Dumplin'

I really enjoyed this book. Julie Murphy captures so well the confusion that comes with being a fat girl who is confident and relatively comfortable in her own skin but still struggles with how others might perceive her. That constant tug-of-war when you know you don't want to care (and mostly don't) about what others think about you, but then at the same time you sort of do, is so complicated and so rarely realized in YA novels. It made me feel seen.

I also really enjoyed the characters in general. I really enjoyed Willowdean, despite her flaws. Everyone around her feels fully realized and loveable. I was a little bummed that we didn't get to learn more about Lucy and her past, but I appreciated the narrative choice of it being kind of a mystery to Will, too. I loved the fact that Dolly Parton helped weave so much of her life together.

I will say that a lot of the plot drove me absolutely nuts. The love triangle made my stomach hurt constantly, and I feel like this book would've been stronger had it been more focused on the endgame couple. The spoiler version: SpoilerIt was really lovely seeing a romance with a fat girl at the center, and I really enjoyed the relationship that built up between Will and Bo. All the stuff with Mitch felt really unnecessary. I would've much rather the two of them been close friends. I do think it added some depth to Will's character and illustrated her selfishness and indecisiveness, but there were a lot of other ways to do that that didn't involve a crappy love triangle. Despite all that, though, I really liked the world Julie Murphy created. Clover City feels like home, even though it's nothing like anywhere I've lived. It feels real and comforting.

I am super excited to jump back into this world and read the sequel.