her, and that was something I definitely related to because although I don't hate my body, I also don't always see the beauty in my body that my fiancé does. My favorite character is Bo, hands down. I love his relationship with Willow and I am really into their chemistry. I don't typically get really into relationships in books, but I full on love this relationship. Besides Ron and Hermione, Bo and Willow may be my favorite relationship. I think his backstory and character arc, even if I wish we had more, were really well done. I saw my mom a lot in Willow's mom, and I saw myself in characters like Willow, her aunt Lucy, and even Millie. I did have a bit of an annoyance towards Hannah because I do not mesh well with negative people like Hannah. However, Murphy has talent in writing characters and even by the end I found myself warming to Hannah. 

The whole pageant plot was really fun. I enjoyed seeing the girls get closer and seeing them gain confidence. I love that the whole plan to sign up for the pageant didn't have anything to do with the pageant and everything to do with self worth, accepting people who are outside of the "norm", and body positivity. My only complaint about it is that there was less Bo/Willow interactions, and honestly their relationship is one of my favorites. I love Bo so much and he disappears for most of the middle of the book. I did enjoy the sisterhood forming between the girls and I liked the conflict between Willow and Ellen, however, I felt disappointed that Ellen never found out how awful her new friend Cassie was to Willow. Willow was in the wrong in their conflict, I definitely agree with that, but she was also feeling hurt that her best friend was hanging out with someone so awful.

I do plan on reading the sequel, Puddin', when it releases (hopefully in 2018! I am really hoping for more Bo/Willow) and I definitely plan on watching the movie in theaters! I am loving the casting so far, and I am just really happy for a fat confident main character to be mainstream and more accessible to fat teens. I honestly would recommend this book to everyone. The characters are flawed, but real and the writing is so good. The representation in this book is also amazing. We have Willow, her aunt Lucy, and Mitch for fat characters and Hannah is a lesbian woman of color. I am loving that more and more fat characters are shedding the goofy best friend stereotype and becoming real characters.

Thanks for reading!