Dumplin'
Dumplin', by Julie Murphy
Blurb: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.Hmm... This is a hard book to review. In some ways I adored it, in others it was a bit of a let down...This book got off to a great start. Having always been rather... let's say chunky, I found it really easy to identify with Will and her self-confidence issues, even when she tried to hide them beneath bravado. I could also understand her friendship with the beautiful Ellen and how she sometimes resented her which led to issues. Her budding friendship with Millie, Amanda and Hannah was also really sweet and I just loved Millie; she was such a kind hearted character. The writing was simple, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest and Will had such a great 'voice'; she isn't afraid to say the harsh truth that most people shy away from and for the most part she'd blunt but honest about herself, sometimes cruelly so.Also, I feel it's important to point out that the author doesn't define 'fat' as a specific size or weight, which I liked because different people have different opinions on what size you have to be to be considered overweight.The love triangle kind of irritated me, since I usually avoid books with love triangles - before someone points it out, I know my book A Tangled Web has a love triangle! - but that still didn't really mar my opinion of the book. All in all the plot line is rather simple and nothing big actually happens, but I quite liked that because I thought it was building up to a big, soul-affirming finale, which unfortunately never happened. It was the ending, literally the last two or three chapters, that just spoilt this book for me. After getting off to a good start with characters who promised to be awesome and a plot that I could see from the start should have had a good message about body positivity, the ending just fell flat for me. I kinda felt like the author got bored and the ending was a bit of a cop-out. The messages this book was supposed to hold about loving who you are, being body positive and ignoring the opinions of bullies, are mentioned but not really reinforced and I didn't feel like the issues between the characters were properly resolved, just left hanging. I know this book is part of a series, therefore, usually I'd just think that the story is going to carry on in the next book and think little of it, however, as far as I know the next book follows a different set of characters, therefore Dumplin' is, for all intents and purposes, more of a standalone book.
My favourite quotes from "Dumplin'":'When you've known someone for so long, you don't see the same things in them that everyone else does. But then when you're friends because of who you were and not who you are, it's hard not to find the common thread that stitches you together.' ' "But maybe Lucy wasn't supposed to be your compass forever. Maybe she was there for you just long enough so you could learn how to be your own compass and find your own way." ' 'Sometimes half of doing something is pretending that you can.''This feels like settling. A missed opportunity. But I don't think that makes it wrong.' 'There's some kind of peace that comes with knowing that for every person who is waiting to be found there's someone out there searching.'
Blurb: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.Hmm... This is a hard book to review. In some ways I adored it, in others it was a bit of a let down...This book got off to a great start. Having always been rather... let's say chunky, I found it really easy to identify with Will and her self-confidence issues, even when she tried to hide them beneath bravado. I could also understand her friendship with the beautiful Ellen and how she sometimes resented her which led to issues. Her budding friendship with Millie, Amanda and Hannah was also really sweet and I just loved Millie; she was such a kind hearted character. The writing was simple, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest and Will had such a great 'voice'; she isn't afraid to say the harsh truth that most people shy away from and for the most part she'd blunt but honest about herself, sometimes cruelly so.Also, I feel it's important to point out that the author doesn't define 'fat' as a specific size or weight, which I liked because different people have different opinions on what size you have to be to be considered overweight.The love triangle kind of irritated me, since I usually avoid books with love triangles - before someone points it out, I know my book A Tangled Web has a love triangle! - but that still didn't really mar my opinion of the book. All in all the plot line is rather simple and nothing big actually happens, but I quite liked that because I thought it was building up to a big, soul-affirming finale, which unfortunately never happened. It was the ending, literally the last two or three chapters, that just spoilt this book for me. After getting off to a good start with characters who promised to be awesome and a plot that I could see from the start should have had a good message about body positivity, the ending just fell flat for me. I kinda felt like the author got bored and the ending was a bit of a cop-out. The messages this book was supposed to hold about loving who you are, being body positive and ignoring the opinions of bullies, are mentioned but not really reinforced and I didn't feel like the issues between the characters were properly resolved, just left hanging. I know this book is part of a series, therefore, usually I'd just think that the story is going to carry on in the next book and think little of it, however, as far as I know the next book follows a different set of characters, therefore Dumplin' is, for all intents and purposes, more of a standalone book.My favourite quotes from "Dumplin'":'When you've known someone for so long, you don't see the same things in them that everyone else does. But then when you're friends because of who you were and not who you are, it's hard not to find the common thread that stitches you together.' ' "But maybe Lucy wasn't supposed to be your compass forever. Maybe she was there for you just long enough so you could learn how to be your own compass and find your own way." ' 'Sometimes half of doing something is pretending that you can.''This feels like settling. A missed opportunity. But I don't think that makes it wrong.' 'There's some kind of peace that comes with knowing that for every person who is waiting to be found there's someone out there searching.'
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