Dumplin' by Julie Murphy (2015-09-15)

willowdean is a self-proclaimed fat girl, comfortable in her own body. but she does spend a lot of time acting entitled, seeing as she hasn't got it as "easy" as her "skinny bitch" peers. she enters a beauty pagant, and a lot of the other misfits do, too. She doesn't want them there, though, she wants to be the only untraditionally beautiful one.
will is a lot whinier than i would have liked, and the book has zero surprises in store for the reader. if you've ever read a book before you should steer clear, and if you haven't, you should read something else. one of the worst books i've read this year

This novel portrayed a good message in terms of learning to love one's self despite our flaws. There were some parts I found to be a little too pandering, and others, preachy. Either way, the core message came through. Everyone I think in some way, has been bullied or told they aren't good enough for whatever reason, and thus, we all can relate to 'Dumplin' somehow. However, the writing is geared more towards teens I think because it's not entirely deep and it glosses over parts I thought to be important (like the talent show and crowd reactions) while putting emphasis on things that would interest a younger audience (romance). I have very mixed feelings about this book because I'm one person who advocates for weight loss (when possible) in any overweight person. At the same time, I do not think it's ever alright to judge another human based on their looks, colour, size, whatever you name it. I think balance is what is called for. Willowdean 'Dumplin' is young. She's young enough to actually hit the gym and take off the pounds if she wants, rather than saying 'this is how I am' and eating junk food. I think, the only time anyone should accept 'this is all I can be' is when they have a medical condition that either keeps them from exercising or causes extreme weight gain with very little hope of losing it. Willowdean is not shown to have any condition. She's just an overweight teen. Why settle, why not lose weight but talk about loving yourself as you do? I suppose as someone who once was rather large, I don't understand why anyone would ever simply say 'this is me so I won't bother to lose it'. It's not particularly healthy. So in the end, like I said, I'm torn over this book. Love yourself, yes, but don't let it be an excuse to stay stagnant for your whole life and not think of health related risks to excessive weight. If you can lose weight, do it. Because I'm certainly glad I did.

The overall message is good. At some points I had a hard time liking Willowdean but she is redeemed in the end. The book brings up some discussions that need to be talked about with young women today. The beginning had an okay pacing to it, but the middle felt like it was going nowhere. It wasn't until about 70% that I was enjoying the story and felt engaged. It might be worth a re-read and I would recommend it to others.

This started out good but then got worse. Someone else's review said Willowdean was too judgmental. It was true. Someone said they didn't like books where the ending was too quick. Everything about this book was long and then the ending came too quick. She made up with her best friend and went back to normal too quick. The pageant itself was too quick. The author probably spent more time covering the boot camp than the actual pageant.

I don't know what this book is trying to say about health. I think Lucy should have lost weight and not being able to get on the plane should have been a wake up call. Is this book trying to say her obesity was ok and she didn't need to feel ashamed about not fitting into seats?

Bo is blah.

I give this book some bonus points because Jolene is my favorite Dolly Parton song and the only ones I know are "I will always love you" and "Drinkenstein"

This book had potential, I really wanted to like it. The description of the book tells the story about a girl named chubby girl named Willowdean who enters the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant to get more confidence and shock the world. Sounds great! However, I stopped reading at 35%. Nothing had happened yet! I like to try to give books at least a 30% chance to grab my attention, but this one did nothing for me.

I don't feel any guilt leaving this one unread, I never felt any sort of emotion towards Will or any of the other characters.