Monday, November 2, 2015

Review: Dumplin'

Author: Julie Murphy
Goodreads Rating: 3.93
Pages: 384
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.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

 
I'm still new to the world of contemporary novels and even though this wasn't my favorite, I still loved the message that came with it! It had a TON of interesting quotes but at the same time, it really didn't make me feel anything.

Willowdean "Dumplin'" Dickson is fat... but that's not a bad thing.

"But's that's me. I'm fat. It's not a cuss word. It's not an
insult. At least it's not when I say it."

Will is a great character who I really enjoyed throughout the whole book. She's a confident girl who knows who she is, for the most part, and is happy with who she is, and tells anyone who sees her differently to go screw themselves. And she deals out great life lessons.

"Why should I feel bad about wanting to get into a pool or stand
around in my swim suit? Why should I feel like I need to run in
and out of the water so that no one has to see the atrocity that
are my thighs?"

Even the love story with her and Bo was kind of cute :) I was rooting for her the whole way!

"...for the first time in my life, I fit. I fit without any
question"

I haven't read many contemporary books (I think this was my 3rd recent one) but I was seeing it follow the same trend: main character starts off with comfortable and normal life, something comes along to upset the balance, main character goes through some personal changes, and everything works out in the end. This was sadly no exception.

I wasn't shocked and awed at any of the occurrences and found myself at the end thinking, "huh... well that's nice." I wasn't moved to tears or anything, and in fact, was hardly moved at all. Don't get me wrong! I did enjoy the book. But it just didn't elicit any big feelings in me.

I felt like the ending was really rushed. I would have liked to see things kind of slowly come back together instead of everything righting itself within the last 50 or so pages. Even after the ending, I still have so many questions...

- Did Will ever start to let go of Lucy?
- Does she start to feel better about her body again?
- Do her and Bo work out? Do they really give it a shot?

The book was a descent read for a contemporary and it does offer a great lesson about body images and many great quotes that I will probably paint prettily on a canvas someday. The last quote I will leave you with is one of my favorites and it doesn't have to do with body positive images like the others, but it was one that really stuck with me...

"...for every person who is waiting to be found, there is someone
out there searching."
The Court's Decision:
 

1 comment:

  1. I was under whelmed by this one personally. I think the hype and what it was portrayed at being was way just... MORE than what I got. Loved the review!

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