My Week in Book Review: Pumpkinheads

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell

Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends. Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say good-bye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1. But this Halloween is different—Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye. Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if—instead of moping and the usual slinging lima beans down at the Succotash Hut—they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years . . . What if their last shift was an adventure?

Spoilers!

Awwww! You guys, this is the sweetest graphic novel ever! And so seasonally appropriate—for a good fall read, this is a winner. I read it last year, and then as autumn came around this year, I wanted to read it again so much that I just bought it.

First off, I love the art in this graphic novel. Overalls and plaid shirts are the employee uniform, which enhances the autumnal feel, as does all the delicious food—from kettle corn to pumpkin bombs to pie—I wanted to eat all the things when I read this. I also love the sense of motion in this novel, Josie and Deja running from place to place, other employees freaking out as succotash burns—you can feel the energy in the art.

Another thing I love is the portrayal of the characters. Deja is sassy and outgoing while Josie is a quiet dreamer. People love Deja wherever she goes; Josie’s sighed after “Fudge Girl” for three years but never talked to her. Deja’s all about tasting all the yummy snacks on her last night; Josie’s all about taking care of the Patch and winning MVPPP yet again (how did he let Meredith Gomez beat him the year he had walking pneumonia??).

Ironically, even though Deja seems able to get anyone she wants—in fact, she runs into exes of both genders all over the Patch—and her interest in Josie is fairly obvious to the reader, Josie remains oblivious to this potential love interest until the very end of the book. Josie’s main issue is that, in his words, “I like my small life.” He doesn’t want to take chances for what he wants because he’d rather fantasize about what could be and let things happen if they’re going to happen. This keeps coming up, and at one point, he and Josie have an argument about fate: he thinks that they were fated to be friends; she thinks that people choose if they’re going to be friends and keep choosing every day.

Well, Josie’s issues come to a head when finally, after chasing Fudge Girl all over the Patch, Josie catches up with her and finds out—surprise!—she’s not such a dream girl after all. She doesn’t even like working at the Patch—ewww. That’s a dealbreaker. He realizes in that moment that Fudge Girl was just a fantasy, but Deja is real: his real friend, the real person he cares about. So he runs to find her because he’s going to take a chance and not live small, not leave things up to fate. And then he tells her he likes her and she’s pissed because she used to like him but she got tired of waiting for him to notice, and now she’s not sure what to feel. He apologizes for being an idiot and asks what they do next now that things are awkward? And then—awwww—Deja tells him they’ll go buy half-priced candy like they do every year, and then she kisses him and says they’ll just see where things go. And then they walk off into the pumpkin patch distance together.

So, completely cute. If you love fall food, or pumpkin patches, or friends-to-lovers, or cuteness in general, Pumpkinheads is for you.