Rezension

Loved it and will wait for the sequel!

Dumplin' - Julie Murphy

Dumplin'
von Julie Murphy

Bewertet mit 5 Sternen

Willowdean Dickson is a normal teenager with normal problems. Except that Will doesn't look average. She's overweighted which doesn't bother her much actually. She's got her best friend Ellen to talk to until one day she can not. She's got a crush on her cute colleague Bo who gives her her first kiss. Soon they start making out.
Ellen's got a boyfriend and tells Willowdean about them thinking about their first sex. Will feels left behind, because Ellen is so much ahead of her when it comes to stuff teens experience like their first kiss and their first time. But then she gets this first kiss and Willowdean who always felt good in her skin, starts feeling out of place when it comes to these experiences. She can't imagine Bo (who she secretly makes out with) would enjoy her huge body which others are so repelled of and doubts she could handle being the pity part in a relationship in the opinion of others. What's worse: She can't talk with Ellen. A wedge between the girls which Will feels formed a few months ago manifests itself in a big crack in their friendship: When Willowdean applies to a beauty pageant in commemoration of her deceased aunt who died of a heart attack due to her overweight she feels betrayed by Ellen who also applies for the pageant. Their friendship ends in a big fight and Will feels more lonely than ever until her application inspires some girls from her school to follow Willowdean to also apply. Will becomes some kind of a guide for these girls and through them she finds a way back to herself, leaving all the doubts behind.

I guess everyone who is or was in the position of having more than a couple of pounds above the perfect BMI gets what Willowdean talkes about like not knowing if your butt fits in an average chair with armrests or being the center of attention at a food buffet or being ashamed of eating in public.
Will is a very inspirational character who holds the opinion that you should not feel bad, because others are repelled in your deviation of normality.
I enjoyed this story so much and hope that many girls (for the book is mostly written for young girls) find comfort and inspiration to accept and love themselves no matter if they don't fit in what's called 'average'. It's likely I'm going to follow Julie Murphy's work, more so since I saw that another book called 'Puddin'' which is going to portrait one of the girls Willowdean inspires, Millie. I hope it's going to be as good as 'Dumplin''!

Kommentare

Emswashed kommentierte am 15. März 2019 um 08:08

Very fluently and interesting review, but I think it could be very hard for me to read a whole book in English. But I understand your words and that could be a good start to read more books in a foreign language. Thank you!

wandagreen kommentierte am 15. März 2019 um 09:13

Es ist ganz gut übersetzt!

Paperboat kommentierte am 15. März 2019 um 16:30

I enjoy reading stuff in it's original English language. Some books can be a pain in the ass like Martin's "The Song of Ice and Fire" which has so many medival words you end up always looking them up in the dictionary.
But books like Thomas' "The Hate U Give" enfolds it's richness because of its colloquial and even slang like language which doesn't quite work in a translated version.