Author: Julie Murphy
# of Pages: 400 (paperback)
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: Dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean 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 girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.
Review: I'm actually rating this book higher than I thought I would.
This is mostly because it was exactly what I was expecting; a simple young adult novel revolving around a high schooler with high school level issues. I knew it wasn't going to be a masterpiece like All the Lights We Cannot See, but I hoped it would be better than the YA-mess The Enchanter Heir.
I loved read about Willowdean as she struggles with her weight, something that affects her relationships and her self-confidence throughout the story. It also is rich with southern culture (love for iced tea, southern hospitality, and, most of all, beauty pageants).
Will is definitely not perfect (I've seen others complain about her personality and/or her messy romantic life), but these things don't bother me for some reason. Her romantic life wasn't unrealistic to me, and the conflicts she has with her friends are all the types of fights I would expect of someone in high school.
While I do enjoy the book's message to love yourself (no matter what size you are), it just wasn't my cup of tea overall. For what it is and what I was expecting, I rank it relatively high. However, as far as how interested I was in the story, it'd be closer to three stars. The story is told in a very slice-of-life manner than was boring to me. Will doesn't even decide to enter the pageant until a good portion into the book which just goes to show how much this story drags.
I wouldn't read this book again (I only read it because of the hype over the movie that came out last month). I'm not really interested in reading these YA that are clearly meant for pre-teens/teens (too shallow, too fluffy). However, if you tend to like this type of book (think TFIOS but blander and less tearjerking), I'd recommend it.
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