18304322Title: Dumplin’

Author: Julie Murphy

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication Date: September 2015

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/ Contemporary

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

 

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Review:

Willowdean, aka Dumplin’ to her mother, is a big girl who is fine with it. Mostly. But every year her town’s pageant looms over her. She’s never been interested in it before, especially as he mother is the reigning champ from so many years ago, but this year might be different.

There’s a lot of wonderful stuff to like about Dumplin‘. Willowdean is a wonderfully layered character, full of confidence and vulnerability, love and ache. When her best friend stops talking-to her, she embarks on this self discovery tour, making new friends along the way. Add into that a summer fling gone wrong and a few dates with a nice guy, and Willowdean is navigating high school like any other teenager: clumsily, carefully and anxiously.

The best relationship in the entire book is Willowdean and her best friend El. El and her have been friends forever, and their love of Dolly Parton brought them closer. But in typical fashion, sometimes you grow apart from your best friend and sometimes they grow apart from you. I really loved the complexity to their friendship, how El viewed Willowdean and how she viewed El. There’s a lot of real emotion behind this and I feel like Murphy did a wonderful job expressing the turbulence that is a female friendship.

I also really liked Willowdean’s relationship with her mother. It’s complicated to say the least.

And there’s some romance in there too!

The writing is also solid, filled with touches of sadness.

That said, I didn’t really connect fully with the characters. While I liked Willowdean, I just didn’t have an emotional connection to her. I don’t know why. And most of the romance in the book felt a little forced, especially with Bo. There was a wonderful scene in the girl’s bathroom, but otherwise it seemed like a hasty storyline.

And one more thing which is a little personal – I don’t think it was conveyed well about Willowdean’s health risks for being so overweight. I’m a overweight girl myself and have struggled with weight issues my whole life so I understand Willowdean’s struggles, but I feel like while the book focused on self discovery and confidence, which are all wonderful powerful things, it left out some general physical problems that she might be dealing with or would have to deal with later on. I’m not saying she had to lose weight or physically transform, but it would have been nice if she had taken a more active role in being healthy, whatever that means to her. She did just watch her aunt die, at a very young age, due to problems with her weight. Wouldn’t that have triggered something in her too?

Overall, Dumplin‘ is a bittersweet coming of age story about one girl’s crooked path to find confidence. I think most people will enjoy Willowdean’s journey.

Rating 5 Okay