Review of Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks with color by Sarah Stern
I write to you, dear readers, from inside my pumpkin spice confessional. Today is the first official day of fall, but for me once Labor Day passes all I can think about are cooler fall temperatures and all the seasonal trappings that are soon to follow from mums on front porches to cider in the stores and then, later, the smoky smell of fire pits at twilight and stories of supernatural beings as Halloween approaches. Needless to say, I’ve already tasted my first Reese’s pumpkin of the season and have a pumpkin decorating plan locked in (spoiler alert: my pumpkin’s going to look like a unicorn!).
For the autumnally inclined among us, then, the young adult graphic novel Pumpkinheads, written by Rainbow Rowell, illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks, and with color by Sarah Stern, could not come at a better time. This may well be the ideal read for a fall night. What’s more, you can easily devour it in one sitting if you choose. Set at what Rowell describes in an interview as “the Disneyland of pumpkin patches,” Pumpkinheads follows two patch employees, Deja and Josiah, on their last night working at the patch in their senior year of high school. What follows is a delightful blend of friendship, romance, and bursts of adventure.
First, the patch itself will make you want to launch yourself headfirst into a fall festival as it sports a pumpkin slingshot and haunted hacienda in addition to the more traditional haystack ride and corn maize (this book has puns galore and I find them adorable). The inside cover of the book features a map of the über-deluxe patch to help readers orient themselves during Deja and Josiah’s journey to various attractions. In addition, Hicks’ renderings of converted barns and families in costume coupled with Stern’s warm colors create a cozy canvas for the characters to ramble through on their last night.
Second, have your snacks ready when you read this because each of the patch’s many food stands outdoes the one before it from the Kettle Corn Kettle to the Chili Fries Stand to— my favorite— the Pumpkin Bomb Stand. (I wish I could add sound effects here to give this last one the flourish it deserves.) The Pumpkin Bomb is a mythical concoction of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two slices of pumpkin pie, covered with chocolate, and mounted on a stick. In other words, it’s pumpkin spice heaven.
Of course, all this delightful scene setting wouldn’t add up to a story without characters and conflict. Luckily, Rowell delivers on both fronts. Although we only spend one night with Deja and Josiah, Rowell capably demonstrates their personalities as they interact with each other and patch employees and visitors. Here, again, Hicks’ panels provide beautiful facial reactions during conversations and a sense of movement in the action sequences. The protagonists’ quick-witted dialogue made me laugh more than once but they also talk about ideas like fate and free will without those conversations seeming pretentious or out of context for their situation. As It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown demonstrates, the pumpkin patch has long been a site for existential contemplation and this remains true for Deja and Josiah.
I would happily read many more stories with Rowell’s lovable characters in or outside of the patch. The graphic novel hints that they may apply to be Christmas elves for a mall Santa, and I can only hope this leads to more holiday sequels! For now, though, I’m off to try and recreate the Pumpkin Bomb in my kitchen. Happy Fall everybody!
Wired Wordsmith 