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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
I wish I had this kind of novel when I was a teenager. Because I was one of the oddballs, the overweight friend who everyone said had a "great personality" and I related so much to everything in this novel. I adored it, from start to finish.
Willowdean Dickson, better known as Will to her friends and Dumplin' to her mom, is spending her summer between sophomore and junior year working at the local burger joint. She is hoping to get her car fixed and oh, she is also making out after work with the hottest guy in the place, perhaps in town. Bo is the quiet brooding type, a striking difference to Will's sparkling brightness, and yet the two are drawn to each other. The only thing is, they keep their make out sessions a secret and it all comes tumbling down around Will as she begins to question why Bo is really attracted to her. Yeah, her? The overweight girl with the hot guy? Can't possibly happen. Just like a bunch of oddball girls can't join the local beauty pageant (which, for Texas, is a huge deal). And yet all of this happens as Willowdean attempts to take control of her life by embracing herself and her body. All of the characters in this novel were just so endearing; flawed and spectacular, a wide range of everyone you would find not only in a small town but in a general high school. What I found the most enlightening is Will's inner dialogue with her fight against herself. She was wrong, a lot of the time, but she was also right about a lot of things. It is not wrong to think someone as wonderful as Bo can love someone like her. And yet she was not wrong in her observations of how others would view her and Bo being together. The big girl doesn't often get the happy ending. And yet, why not? That is the core of this novel, the why shouldn't the outcasts, the rejected, and the odd get their own happiness despite all the beauty pageants of the world tell them? And this is why it is a story that I wish I had long ago, as I struggled with my own body image. I caved and lost the weight. I feel guilty being able to fit into clothes, knowing that there are girls who cry in dressing rooms because clothes feel ugly (since I was that girl too at one time). It is not easy and yet I loved the simplicity of Bo, in his steadfast ways that confirmed it won't be easy but it will be worth it.
I absolutely enjoyed the vivid voice of Will and all the lively characters in this novel. I feel as if this touches not only on the bad body images overweight girls internalize all the time with themselves, but also the positive reinforcement that can come in all different places. Because love is worth it, no matter what.
Willowdean Dickson, better known as Will to her friends and Dumplin' to her mom, is spending her summer between sophomore and junior year working at the local burger joint. She is hoping to get her car fixed and oh, she is also making out after work with the hottest guy in the place, perhaps in town. Bo is the quiet brooding type, a striking difference to Will's sparkling brightness, and yet the two are drawn to each other. The only thing is, they keep their make out sessions a secret and it all comes tumbling down around Will as she begins to question why Bo is really attracted to her. Yeah, her? The overweight girl with the hot guy? Can't possibly happen. Just like a bunch of oddball girls can't join the local beauty pageant (which, for Texas, is a huge deal). And yet all of this happens as Willowdean attempts to take control of her life by embracing herself and her body. All of the characters in this novel were just so endearing; flawed and spectacular, a wide range of everyone you would find not only in a small town but in a general high school. What I found the most enlightening is Will's inner dialogue with her fight against herself. She was wrong, a lot of the time, but she was also right about a lot of things. It is not wrong to think someone as wonderful as Bo can love someone like her. And yet she was not wrong in her observations of how others would view her and Bo being together. The big girl doesn't often get the happy ending. And yet, why not? That is the core of this novel, the why shouldn't the outcasts, the rejected, and the odd get their own happiness despite all the beauty pageants of the world tell them? And this is why it is a story that I wish I had long ago, as I struggled with my own body image. I caved and lost the weight. I feel guilty being able to fit into clothes, knowing that there are girls who cry in dressing rooms because clothes feel ugly (since I was that girl too at one time). It is not easy and yet I loved the simplicity of Bo, in his steadfast ways that confirmed it won't be easy but it will be worth it.
I absolutely enjoyed the vivid voice of Will and all the lively characters in this novel. I feel as if this touches not only on the bad body images overweight girls internalize all the time with themselves, but also the positive reinforcement that can come in all different places. Because love is worth it, no matter what.
A teen girl struggles with body image as she explores the world of dating and pageantry in a small Texas town.
Willowdean identifies as a fat girl and, despite what media would have her believe, generally feels okay about it. At her summer job, she grows close to a co-worker and begins secretly dating him which brings to the surface body issues she wasn't previously aware of (i.e. feeling uncomfortable with him touching her in areas that aren't as skinny as she'd like them to be, or torturing herself with all the comments she believes people would make if they saw them behaving as a couple in public etc).
To make matters worse, Willowdean has recently lost a loved one, her aunt. She was raised by her single mom and aunt and really identified with her aunt and valued her support and insight because she struggled with her weight too. Her mother is caught up in the world of beauty pageants and mother and daughter aren't nearly as close as aunt and niece were.
