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 Rating: 4.5/5
This is a book I have been hearing nothing but good things about for years so I have no idea why it has taken me this long to finally pick it up because I read it in one sitting and I absolutely loved it.
Willowdean was such a refreshing character and I loved her witty attitude and the fact that she accepted her weight and didn't let it hold her back.
This book had such strong positive messages that it was impossible not to feel some kind of inspiration from it.
I felt like I learnt a lot about Dolly Parton from reading this book as I previously knew next to nothing about her.
I found the relationship between Willowdean, her mother and her aunt really interesting and I would have liked this to have been explored even deeper than what it was. I feel like this had the potential to be a book on its own.
The beauty pageant aspect of the story was rather slowly paced and didn't actually occur until the end of the book. I found I didn't really care about this side of the story because the characters were enough for me.
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