Dumplin' (Dumplin', #1) in Aussie Bloggers Book Club

Jun 02, 2015 Jeann (Happy Indulgence) rated it liked it

Shelves: penguin-australia, young-adult, ya-contemporary

This review appears on Happy Indulgence! Check it out for more reviews.

After reading Dumplin’ and not loving it, I felt like everyone’s had a party where I wasn’t invited. Everyone’s been raving about it, it’s going to be made into a movie, but upon reaching the end, I still felt like I struggled to reach the point.

Having a fat main character is the main drawcard of the book, and Willowdean (or Will for short) Dickson knows that she’s fat. But the book doesn’t talk about her insecurities a lot, This review appears on Happy Indulgence! Check it out for more reviews.

After reading Dumplin’ and not loving it, I felt like everyone’s had a party where I wasn’t invited. Everyone’s been raving about it, it’s going to be made into a movie, but upon reaching the end, I still felt like I struggled to reach the point.

Having a fat main character is the main drawcard of the book, and Willowdean (or Will for short) Dickson knows that she’s fat. But the book doesn’t talk about her insecurities a lot, or even how different she feels compared to the other girls competing in the Miss Teen Blue Bonnett Beauty Pageant. At it’s heart, Will is just like everyone else, coping with family, friendship and a love life. And that’s what I felt was missing.

Will is confident, bold and hilarious with her frank, dry humour (and to be honest, I found her kind of intimidating). With an overbearing pageant mum, she goes through life declaring that she doesn’t care what anyone else thinks of her. But when she starts getting into a relationship with her hot co-worker Bo, she’s overcome with insecurities, claiming that a guy like him doesn’t belong with a girl like her. I could see just how hard on herself she was, but the only barrier to her happiness was herself. And she needed to work through those insecurities, those thoughts before she could allow herself to be happy, but in the process, she pushes away the people who care about her.

The book is pretty slow, with the beauty pageant not kicking in until the 2nd half of the book. I kind of thought there’d be more focus on the pageant, but instead, Will pretty much wallows in the insecurities of her love life and her problems with her best friend. I thought she would be practicing for the pageant, giving it her best shot, but nope. She approaches it as an afterthought, more preoccupied with the romance.

While I liked the romance, I felt like we didn’t get to know much about Bo or Mitch, aside from their typecast “popular guy” or “football guy” stereotypes. Which is something that the whole book is trying to fight against. Bo is a really sweet popular guy, who works at the fast food joint. Aside from not caring about Will’s body, being incredibly sweet and having a well defined jawline, we don’t know much about him other than his attraction for Will and that he works at the same place as her. Neither do we know much about Mitch, the stocky football player who asks Will out, aside from him having a jerk best friend. I felt really sorry for him, Will kept lying to herself and to him with her lack of feelings, pretty much stringing him along.

Peppered amongst the romance and the humour are some pretty wonderful moments, like getting catwalk lessons from a drag queen, the kisses with Bo and befriending the outcasts of the school. It’s these charming moments that I really enjoyed, that will translate really well on screen.

In the end, Dumplin’ teaches you to be confident in yourself, no matter what body you are in. Because the only person who is going to prevent you from that happiness, that confidence, is yourself. And believing that you have the chance to do anything, like enter a beauty pageant as a fat girl, is where it all starts. I only wish more of that came through in Dumplin’. But we can’t have everything.

With it’s Texan charm, pageant mum’s and wonderfully confident fat girl at it’s helm, Dumplin’ sets out to spread positive body image and battle against heavier girl stereotypes. But it gets lost along the way, with insecurities, a messy romance, and a teen pageant competition to prove a point. With some lovely life lessons, it felt like the potential to be more, but I kind of missed the point.

I received a review copy from the publisher. ...more

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Jun 10, 2015 Rebecca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-contemporary, read-in-2015, young-adult

Willowdean Dickson is fat, there’s no two ways about it. But she is confident and comfortable with her body. Or at least that’s what she thinks. When the cute guy from work starts paying attention to her, and she finds herself making out with him on a regular basis, her confidence takes a plunge. But that doesn’t sit well with her. She doesn’t like how a boy can make her feel self-conscious. So she sets out to do something about it.