When Willowdean gets into a fight with her lifetime best friend she feels lost. She misses her and tries to fix the relationship, though the fight rages during most of the book. It is during this period that she begins to make friends with a group of girls that are generally regarded as outcasts at her school. The group signs up for the annual beauty pageant and challenge the longstanding biases woven into the beauty world.
I love the voice with which this story is told; it's authentic. Willowdean is a pretty average girl and she lets readers into her world and her most private thoughts; she's super relatable and honest. There's plenty of humor worked into this story too what with the pageant play-by-play and the Dolly Parton obsession that Willowdean and her aunt share.
I recommend the audiobook as read with a southern accent by the voice artist. Grades 8 and up.
Willowdean identifies as a fat girl and, despite what media would have her believe, generally feels okay about it. At her summer job, she grows close to a co-worker and begins secretly dating him which brings to the surface body issues she wasn't previously aware of (i.e. feeling uncomfortable with him touching her in areas that aren't as skinny as she'd like them to be, or torturing herself with all the comments she believes people would make if they saw them behaving as a couple in public etc).
To make matters worse, Willowdean has recently lost a loved one, her aunt. She was raised by her single mom and aunt and really identified with her aunt and valued her support and insight because she struggled with her weight too. Her mother is caught up in the world of beauty pageants and mother and daughter aren't nearly as close as aunt and niece were.
When Willowdean gets into a fight with her lifetime best friend she feels lost. She misses her and tries to fix the relationship, though the fight rages during most of the book. It is during this period that she begins to make friends with a group of girls that are generally regarded as outcasts at her school. The group signs up for the annual beauty pageant and challenge the longstanding biases woven into the beauty world.
I love the voice with which this story is told; it's authentic. Willowdean is a pretty average girl and she lets readers into her world and her most private thoughts; she's super relatable and honest. There's plenty of humor worked into this story too what with the pageant play-by-play and the Dolly Parton obsession that Willowdean and her aunt share.
I recommend the audiobook as read with a southern accent by the voice artist. Grades 8 and up.
I loved the characters and the plot, though I find miscommunication to be a weak plot point. The relationship with the mother really resonated with me.
So many laugh out loud moments in this book. Willowdean was hilarious and so quotable. I loved all the Texas small town humor. If you are looking for a fun and meaningful read, Dumplin' is exactly what you need.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
This was another great YA book that navigated the familiar worlds of high school, family drama, friendships, and dating with the added layer of complexity navigating those things in a fat body brings. I really empathized with Willowdean, the main character and her struggle to come to terms with her body and her confidence in a small town. It was a great read and I’ll definitely seek out more books from this author.
would have four stars but the ending made me a little mad
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Another excellent wheel choice for a book. I love the film make of this book, so reading it was always going to be enjoyable. I like the characters and how they develop over time, and changes they make to themselves and their thoughts and feelings. It was a very enjoyable read, and definitely one that I did just want to keep reading. I don’t know how much of that was because I already knew and had seen the film and if I would’ve had the same experience if I read before watching, but for me it was excellent.
4.5 stars. I loved it way more than I was expecting to. Gives me hope that one day I'll be able to love my body the way Will does.
I picked up this book, thinking I’d get a body-positive message out of it. But it fails on that account. A fat girl who cringes at other fatter girls — even while coming to their aid against bullies — and makes a mockery out of the one thing that she was going to use to send a message about body positivity; that’s what I got. In a nutshell, that isn’t the kind of show that I came to watch.
The pageant thing really got my goat. If you’re going to use a platform to rebel, then, at least, respect its rules. The heroine did close to nothing for the different tasks that make up the competition. If she meant to put out the message that fat girls are lazy, well that one, she got across fine!
Yet another thing that really bothered me was her relationship with the guy whom she worked with at the diner. He was everything that she wasn’t, so when they’re together at the end, it only reinforces one thing: good fat girls are rewarded with not-fat hot boyfriends. How’s that progressive in any way? And, give me one good reason why the book needed a love interest in the first place. Also, that whole phase where she and her guy suck face in remote places just made the whole thing seem dirty.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the way Will treated the jock who was interested in her. I kept thinking, maybe, for once, the girl will end up with the guy who values her for her. But nope, she went straight to the cardboard cutout of a guy, Bo.
How the mother and daughter deal with their grief in different ways was the best thing about this book.
The movie is different from the book in several ways. I don’t know if that’s for the better or not but I’ll mention some. Firstly, the whole dirty remote-kissing phase isn’t part of the movie. Secondly, the major part of the book concerned itself with the fight between the MC and her BFF, Ellen. The movie shortens it so much that it loses the powerful effect it had on both the girls’ lives. Healthy female friendships are a good thing and that is the one of the few things that I liked while reading this mess of a book. But the movie got rid of that.
And ugh, they combined two characters to create a very stereotypical goth one. Not cool at all. They held their own in the book.
To me, the movie felt rushed and incomplete. And I found the book to be a mess.