ARC Review: Dumplin'

Dumplin': Julie Murphy
Publication Date: September 15th, 2015 

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.

Well … What can I say about Dumplin'? Dumplin' was one of my most anticipated books of this year. I featured it on one of the few Waiting on Wednesdays I did saying how I think how important it is for books to include not just those of different races, ethnicities and sexual orientations but also sizes. There  is so much buzz surrounding this book - I thought I would for sure love it. I'm not sure why exactly, but I was pretty disappointed by this book (maybe I pumped myself up too much). It wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be and I feel like the description is also kind of misleading. 

Let's start with why I wanted to read this book most of all. The description says she sets out to take back confidence by entering the beauty pageant. I thought this book was going to be very uplifting and empowering. Instead - Willowdean was broody and rude. She's rude to her best friend Ellen, which disturbed me most of all. Granted, they both had their own little arguments together. However, telling Ellen she didn't want her to enter the pageant because Ellen could actually win struck me as just ridiculous. While Will also does struggle with self image problems, she ridicules skinny girls calling them names as well. Do two wrongs make a right?

Another thing I was kind of confused of in this book was the relationship with Bo. Well - most of the book's relationship was with Mitch, sooo. Willowdean unneccarily overreacts to everything Bo does in the beginning of the novel just to push him away. He literally does nothing wrong. Also, the relationship made no sense. It seemed like they just said hi and they were making out. There was no chemistry or tension, I was very confused. The book was a conglomeration of diversity, or at least it wanted to be. I felt as if every single person in the book had so many issues and problems that it really didn't mesh well together. I love a diverse YA book, don't get me wrong but sometimes it's just overbearing when every character is gay, bullied, money problems, divorced parents, etc. I feel almost like if each thing was focused on more in the story it would have made more sense but it was just mentioned once or twice in passing so it really didn't mean anything to the story line! It was almost like "lets just add some home problems, maybe a gay character for good measure". It wasn't meaningful, you know? 

One thing I will say about this book was that it was a very easy read, it didn't take me long to get through. I encourage everyone to read this book because it seems that everyone else reading it is really enjoying it and I obviously am just the black sheep with this book. But I will not cower and I just want to share my opinions with all of you because thats what blogging is about! I hope you all enjoy this more than I did. 

- Jocelyn