She wears shirts with puppies and kittens and not in an ironic way.It's hard to send a message of body positivity and acceptance in others when the main character tends to skinny-shame, however contrite she feels about it. Her eyes are too close together and her nose pinches up at the end. I’m fat, but Millie’s the type of fat that requires elastic waist pants because they don’t make pants with buttons and zippers in her size. I'm not perfect (gasp, horror, etc.) but characters should elicit sympathy in a reader and it is supremely hard to do that when the main character is constantly judging others whom she deem to be lesser and uglier and fatter than she is. Look, I get that characters aren't perfect. She is also an insecure, judgmental snit. This book is vastly inferior to the spectacular Future Perfect, which sends the message of being comfortable in your own body in a far better way. It's not body-positive for a book that's about body positivityĭoesn't that defeat the purpose of this book? I would say it does.

There are three main things wrong with it:Ģ. With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine- Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City-and maybe herself most of all. 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. Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. 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. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin.

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy