Puddin' brings about the return of my personal favourite character from Dumplin' - Millie Michalchuk - and Willowdean's personal nemesis, Callie Reyes. When Millie's uncle's gym withdraws their financial support of the Shamrocks, the dance team that Callie is a shoe-in to captain next year, Callie and the team take their frustrations out on the gym... literally. Identified by Millie spying Callie's signature necklace on camera, the two girls are thrust together as Callie works off her sentence at the gym. This is a pure, wonderful sunshine one-grumpy one friendship joy book, with enough tension between Callie and Millie that kept me hooked, and I especially loved Millie bringing Callie formally into the post-pageant friendship group.

“If Dumplin’ was about coming to terms with your own body, Puddin’ is about demanding that the world do the same. I wrote this book for all the fat kids who have waited too damn long for the world to accept them. Stop waiting. The revolution starts with and belongs with you.” - Julie Murphy Puddin’ is the most unashamedly fat girl magic I have ever had a chance to read, and Millie is the one leading this singing parade down Main Street. I want nothing more than to join in, screaming, singing, crying, following her into the sunset or wherever Millie wants to go. She has become my own personal hero, everything I wish I could be, that positive and good force in the world. Where Willowdean, the protagonist of Dumplin’, is quite sour, angry, and quick to come back with a sassy retort, Millie is just pure goodness. She is kind and good and thoughtful, and such a wonderful hurricane kind of a girl, that it seems almost impossible that this book should also be narrated by Callie, the semi-villain of Dumplin’. They’re such polar opposites you will spend half of the book in a comfortable blanket, and the other with a frown muttering under your breath. But Julie Murphy is an absolutely wonderful writer, and makes us feel so many feelings of joy and anger, and in the end I was just ready to pull everyone in for a group hug. I loved Dumplin’ so much, but Millie was never the character that stuck with me the most. Willowdean demands so much space that Millie definitely played second, third, or even fourth fiddle to just about everyone else. But boy was I wrong! Millie is finally taking her earned centre stage, the close shot, and it was so worth the wait to see her shine. Everything about this book makes me excited to be me, excited to fight for me, and what I want. This is definitely the kind of book that will become worn and used, as I return to this story over and over again. This books is so sweet and awkward and cute, and there were so many real moments that made me feel exactly like the awkward and confused teenager I was at that age. So many moments between the girls made me laugh, or cry, or hide my face in my hands. They were just so cute! Millie’s excitement and determination is so contagious, and I am 100% down for that ride. Murphy is extremely talented at writing teenagers, but even more importantly than that, she writes FOR teenagers so well. Both Dumplin’ and Puddin’ are books I would have been absolutely blessed to have as a teenager, and both are books I want to push on every single teenager who feel like they don’t fit in, who feel like they need to change to be accepted, and who need to be allowed to find their own way in life. Both of these books should be compulsory reading for every parent with a fat child, every parent who ever made their children feel like they are not enough. Sometimes parents aren’t right, and reading girls like Millie taking the right to explore what they want over what their parents thinks they should do, is so freeing. To be honest, I’m tearing up just thinking about the feelings this book inspired in me as an adult, let alone what it would have meant to me as a teenager. But I love it. I love everything this book made me feel, the tears and smiles and sighs, and while Dumplin’ brought Julie Murphy to my attention, it was Millie and Callie who ensured that I will be first in line to buy every single Julie Murphy book until the end of time.

I don’t even know what to say. But I’ll try. Believe it or not, my speechlessness says a lot more about how I feel about this book than any word could ever explain. In any language. Because it was just THAT great! One of the main reasons why I loved Puddin’ so much is because it makes up for my lack of a friendship group/close friends. It’s what I crave but don’t have. So I love to indulge on stories like this and live vicariously through them. I’m here for all of it - the sleepovers, girl talk, advice, crazy families, relationships and all of that good stuff. For a moment, whilst I was reading this book, I felt like I had friends. I love positive females that hold each other up and have each other’s back, no matter what, and if you enjoy that, you’re in for a treat. “The wider world wants you to think other women are drama... or catty. But that’s just because when we work together, we’re unstoppable.” YASSSS!!! There’s a scene where they’re having a sleepover outside and Callie has this thought “I wish to feel like this all the time. That I’ve found my place, and that my place isn’t just a geographical coordinate, but a living breathing thing that I carry inside of me.” That made my heart ache because seriously how many of us have left like why we don’t belong or fit in? Julie captured those feelings so well. Another reason why I loved this book so much was because of the FEELS. OMG, the FEELS! Of course there’s romance in this book and it’s the sweetest! But the feels came from everything about this book - the romance, the friendships, the families, the situations, the sex positivity, everything... This book is a lovely reminder to be positive. Thank you for touching my heart like this, Julie. “Glass half full, glass half empty. Be thankful you’ve got a glass at all.” Oh, I just loved it so much. I want MORE! HarperCollins, you guys are the best! Thank you so much for publishing this wonderful book and for sending me a finished copy! “That’s what stories do. They connect people. Stories change hearts and then hearts change the world.” - Julie Murphy, Puddin’