What is it about?
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.
Who is it for?
Young adults
Genre?
Realistic contemporary fiction
Is it any good?
I was convinced that I would be giving this book a five star rating until I got about three quarters of the way through it. It was the ending that has let this book down but I will explain that a but more later on in this review.
In terms of the characters I have no choice but to praise Julie Murphy highly. I loved the relationships she built between them even when there was a lot of ups and downs between them I felt as though they were still there for each other. I loved the personalities of them and how I was made to feel like I knew them personally. However like most other young adult books I read these days I didn't rate the love triangle.
At certain parts of this book I was confused to whether or not this book actually was based on being positive and confident about the skin you are in, Yes she went out of her comfort zone in some ways but in others she didn't. I also found Willowdean as a bit of a hypocrite, for example describing Millie as 'the type of fat that requires elastic waist pants because they don't make pants with buttons and zippers in her size' but on the other hand she may have just been trying to make herself feel a bit better about her own body, look at me trying to make excuses for her, I related to this book in a lot of ways, boys, size and relationship between her and her mother, I had such high hopes for a more impressive happy ending and it just didn't happen. I enjoyed the style of writing Julie Murphy used and love how although it was a serious book in some ways she also added humour into it.
In terms of the characters I have no choice but to praise Julie Murphy highly. I loved the relationships she built between them even when there was a lot of ups and downs between them I felt as though they were still there for each other. I loved the personalities of them and how I was made to feel like I knew them personally. However like most other young adult books I read these days I didn't rate the love triangle.
At certain parts of this book I was confused to whether or not this book actually was based on being positive and confident about the skin you are in, Yes she went out of her comfort zone in some ways but in others she didn't. I also found Willowdean as a bit of a hypocrite, for example describing Millie as 'the type of fat that requires elastic waist pants because they don't make pants with buttons and zippers in her size' but on the other hand she may have just been trying to make herself feel a bit better about her own body, look at me trying to make excuses for her, I related to this book in a lot of ways, boys, size and relationship between her and her mother, I had such high hopes for a more impressive happy ending and it just didn't happen. I enjoyed the style of writing Julie Murphy used and love how although it was a serious book in some ways she also added humour into it.
Was the ending satisfactory?
It was the ending of the book that disappointed me and left me thinking
'is that it? Really?'. I like a book ending that leaves me feeling an
emotion of some sort, whether it be happiness or crying my eyes out.
This ending just left me with nothing but disappointment. Having said
that I have just noticed that there is a #1 next to the books title on
goodreads which is giving me hope that this story will be continued and
redeem itself.
Would I recommend the book?
I would recommend this book in terms of there being a sequel to it, it is also a nice little read but just don't expect too much from the ending.
Read it if you like?
Not sure what other books to compare this one too.
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