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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
16 year-old Willowdean, or Dumplin' as her former beauty queen mom affectionately calls her, is your average high school student. She has hopes and dreams, a best friend who is her world, and a crush on the hot private school basketball player she works with at her part-time fast food job. Willowdean also struggles with the typical female body issues: not technically obese but far from skinny, she has always tried to embrace her body as it is and not let other people or uncomfortable situations (like not fitting into a Halloween costume) affect her and her self-image. All that changes, though, when her best friend claims Willowdean is holding her back from life and the hot basketball player slash coworker seems to want to kiss her every time they are alone. Forced to evaluate everything she thought she knew -- including her friendship, her confidence, and her place as a curvy girl in this skinny world -- Willowdean decides to do the unthinkable: enter her mother's prized event, the Miss Clover City beauty pageant, shocking herself even more than everyone else.
Like so many girls, I was beyond self-conscious about my weight in high school. I still am, to be honest. (I still marvel at how I managed to land such a handsome husband!) In high school, I wore clothes to hide my figure as best as I could and I had a best friend who was not just skinnier than me but also prettier and much more confident. I used her as my safety blanket -- she always made me feel great about myself, she would never leave my side or make me fend for myself, and she was my biggest supporter. There was a part of me, though, that felt inadequate because I knew what people must be thinking: I was the "designated fat friend". My self-esteem was in the tank and the fact that guys wanted to go out with her and not me definitely made it worse. I couldn't even imagine that a guy would be interested in me. Turns out, I found out years later that there were a few who wanted to ask me out but didn't because I made it clear at the time that the only person I needed was my best friend. Willowdean and I have a lot in common, apparently: we sabotaged potential relationships due to our insecurities. Then I got my first boyfriend, who I thought was way better-looking than I deserved, and the insecurities skyrocketed. Does he really think I'm cute? Why would he want to date ME? Can he feel my fat when he hugs me? Dumplin' is my high school life story, but funnier and with a beauty pageant that my teen self never in a million years would have had the guts to take part in, and I adored reading every page. My only qualm? I would've liked to see more of the ending. I felt it was a bit abrupt and left me needing more closure even though I could clearly see where author Julie Murphy was leading Willowdean.
Teens and adults alike will love Willowdean, her friends, her potential love interests, and the kick-butt way she goes after life. Dumplin' is a story many can relate to: growing up, forging new friendships, adjusting old friendships, and dealing with insecurities and trust in yourself as well as those around you. We are all trying to find our place in this world, regardless of age, and Dumplin' captures this perfectly.
Like so many girls, I was beyond self-conscious about my weight in high school. I still am, to be honest. (I still marvel at how I managed to land such a handsome husband!) In high school, I wore clothes to hide my figure as best as I could and I had a best friend who was not just skinnier than me but also prettier and much more confident. I used her as my safety blanket -- she always made me feel great about myself, she would never leave my side or make me fend for myself, and she was my biggest supporter. There was a part of me, though, that felt inadequate because I knew what people must be thinking: I was the "designated fat friend". My self-esteem was in the tank and the fact that guys wanted to go out with her and not me definitely made it worse. I couldn't even imagine that a guy would be interested in me. Turns out, I found out years later that there were a few who wanted to ask me out but didn't because I made it clear at the time that the only person I needed was my best friend. Willowdean and I have a lot in common, apparently: we sabotaged potential relationships due to our insecurities. Then I got my first boyfriend, who I thought was way better-looking than I deserved, and the insecurities skyrocketed. Does he really think I'm cute? Why would he want to date ME? Can he feel my fat when he hugs me? Dumplin' is my high school life story, but funnier and with a beauty pageant that my teen self never in a million years would have had the guts to take part in, and I adored reading every page. My only qualm? I would've liked to see more of the ending. I felt it was a bit abrupt and left me needing more closure even though I could clearly see where author Julie Murphy was leading Willowdean.
