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3/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I guess sometimes the perfection we perceive in others is made up of a whole bunch of tiny imperfections, because some days the damn dress just won't zip.��

Look, 3 stars isn't a good rating nor a bad rating. But the issues I had with this book sometimes overcame the good stuff. I can't stop comparing the book to the Netflix movie based on it I saw beforehand (yes, I have watched the movie adaptation before reading the book yet again, AND STILL YOU HAVEN'T SLAYED ME YOU BUFFOONS) and I feel the movie did some things more justice.

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.

Starting from the bad, the addition of the love triangle took many things away from the story. First of all, the first 150 pages were completely useless. They were everything about Bo and all this smooch smooch romantic shit and the important storyline of the pageant hadn't even started yet. I'm not saying the romantic part couldn't be the book... but this book wasn't about that. This book was about body positivity and family and friendship and the whole romantic thing, that was emphasized a lot, took points from the story for me. At some point, the pageant story felt like a subplot to the romantic story. I felt like the book was torn in half, one chapter was the love triangle plot and the other half the pageant plot. It was like reading two different books. Confusing af. And come on now, let's be real. Everyone and their mother knew Mitch didn't stand a chance. Come the fuck on.

The movie did an incredible job highlighting the true meaning of the story. They completely eliminated Mitch's character and Will's inner struggle of whom she was gonna pick and shit, and gave more screen time to the pageant and the characters and the friendships. It was fucking beautiful. The movie gave me feels the book didn't achieve to. And it's mostly the other way around for me.

Now... what I liked. I loved all the characters, they were all unique and quirky and themselves and they all stood out from each other, which is really hard to achieve. They all hard something to add to the table, they all meant something to Will and they all gave us an important lesson to take away. Also, gotta love the diversity. This book was so modern and yet so vintage with the Dolly Parton love and the old feeling I got from it (also the lack of technology talk), and yet so modern because of the theme and the characters. It gave a smile on my face at some parts, that's for sure.

Overall, this book would have been a five star read for me if not for the love triangle. Mostly, love triangle don't bother me much but the love triangle in this book brought it down. I want to read the next book, but I will hold myself, for now. Maybe it will become a Netflix movie and will be better than the book again, who knows. Anyway, till the next one K KYE!