Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

★★★★

I saw this movie on Netflix, and I enjoyed it so much - it was fun and light and thoroughly entertaining - that I figured it was worth reading the book it was based on. I ended up picturing every character just as they were cast in the movie - Ellen with brown hair despite her being blond in the book - though I had to continually make mental corrections for Hannah's teeth. I'm a little irked that an Asian character in the book was swapped out to be black for the movie, but it's not exactly surprising given the lack of Asian representation in movies in general.

Both the movie and the book have uplifting, feel-good, body-positive messages about loving yourself and not limiting yourself to what others expect from you. As usual, the movie was a simplified version of the book.

Like many other YA books, Getting the Guy was a theme. But here we had a twist: Willowdean basically got the guy at the beginning of the book, only she realized that having him wasn't the answer; in fact, he introduced a whole new set of problems. Turns out, before she could allow herself to love or be loved, she first had to love herself.

It's typical for a YA book to emphasize the "chemistry" in a relationship, but still I felt for Mitch. I think it's possible for a person to win over someone's heart over time, and maybe that could have been the case in an alternate universe.

I was kind of disappointed in the rather abrupt ending. I was hoping for more closure regarding Willowdean's relationships with her mother, Mitch, Ellen, and Bo. I wanted to see more progress towards mutual love and understanding between Willowdean and her mom, and I wanted to see how Willowdean and Mitch would interact in class after everything that happened. How would Willowdean handle being best friends with Ellen while also giving her space to grow, separate from her? And how would she feel finally stepping out at school as Bo's girlfriend?

I am relatively new to the YA genre, and I'm such a prude that any time there's swearing or sex - which is pretty common - it's something that stands out to me. This book actually balanced out the "mature content" with some bits about church, which I liked, but I think it's unusual in YA books, at least from what I've seen so far.