At first I wasn’t too sure about this book. It was good but it w ...more

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Jan 04, 2015 ALPHAreader rated it it was amazing

‘Dumplin'’ is the second stand-alone contemporary young adult novel from American rising star, Julie Murphy (whose 2014 debut was ‘Side Effects May Vary’)

“Eff Your Beauty Standards” was a hashtag coined by Tess Holliday back in 2013 – Tess being a body positive activist, feminist, all-round awesome lady, world's biggest plus-sized super model and this year she was on the cover of People magazine. Oh yeah, AND I’VE MET HER! But I mention her here because in reading ‘Dumplin'’ I was moved by this ...more

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Sep 15, 2015 Jenna rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, contemporary, young-adult

3.5 stars

This review also appears on my blog, Reading with Jenna.

Dumplin’ is a novel that has received a lot of hype, and I was a little bit underwhelmed by it. I thought it was still a fun and quick read, but I found it a bit lacking.

Let’s discuss the positives first. I really liked that the book was very body-positive. Willowdean is very comfortable in her body and she doesn’t really care about what others think of her, even when they’re calling her names. She embraces her body and doesn’t try 3.5 stars

This review also appears on my blog, Reading with Jenna.

Dumplin’ is a novel that has received a lot of hype, and I was a little bit underwhelmed by it. I thought it was still a fun and quick read, but I found it a bit lacking.

Let’s discuss the positives first. I really liked that the book was very body-positive. Willowdean is very comfortable in her body and she doesn’t really care about what others think of her, even when they’re calling her names. She embraces her body and doesn’t try to change it, which I really admired. This book does not promote the thin-ideal. It’s not a book about losing weight to please others or ourselves. There were a lot of great messages about body image and fat-shaming. I also really appreciated that the book didn’t make fun of the skinny girls either.

All my life I’ve had a body worth commenting on and if living in my skin has taught me anything it’s that if it’s not your body, it’s not yours to comment on. Fat. Skinny. Short. Tall. It doesn’t matter.

I found it very easy to relate to Willowdean because I too have things that I don’t like about the way I look (as I’m sure most people do). It was very refreshing to see her embrace her own body even when her own mother is embarrassed by how she looks and tries to change her.

I thought the writing in this book was very easy to read and I sped through this book in about two sittings. I thought the narrative style made it very comfortable to read and understand. There were a couple of instances where the plot jumped ahead in time without warning and I was caught a little bit off guard. But that was just a minor problem.

Dumplin’ is marketed as a book about a larger girl who enters a beauty pageant but I found the beauty pageant aspect of it to be very minor in the story. This book begins with Willowdean crushing on a boy named Bo, who works with her at a fast food restaurant. When he starts to express interest in her, she feels self-conscious and doesn’t understand why such an attractive guy could be interested in her. Somehow she ends up joining the beauty pageant.

It’s never really clear to me why she enters the beauty pageant. It says on the blurb of my book that she entered to win her confidence back and I can see that but it was never clear that that was the reason. What prompts Willowdean to enter the pageant is an old pageant application form she finds in her deceased aunt’s bedroom. Her aunt was over 500 pounds and died at a young age from a heart attack. Initially I thought Willowdean entered the pageant to show that even larger girls can enter a beauty pageant, and to fulfil a wish that her aunt never had the guts to fulfil herself. But a couple of chapters later, it seemed to me that Willowdean was entering the pageant to make fun of it. It just really bothered me that I didn’t know what her motivations were.

Also, the idea of entering the beauty pageant didn’t come up until about page 140. Considering that the book is supposed to be about her entering the pageant, I felt that it was introduced too late in the book. We don’t get to see much of the preparation for the pageant and the actual pageant itself only takes up about 20 pages of the book. It felt a little bit anticlimactic and fell short of my expectations. I expected a lot more pageant in this book and I wanted it to be more extravagant or thrilling. Instead, for most of this book, we only get to see Willowdean going to work and school, and I just wanted some more excitement. Because the pageant itself was such a small part of the book, I also wasn’t really sure what Willowdean managed to learn from the experience.

