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Dumplin' (Dumplin', #1)

Julie Murphy

Start date: May 1, 2021

Finish date: May 31, 2021

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What Members Thought

Nov 27, 2015 Deborah rated it really liked it

Shelves: romance, identity, diversity, civility, mature-teen, humerous, clever, death-grieving-fiction, community, body-image

I love Willowdean "Dumplin'" Dickson! She's large, in both pant size and personality. She's full of sassy confidence which is at times laugh-out-loud funny, at times powerfully thoughtful, and at times poignant to the point of tears. The positive body-image message is obvious, but what resonated the most for me was the sisterhood. There's the difficult relationship between her mother and her recently deceased aunt, who had been obese in life and self-conscious to the point of becoming a hermit, I love Willowdean "Dumplin'" Dickson! She's large, in both pant size and personality. She's full of sassy confidence which is at times laugh-out-loud funny, at times powerfully thoughtful, and at times poignant to the point of tears. The positive body-image message is obvious, but what resonated the most for me was the sisterhood. There's the difficult relationship between her mother and her recently deceased aunt, who had been obese in life and self-conscious to the point of becoming a hermit, holing up inside their home nearly all her adult life. The complications of that that sisterhood bleeds over into a strained mother-daughter relationship. Then there's the sisterhood between Willowdean and her best friend, El, of the tall, flirty, Barbie-doll good looks. The story explores how friends and sisters, may grow apart in interests and needs and how it becomes the responsibility of each individual to work at keeping that sisterhood whole.

El is not just interested in popularity. It's not that simple. She has a genuine desire to make new friends join more social events. Whereas, Willowdean is a bit settled in her habits and prefers to remain with her inner circle of friends--not because she is shy about her body. She's actually quite strong about it and has no problem wearing a swimsuit all summer at the public pool, because she likes to swim. The young women are just changing. Their relationship conflicts grow when Willowdean begins a secret, sizzling relationship with her mysterious hot co-worker. The start of their relationship reminded me of the Buffy/Spike thing, but like everything in the book, it evolves into real emotion! And caring! Willowdean's other romantic interest is not merely a quick route to jealousy, the additional beau pushes her understanding and acceptance of her own sexuality and sexual needs.

The beauty pageant made the best vehicle for exposing our culture's obsession with body-image over true personal beauty. I loved the Dolly Parton fandom! ...more

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Mar 02, 2016 Kim Benouski rated it liked it

Shelves: ya-and-youth, womens-lit

This was cute but not about body positivity like it says. I like having a main character that's truly overweight, not just pudgy. I just found it a bit out there with beauty pageants and her love interests having no reason to really like her as she doesn't show a great personality except at the very start of the book. I liked the friendship storyline best. Most characters were pretty flat, and the book just ends. I think it has a lot of potential, but it doesn't quite get there. ...more

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Nov 04, 2016 Morgan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, young-adult, audiobook

I don't know what I expected exactly when I started this one, but I liked it more than I thought I would.

Definitely felt a lot more 'real' than some other similar books. These teenagers weren't perfect -- they got emotional. They made mistakes. They mostly learned from them afterwards. Pretty much like all of us.

Interested to see it's marked as #1 and I'll probably check out #2 when it shows up out of curiosity. It didn't feel unfinished as it is though. So it's not unsatisfying if you are in ...more

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