Reread: Dumplin' (#1) by Julie Murphy

 Summary from Goodreads:

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.

My Review:


What I Liked:

Characters. Murphy as a gift when it comes to creating relatable characters. I had not trouble connecting with the various characters she created, both the main and side characters. The book was told from Will aka Dumplin''s point of view. I was not a big fan of her choices in the romance department but I connected with her about other things. I also liked the side characters, aka Millie who I want to adopt. 

Plot. Murphy did a great job creating an interesting plot that kept me reading all 400 pages. The whole pageant storyline was not the main focus but I liked that it was not the sole focus of the novel. I was more interested in the day to day life of Willowdean, and the storyline about her missing her Aunt who recently passed away. Murphy as always does a great job of focusing on the relations between family and friends. 

Audiobook. This time around I checked out the audiobook and loved it!  It was narrated by Elieen Stevens, who did a great job with the accents and I was easily immured in the book. 

Representation. Murphy's main character, Will, who is overweight, in my opinion was done really well. Coming from someone who struggled with weight the character felt genuine. I was able to connect with her on more levels than a lot of other contemporary characters. 

What I Disliked: 

The over focus on appearance. The novel focuses a lot of appearance and flaws of the characters. I understand that it was mainly used to show that these characters were more than their appearances but I do think it was brought up/focused on too much. It took away from the message. 

Romance/Love Triangle. The main aspect I felt that could have been cut was the love triangle. I also was not a huge fan of the romance. I would have liked this novel more if those aspects were not in it. 

I recommend checking out this great contemporary novel. I lowered my rating this time around because of the romance aspects and some the problematic comments. 

My Rating:

4 Stars Out of 5 Stars