There was a strong focus on the romance, and while I did like Willowdean and Bo together, I wanted less of the romance and more of the pageant and character development in Willowdean. Although she did grow more confident throughout the pageantry process, I thought there was room for her to grow much more. She does learn to develop stronger friendships with those around her and I really enjoyed those friendship elements in the book. But at the same time, I wish that was a little bit more developed as well.

All in all, I feel like there were some very enjoyable aspects and some great messages about body image and bullying. For me, I think the book needed to be longer because there were a lot of things that I felt were unclear or underdeveloped. The pageant section of the book was very rushed and not what I expected going in to the book. However, I did still enjoy the reading experience and I would recommend this, especially if you love Dolly Parton because there is a Dolly reference almost on every page. ...more

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Aug 14, 2015 Seahorse Library rated it liked it

Shelves: genre-ya, genre-contemporary, genre-romance

Review also posted to Words Read & Written

Why I picked it up:

This book was sent to me from Penguin in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts:

In a great big nutshell, this book was about body image.

The word fat makes people uncomfortable. But when you see me, the first thing you notice is my body. And my body is fat. It’s like how I notice some girls have big boobs or shiny hair or knobby knees. Those things are okay to say. But the word fat, the one that best describes me, makes lips frown an ...more

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Nov 08, 2014 Eugenia (Genie In A Book) rated it liked it

3.5 stars

*This review also appears on my blog Genie In A Book*

Thank you to Penguin Teen Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Dumplin' is a story about being confident in your own skin, doing things outside your comfort zone, and breaking down the archetypal stereotypes which can tend to reemerge in YA. With a healthy dose of Southern charm, Julie Murphy has written a contemporary which holds a complex set of characters and heartening message. Though I didn 3.5 stars

*This review also appears on my blog Genie In A Book*

Thank you to Penguin Teen Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Dumplin' is a story about being confident in your own skin, doing things outside your comfort zone, and breaking down the archetypal stereotypes which can tend to reemerge in YA. With a healthy dose of Southern charm, Julie Murphy has written a contemporary which holds a complex set of characters and heartening message. Though I didn't love it as much as Side Effects May Vary, I'd still say that this book is worth a read this year for people on the lookout for a story of romance, empowerment and friendship.

Willow wants to challenge what it means to enter a beauty pageant - why shouldn't it be open to the 'misfits' or people without that 'perfect' body? It was interesting to read about the relationship between herself and her mother who was one of the quintessential 'beauty queens'. Will never quite felt accepted by her mother for who she was, however still stood as a seemingly confident young woman ready to take on the world and smash the stereotypes which tried to label her as undesirable. The friendship with her bestie Ellen was also a good plot point, showing how there can be ups and downs in even the closest of pairings, and sometimes over the most trivial things. There were other friendships explored though which Will sought out - and she really got to see how the 'outcasts' of her school weren't necessarily the same as what people had perceived them to be. Everyone has a story and their own true identity on the inside.

One thing which felt a little rocky for me was the romance - it was good in the sense of portraying a situation which isn't stereotypical, but I just couldn't ship it as much as I would have liked. Bo and Willowdean were a nice couple, however I wish there was that extra little spark which was missing. There came a point where I wanted Willow to actually allow herself to be happy and not need to seek validation and acceptance since she was such a strong character before. There was a little bit of a love triangle as well and at times the romance was a little clunky. It was just missing that extra something for me and the more satisfying ending that I was looking forward to.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Dumplin' is ultimately a story about growing up, being open to change, maturing as a person and developing a positive self-image. While it's not my favourite YA contemporary, I'm still very much looking forward to reading more from Julie Murphy in future!
...more

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Oct 02, 2015 Carolyn Gilpin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: int-ya, int-women-writers

For a YA book set in sweaty, gritty Texas, with some action taking place in a greasy fast food restaurant, Dumplin' is surprisingly addictive. The heroine, Willowdean (nicknamed Dumplin' by her mother), is gently shown to be on the plump side, but she doesn't let this stop her living - most of the time.

She starts a fling with a colleague, Bo, who is mysterious and alluring, but it's when things don't quite work out that she tries dating a football player, the rather nice and underestimated Mitc ...more

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