Teens and adults alike will love Willowdean, her friends, her potential love interests, and the kick-butt way she goes after life. Dumplin' is a story many can relate to: growing up, forging new friendships, adjusting old friendships, and dealing with insecurities and trust in yourself as well as those around you. We are all trying to find our place in this world, regardless of age, and Dumplin' captures this perfectly.
An easy and quick read with a satisfying ending. Good story about self confidence (or lack thereof) and friendship.
I loved it. The way it was written, the voice of Willowdean, what I took from the story... Absolutely awesome. Very realistic and full of delightful characters (and some very frustrating ones).
Here’s the thing. I didn’t like this book. At all. Which is surprising since this is YA contemporary and I always enjoy YA contemporary, no matter what. This one, I didn’t enjoy.
This was supposed to be a book about body-positivity and overcoming stereotypes. Also, it was supposed to be a beauty pageant book. The whole beauty contest comes to play only in the second half of the book. Everything that happens prior to that is just dragging the plot (is there even one?) and I guess it was supposed to be a way for us to get to know all the characters but to me, it was just boring. The idea of the book is great and I was really looking forward to it but the execution is terrible.
Characters were the worst part. I literally couldn’t stand any of them. None. Not even the love interest and I always like at least the love interest (I’m trash, I know). Willowdean (Will from now on because I’m lazy), our main character, is an extremely annoying person. I wanted to yell at her throughout the entire book, I was so frustrated with her. I get it, she’s insecure because of her weight and doesn’t think she’s attractive which I get, I was a bit chubby as well. However, she kept mentioning how she feels good in her own skin and doesn’t care what other people thinks but when a boy comes into the picture (two boys actually) and they both want to be with her, she chickens out and suddenly feels like she doesn’t deserve it. Girl, two boys are swooning over you, you don’t tell them to back of because you are all of a sudden ashamed of your body! I don’t get it, sorry. Instead of going from hating her body to accepting it she does the other way – from accepting it to hating it – and that is NOT the message this book is supposed to send.
The romance part of Dumplin’ wasn’t great either. First we have Bo, the guy Will has a crush on and his personality is just non-existant. The only thing I can tell you about his is that he’s hot and has a great butt. That’s literally it. His ans Will’s relationship was super unconvincing and random and I didn’t really understand why they were talking or not talking at a certain scene. Mitch, the other boy, reminded me of my ex-boyfriend way too much but for him I can at least say he was consistant. I understood him and thing he did, if nothing else. That doesn’t mean I liked him, though. But for personal reasons mostly.
Another thing that really bothered me “ugly girls club”. I called them that, it’s not really in the book. But Will made friends with other three girls who aren’t really considered pretty for different reasons and all of them decided to take part in the beauty pageant. Again, it’s not a bad concept but couldn’t there have been at least one of them who is average-looking girl, nothing explicitly “ugly” about her? Just to give it a little balance. This way the author is telling us that fat and not-in-a-usual-way pretty girls can hang out only with each other. It’s not true.
The only good thing about Dumplin’ is the diverse representation. As you already know, there are fat girls, but there is also a lesbian Dominican character as well as two trans gay characters. It was nice to get a bit diversity since it’s the only good thing about this book.
The ending was the biggest disappointment. I was hoping this book would redeem itself with some great ending but nope. When I read the last page, I couldn’t believe that’s it. This is how it ends? That bullshit. We didn’t get any answers and nothing was wrapped up. I feel like one chapter was missing – just one chapter where we find out how everything ends. If you haven’t read Dumplin’ and you plan to, skip to the next paragraph because there are going to be spoilers. I was so pissed that we didn’t find out if Will ended up with Bo or not but I was even more pissed that we don’t know who won the pageant. You can’t revolve the entire book around a beauty pageant and then not tell your readers who wins! I do appreciate it that Will didn’t win, that would be way to predictable and cliched.
