Fall is definitely my favorite season. I live for the crisp, cool days. I love the gorgeous firebird spectrum of leaf colors. From my office window, I can see them dazzling the trees in the woods behind my house. I savor pumpkin spice coffee and cinnamon apple tea. And, of course, with a cozy blanket, a warm drink, and reading socks, nothing goes better with fall than reading. Which is why today I’m reviewing a new YA graphic novel that perfectly encapsulates autumn. That’s right, this is a book review of Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks.
I was super excited to see a new book from Rowell. This Omaha-based author is one of my favorite writers, consistently publishing satisfying books. Her YA novel Fangirl is one of my all-time favorites, and her novel Eleanor and Park is another favorite. I’ve also enjoyed her adult fiction, like Attachments and Landline. I remember reading a news post on Rowell’s website years ago saying that she was pairing up with artist Faith Erin Hicks to write a graphic novel. I liked Hicks’s novel, Friends with Boys, reviewed here on the blog many years ago. That announcement seems like that was ages ago, and I remember feeling like it was taking forever. Graphic novels take a long time to create, with all the art that is involved. But, as is so often the case in book world, with so many great new releases hitting the shelves each week, I forgot about the forthcoming graphic novel. Discovering it was actually coming out this fall, I ninja-requested it at the library and happily checked it out last week. Now I want to tell you all about it!
PLOT of Pumpkinheads
In Rainbow Rowell’s Pumpkinheads, we follow two friends, Josiah (a.k.a. “Josie”) and Deja. Josie and Deja have worked together at a pumpkin patch these last four years and have become buddies. The novel opens on their final evening of work at the pumpkin patch, which has the illustrious name: DeKnock’s World Famous Pumpkin Patch & Autumn Jamboree. Each year, the last night of work is Halloween night. The next day, on the first of November, everything gets stripped down and boxed away like it never happened.
What’s a pumpkin patch? These seasonal attractions are fun for young and old. Visitors enjoy games, a giant maze, hayrides, mini golf, a petting zoo, and plenty of autumnal treats, like kettle corn, pumpkin drinks, s’mores, and succotash.
There’s a similar place near me, Linvilla Orchards in Media, Pennsylvania.
They offer haunted hayrides, apple picking, pumpkin decorating, and more.
It’s a magical place, and I’m glad I had that as a reference.
If you’re curious, you can look pumpkin patches up online, and take a tour of a pumpkin patch farm on HGTV.
Back to this Pumpkinheads review!
Josie and Deja both work at the Succotash Hut, but on this final night, Deja hatches a plot to swap shifts with some other workers so they can be near the Fudge Shoppe. For years, Josie has had a crush on a girl named Marcy who works there, but Josie isn’t very outgoing and has never once talked to her. Deja is determined to make sure he speaks to her on the last opportunity to do so, urging Josie to talk to his crush during their dinner break. Deja knows time is running out.
It’s implied in Pumpkinheads that the teens who work at the pumpkin patch don’t all go to the same school, so for some of them, like Josie and Deja, working together at the pumpkin patch is the only way they see each other. Both Josie and Deja are seniors in high school, and Rowell implies that Josie is going to college out of the area next year while Deja is sticking around nearby.
But all does not go according to plan. Josie and Deja soon realize that Marcy has been sent to work elsewhere on the patch as backup. The two friends embark on a journey to find Marcy, who keeps getting reassigned to different stations just before Josie and Deja catch up with her. Along the way, they encounter several obstacles, and their path weaves them through the farm, so readers get the full pumpkin patch experience. Their epic night of fun and friendship builds to something more, as Josie and Deja get real with each other about things they’ve left unsaid over the years…
STRENGTHS of Pumpkinheads
There are so many good things about Rainbow Rowell’s Pumpkinheads. I’m going to focus on four of the best.
+ Pumpkinheads Captures That Fall Mood
If you’re coming to Pumpkinheads having never gone to a pumpkin patch, don’t worry—Faith Erin Hicks fully immerses you in the setting, crammed with tiny details, vivid colors, and a cohesive visual style that immerses you there. The sensory experience translate off the page. I felt like I could smell phantom whiffs of pumpkin spice, hay, and kettle corn just by reading the novel. This book totally nails the mood of fall. Whenever you’re feeling nostalgic for the fall, pick up Pumpkinheads and get magically swept back into PSL season.
