I have no heart; I hate the song Jolene (thanks, fam.)

I really rather wish this book had been written back when I was in my late teens, so the girl-I-was could have been reassured that she wasn’t alone.

 

Dumplin’ is the story of Willowdean Dixon (Will to everyone except her mother, who calls her Dumplin’ and in public no less) who is at one of those liminal ages. Her best friend is getting serious enough about a boy to want to have sex with him, Will has no experience of her own but a very cute guy at work she’s got a crush on, her beloved aunt died and she’s still coming to grips with that, and it’s coming up on Pageant Season in her small town. Her mother, of course, was once the winner of said pageant and Will would never have anything to do with it — and figures it wouldn’t have anything to do with her, as unlike her mother, who still fits in her pageant dress, Will is fat.

But I don’t have it, that sense of progress. Instead, I feel stuck, waiting for my own life to happen. (Kindle location 550)

So, because everything kind of comes crashing down on Will in short order, she decides she is going to enter the god-damned pageant, fat thighs, lack of talent and all.

I don’t want it to be brave. I want it to be normal. (Kindle location 3950)

Will and her best friend have an unrelenting love for Dolly Parton’s music (and, well, actually sixteen-year-old sistercoyote kinda did, too), which is relevant to the plot and why I will probably never watch the Netflix movie. Because see the title of this review if you need to know why.

In a lot of ways, this is a very typical coming-of-age, learning-to-be-yourself, feel-good YA book. But in the important, most critical way, it’s not typical, far from it. Because Willowdean is fat, and this is her story, not her typically-good-looking best friend’s, not the good looking boy’s story. Willowdean’s story, and while she’s struggling with thoughts like:

I think I’ve played pretend my whole life. I don’t know when, but a really long time ago, I decided who I wanted to be. And I’ve been acting like her—whoever she is—since. But I think the act is fading, and I don’t know if I like the person I am beneath it all. (Kindle location 3252)

teenage sistercoyote is absolutely screaming into the night and the darkness, because where was this glorious book and Will’s realization

I guess sometimes the perfection we perceive in others is made up of a whole bunch of tiny imperfections, because some days [spoiler]. (Kindle location 4883)

when I needed it?

I recommend this book to everyone — yes, really, everyone, because not only do those of us usually sidelined in fiction need to see ourselves, it’d be super great if everyone else could see us (metaphorically) burning down the house, too.