To sum it all up, the concept of Dumplin’ is great and I was really looking forward to reading this book but it wasn’t written very well and I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I hoped to. The author does explore some important topics and I can see all her good intentions but it just isn’t done well. I wouldn’t recommend it but who know, maybe you’ll like it. I didn’t.
This was supposed to be a book about body-positivity and overcoming stereotypes. Also, it was supposed to be a beauty pageant book. The whole beauty contest comes to play only in the second half of the book. Everything that happens prior to that is just dragging the plot (is there even one?) and I guess it was supposed to be a way for us to get to know all the characters but to me, it was just boring. The idea of the book is great and I was really looking forward to it but the execution is terrible.
Characters were the worst part. I literally couldn’t stand any of them. None. Not even the love interest and I always like at least the love interest (I’m trash, I know). Willowdean (Will from now on because I’m lazy), our main character, is an extremely annoying person. I wanted to yell at her throughout the entire book, I was so frustrated with her. I get it, she’s insecure because of her weight and doesn’t think she’s attractive which I get, I was a bit chubby as well. However, she kept mentioning how she feels good in her own skin and doesn’t care what other people thinks but when a boy comes into the picture (two boys actually) and they both want to be with her, she chickens out and suddenly feels like she doesn’t deserve it. Girl, two boys are swooning over you, you don’t tell them to back of because you are all of a sudden ashamed of your body! I don’t get it, sorry. Instead of going from hating her body to accepting it she does the other way – from accepting it to hating it – and that is NOT the message this book is supposed to send.
The romance part of Dumplin’ wasn’t great either. First we have Bo, the guy Will has a crush on and his personality is just non-existant. The only thing I can tell you about his is that he’s hot and has a great butt. That’s literally it. His ans Will’s relationship was super unconvincing and random and I didn’t really understand why they were talking or not talking at a certain scene. Mitch, the other boy, reminded me of my ex-boyfriend way too much but for him I can at least say he was consistant. I understood him and thing he did, if nothing else. That doesn’t mean I liked him, though. But for personal reasons mostly.
Another thing that really bothered me “ugly girls club”. I called them that, it’s not really in the book. But Will made friends with other three girls who aren’t really considered pretty for different reasons and all of them decided to take part in the beauty pageant. Again, it’s not a bad concept but couldn’t there have been at least one of them who is average-looking girl, nothing explicitly “ugly” about her? Just to give it a little balance. This way the author is telling us that fat and not-in-a-usual-way pretty girls can hang out only with each other. It’s not true.
The only good thing about Dumplin’ is the diverse representation. As you already know, there are fat girls, but there is also a lesbian Dominican character as well as two trans gay characters. It was nice to get a bit diversity since it’s the only good thing about this book.
The ending was the biggest disappointment. I was hoping this book would redeem itself with some great ending but nope. When I read the last page, I couldn’t believe that’s it. This is how it ends? That bullshit. We didn’t get any answers and nothing was wrapped up. I feel like one chapter was missing – just one chapter where we find out how everything ends. If you haven’t read Dumplin’ and you plan to, skip to the next paragraph because there are going to be spoilers. I was so pissed that we didn’t find out if Will ended up with Bo or not but I was even more pissed that we don’t know who won the pageant. You can’t revolve the entire book around a beauty pageant and then not tell your readers who wins! I do appreciate it that Will didn’t win, that would be way to predictable and cliched.
To sum it all up, the concept of Dumplin’ is great and I was really looking forward to reading this book but it wasn’t written very well and I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I hoped to. The author does explore some important topics and I can see all her good intentions but it just isn’t done well. I wouldn’t recommend it but who know, maybe you’ll like it. I didn’t.
inspiring
lighthearted
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
I don’t really have any issues with this book, it was just a bit lackluster and anticlimactic in some ways. I enjoyed it for the most part. The audiobook was really well done and easy to listen to. I think this will make for a great Netflix movie, and I look forward to its release!