Dumplin' - Julie Murphy

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): 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.

MY OPINION: ****

I really enjoyed reading this book. It had an amazing message and instilled a sort of self-confidence that people may be lacking.

CHARACTERS
Willowdean is a "self-proclaimed fat girl" meaning that she knows she's fat and she's not afraid to say it before anyone else. She's comfortable in her body and she doesn't care about what other people think of her. I cannot honestly say I can relate to her physical body image because I'm strangely under the normal weight for my age group. However, I can definitely understand where she is coming from when she says that she's comfortable in her body and that she shouldn't be judged. I can also understand her insecurities at points of the book.

Will wasn't my favorite character. There were points when she was just downright cruel to her supposed best friend, Ellen, and she was a little possessive of people. She also succeeded in breaking Bo's heart because she was too afraid of what he thought of her, even though he so obviously was able to look past her outer body and see inside. She also claims to be okay with who she is but finds herself denying those thoughts and realizing that she isn't.

I did like how Willowdean knew that sometimes she was judgmental towards others and catches herself before becoming entirely hypocritical.

Ellen. I can't speak about her. There were times when she annoyed me to no end by not seeing the things that are right in front of her face and there were other times when I completely felt sorry for her and my heart reached out to her.

Bo. Not entirely sure how I felt about him. I think that his intentions were correct but that before kissing her, he should have made everything more clear about what they were becoming and what he wanted to be. However, I did think he was sweet and the relationship between him and Will was sublimely fluffy.

Mitch. I really loved his entire being. I wished so much better for him. He really needed to be more developed and expanded on and I wish there had been some closure for him. I want to know what happened to him. Yes, maybe he was a bit unnecessary but I'm glad he was there in the end.

THE LOVE TRIANGLE
Well, it could have been better.

THE ENDING
UGHHHH I WISH THERE WAS MORE CLOSURE THERE WERE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. Like...

-what happened in the pageant? I read an entire book about this thing and I don't even get to know who won?

-what happened to my Mitch?

-what happened to Bo and Will? do they get together in the end and stay together and live happily ever after? or do they just revert back to their secret ways of making out by the dumpster?

WRITING
I loved the writing style of this book. It was grappling and it kept making me read more and more until I had finished the book in about five hours. I would love to read more of Julie Murphy's work.

Overall, I loved the experience. It had a good message and I would love to read more. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a romantic read with a good message that is body-positive.

Main Character: Willowdean
Sidekick(s): Bo, Ellen, Millie, Hannah, Amanda, etc
Villain(s): Insecurities, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all real to life.