From the cover:
"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."
So...goods not as advertised. For starters, Will is not at home in her body. She's insecure, hyper-conscious of her size, and has constant terrible self talk. Forget "her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body." Not only does she go swimming early on in the book feeling super self-conscious about her swimsuit, but she spends the entire book telling herself she shouldn't do things and doesn't deserve things because of her size. What's more, she's crappy to people who don't deserve it because of her own self-worth issues. Ellen is her best friend, and Bo is clearly a great guy who is into her, so why is she such a dick to them? Because they have the misfortune of being conventionally attractive? That's the only conclusion I can draw. Finally, she judges everyone. People who are fatter than her, people who are thinner than her, people with bad teeth, people who are conventionally attractive, people who aren't...she hates herself so much that she consoles herself by tearing everyone else down in her head while reassuring herself that she's better than the bullies at school who do it out loud.
Is this a body-positive book? Really? This is the best we can do?
The saving grace for this book were the supporting characters. If it weren't for Bo, Millie, Amanda, and Hannah, I would have DNFed. The TL:DR for this book could be "self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson hates herself and everyone around her and spends an entire book doing nothing but pitying herself and treating everyone around her like shit."
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