It is a companion novel to Dumplin’, which follows supporting characters from the first book in the months after Willowdean’s star turn in the Clover City pageant.
Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream—and to kiss her crush.
GENRE:
Young Adult, Contemporary
PAGES:
336 pages
PART OF A SERIES?:
Companion Sequel to Dumplin’
RELEASE DATE:
May 8th, 2018
YOU CAN FIND THE BOOK AT:
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
It is a companion novel to Dumplin’, which follows supporting characters from the first book in the months after Willowdean’s star turn in the Clover City pageant.
Millie Michalchuk has gone to fat camp every year since she was a girl. Not this year. This year she has new plans to chase her secret dream—and to kiss her crush. Callie Reyes is the pretty girl who is next in line for dance team captain and has the popular boyfriend. But when it comes to other girls, she’s more frenemy than friend. When circumstances bring the girls together over the course of a semester, they will surprise everyone (especially themselves) by realizing they might have more in common than they ever imagined.
MY REVIEW
**Please note that this review is based on an advanced readers copy given to me in exchange for an honest review. Final publication may vary. This in no way had any effect on the integrity of my review**
I love this book so much and I love Millie! I wish more authors wrote characters like Julie Murphy does…real human girls with weight on them. No skinny shaming or anything because I’m not like that BUT you just don’t have enough heavy heroines out there and between Dumplin’ and this book, I’m just in love with Julie forever.
Millie is fantastic, she’s funny and determined and confident in herself. She struggles in her fight with the world, not because of herself but because of the perceptions that the world has of her. She’s got insecurities, like any normal person, but she doesn’t let her weight get in the way of who or what she wants and it’s amazing to watch that kind of confidence in a character. I loved watching her go after her crush and determinedly go after her dream of being a television news anchor. It’s easy to feel a familiarity with her. She could be your best friend.She doesn’t let anyone stand in her way and she’s so incredibly kind to everyone.
Which brings me to Callie, who I did identify with in some ways. I know what it’s like to be half and half, half Mexican and half Irish, not quite sure where you fit in there, sometimes feeling alienated and alone within your own family. I think she also felt familiar because I don’t think she’s a mean person. I think she’s a confused, insecure person who is unsure of her place anywhere and it’s what causes her to do mean things and to say hurtful things. She’s defined herself by the way she SHOULD be for so long and it’s messed her up and it takes a lot of what happens in this book to help her head get on straight.
But what makes this book so damn good is bringing these two characters together in an unlikely friendship. They both need each other, even if they don’t realize it right away, and to see the way they start to lean on each other and the way they learn from each other is fantastic and it makes for such a great story about friendship. There’s boys and kissing and romance, which always makes me happy, but ultimately it’s about the friendship that grows between these two very different young women and how they are both changed and shaped for the better from it.
RATING
4.5 out of 5 Stars
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