Book Review : Dumplin

Book Title : Dumplin - Go Big Or Go Home

Author : Julie Murphy

ISBN : 9780062327185

Publisher : Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins Publishers)

Genre : Young Adult / Contemporary Fiction

Publication : 2015

Pages : 375

Binding : Hardback

About The Book:

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.

Rating: 1.5 ☆'s

Review:

The book was supposed to be about positive body-image - pay attention to the word "supposed" - because it was anything but that. At best, it touched upon the sentiment of positive body image. Talking about the non-conventional models joining a beauty pageant is not all that is there to positive body image. And even if it is, it wasn't truly - in the real sense - highlight or focus of the book - the story was here there and everywhere except at the pageant.

Being on the overweight side - thanks to multiple health issues coupled with a bad lifestyle, I was really looking forward to this read and I was excited and had tons of anticipation - but it all came spiraling down.

There was so much more going wrong with this book - to begin with, the writing, the narration was boring - I flipped through so many pages and skipped so much content and trust me - even then, I didn't miss out on anything in terms of the story or the plot.

It was such a bad mix of chick-lit and YA and love triangles and everything cliched that it made me want to throw up. Frankly, there are far better books out there, if I want to read up everything cliched. This one I picked up for the positive body-image reference. The concept, plot was good - but it just wasn't well - executed and it made the book a drag.

I am trying to find one good thing that I can say about the book, but nothing is coming to my head right now. The author did try to build the characters - but it was a failed attempt. There was nothing new going for the plot and it was a page turner - not in the good sense, but because I wanted to skip things and go through the book faster. All the expectations come crashing down with this book.

So my verdict, if you have read the book and loved it - well good for you. If you have read it and hated it like me, well I feel for you. But if you haven't read the book - you aren't missing out on anything. You can totally skip it, for there are so many good books to read and so little time.

That's all folks...

Happy Reading.