+ The Friendship in Pumpkinheads Feels Authentic
Josie and Deja have a great friendship. I feel like we’re trained to automatically pair boy/girl friends up, and I was glad that that aspect did not really come to the fore until the end. I didn’t want this novel to be about Josie and Deja getting together, and, apart from asides and knowing looks on Deja’s face, there wasn’t an expectation that things had to end up there. Instead, we savored their connection as friends.
I also worked in a seasonal job through high school, at a swim club that was only open during the summer. Each Labor Day, we boarded up patio furniture and closed up shop. Like Josie and Deja, I had friendships with other workers that only existed during the summer as we went to different schools.
+ The Countdown Adds Suspense and Allows Characters to Be Present in the Moment
As an MFA student, I started paying attention to “raising the stakes,” a term for introducing an element of conflict and tension to a story. Some people describe this by saying, if your story is stalled, kill someone off. The bottom line is, do something that adds a sense of urgency to the plot. And I think Pumpkinheads nailed that with the introduction of a timeline.
Deja and Josie know they have this one night left together. This evening, Halloween, is the end of an era, and next year they might be scattered apart. They may never work at the pumpkin patch again. Four years have been building towards it, and there’s a definite feeling that if Josie doesn’t tell Marcy how he feels, he never will. Time is running out. It’s now or never.
I love how Rowell used a short deadline to propel the story forward. I’ve also experimented with that in my own writing, giving characters a firm deadline to make decisions and changes. Time gives stories an inherent sense of suspense, which keeps the character desire-and-conflict matrix constantly flexing. By making Pumpkinheads take place over one night, this allows Josie and Deja to be fully present and living in the moment.
+ Pumpkinheads is a hilarious and fun read that will lift your spirits
Reading this graphic novel in one sitting definitely cheered me up from the blues. Fighting through depression is hard, and reading can make it even worse if you can’t concentrate or don’t enjoy books anymore. Fortunately, Pumpkinheads came to the rescue! This book is charming, frequently hilarious, and overall just a fun, feel-good story. I loved the comedic shenanigans that Deja and Josie frequently found themselves in. And the motif of the escaped goat tearing through the patch was also an understated element that was so good. Rainbow Rowell is one of the best dialogue writers around, and I felt her words paired up with Faith Erin Hicks’s whimsical style was such a great match. When you close the covers of Pumpkinheads, it will be with a smile on your face and an “Awww!” in your heart.
WEAKNESSES of Pumpkinheads
I loved Pumpkinheads, but there were just a few minor things that I didn’t love about the novel. Here I’ll discuss two of them.
— Josie felt a little one dimensional
Of the two main characters, Josie felt less developed to me. Deja was a great sidekick, but without her there to keep the conversation rolling, Josie would have made even less of an impression on me. It was almost like, his main motivation in the story was to find Marcy, speak to her, and give her his number. But that felt like a desire line that Deja applied to him. And certainly that is a bit forced. She’s deliberately trying to push Josie to sort through how serious he is about Marcy and dating in general. However, the result was I didn’t really know what Josie himself wanted.
— Deja seemed like a sidekick, not a protagonist
You’d think that after the last point I made about Josie being underdeveloped, that Deja would be overdeveloped. But I didn’t really feel that way at all. It seemed like Deja existed mainly as a sidekick…your classic witty, sassy friend. Deja’s acts bordered on the cartoonish at points, almost manic-pixie-dream-girl level, and it bothered me.
This brings me to the question of who this novel is really about…is it about Josie or Deja or both? Because if Josie is underdeveloped and Deja feels more like the comic relief, then we’ve got a characterization problem. That’s probably my biggest critique of Pumpkinheads.
VERDICT: How good is Pumpkinheads?
I’m so glad I read Pumpkinheads. It reached me at a time when I needed to read something uplifting, sweet, and fun. And it undeniably immerses you in the mood and feeling of fall. Despite the minor issues I had with the book on the characterization level, I’m happy with this graphic novel and am giving it four stars.
You can read it in one sitting, and it’s nice to know Rainbow Rowell is coming back to YA contemporary after her Simon Snow/Fangirl spinoff books, Carry On and Wayward Son.
HOW TO READ Pumpkinheads
Purchase Pumpkinheads on Amazon
Find Pumpkinheads in a library through WorldCat
LEARN MORE ABOUT Pumpkinheads
To learn more about Pumpkinheads, check out the links below!
- Read an interview with Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks about Pumpkinheads on Den of Geek
- Watch the book trailer for Pumpkinheads
- Check out a review of Pumpkinheads on The New York Times
- View excerpts from the book on the publisher’s website
