Dumplin' (Dumplin', 1)

Now a popular Netflix feature film, starring Jennifer Aniston, Danielle Macdonald, and Dove Cameron, as well as a soundtrack from Dolly Parton!

The #1 New York Times bestseller and feel-good YA of the year--about Willowdean Dixon, the fearless, funny, and totally unforgettable heroine who takes on her small town's beauty pageant.

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 girl does.

Along the way, she'll shock the hell out of Clover City--and maybe herself most of all.

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400 pages

Average rating: 7.18

17 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

code237
Aug 08, 2023
8/10 stars
I remember watching the movie a few years ago and wished I never did because the book was so much better! There were so many more little details that made the book so fun to read.
Shobnum
Jan 15, 2023
6/10 stars
Willowdean, aka Dumplin' is not our regular protagonist. A confident, happy in her own skin, self-proclaimed fat teenager, Dumplin' is the daughter of a former winner of beauty pageant. Tired of people's stereotypical thoughts, she made an unusual decision of entering a beauty pageant. Not to win, but to state the fact that any girl can be part of a beauty pageant. What future lays in front of our adorable Dumplin'? I started the book with big expectation, that it will be something totally out of the blue. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I can see its appeal. It really is a promising plot. But somehow it falls short of the ground breaking moments I was expecting to read. I was hoping to see a role model for plus-sized girls. Dumplin' was a good role model to an extent. But she pushed the people away who love her for being herself, and she judged the so called white skinny girls too harshly without giving them a chance- these facts were quite off putting for me. It was an easy, fast paced read. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but okay for binge reading.

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