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Pumpkin

NYT bestselling author Julie Murphy’s latest book, Pumpkin (Balzer + Bray), is a charming, life-affirming and glittering high school graduation gift to her scores of young adult readers and new fans of all ages. 

Waylon Brewer, aka Pumpkin, an 18-year-old openly gay senior with secret drag queen aspirations, narrates the unexpected trajectory of his final weeks at Clover City High School. He attempts to be inconspicuous and not make waves — a difficult feat for this self-described hulking, 6’3”, 300+ pounds, effeminate gay boy with pumpkin orange hair. Enduring twelve years of bullying and ridicule from his peers and repressing his natural exuberance has caused Waylon to distrust friendly overtures as he burrowed into the cocoon of his small inner circle. He even rejects membership in the school’s LGBTQ Prism club!

His very survival, thus far, has been intertwined with his best friend, soulmate and fraternal twin sister Clementine, or Clem, who often acts as Waylon’s buffer. She’s a chameleon, nearly able to blend in with the student body. Only her signature long, orange braids, teal suede Doc Martens and steady girlfriend — a confident, combat boot-wearing feminist named Hannah Perez who readers may remember from Dumplin’ — set her apart from the masses. From the cradle, they have shared their entire lives: their innermost secrets and their plans to escape Clover City immediately after graduation. They even share Beulah, a well-used cobalt blue single cab pickup truck they got for their sixteenth birthday. 

When all else fails, Waylon copes by binge-watching The Fiercest of Them All, his favorite television drag show, dreaming of a future that includes performing drag himself. Surely he can get through the last few weeks before graduation without incurring a personal disaster?

When his closeted, secret boyfriend dumps him, and Clem abruptly changes post-graduation plans, Waylon is desperate to hold onto what’s left of his shattered fantasies. He dons make-up and creates a rudimentary audition video for his favorite show, introducing his drag alter ego, Pumpkin Patch. One internet fumble later, the video goes viral and the entire school witnesses his baby drag queen coming out. Within days, as a cruel joke and history-making gender reversal, Pumpkin is nominated for Prom Queen with Hannah for Prom King. 

School bullies exist. You can allow them to persist or laugh in their faces … or bloody a nose or two along the way. The friends decide the best revenge is to embrace the challenge and run for prom court in their inimitable style with a mixture of pixie dust, glitter and hard work. It’s time for Waylon to take chances, make friends and allies, and stop deferring living his life to the fullest.

Clover City is populated with enough singular, quirky personalities and endearing, eccentric characters to fill a jumbo-sized box of Froot Loops — and I can’t get enough of them. The football, pageant and prom-obsessed teens (and adults), as well as a few religious conservatives who would like to “pray the gay away,” are similar to some folks in my own small town. Although, its former biker bar, The Hideaway, with regularly scheduled all-age drag shows is a rather unusual addition to Bible-belt communities. 

Nevertheless, the small town is believable. Clover City is home to a mixture of hard-working individuals, middle-class and blue-collar alike. Some students are being raised by both parents while others are from single-family homes or are being raised by grandparents, and several students work to supplement the family income.

Murphy has a clear, positive voice, which affirms individuality, purpose, body positivity and inclusivity. With a recent study citing that nearly 30% of gay teens have attempted suicide, we need writers like Murphy to provide encouragement and to educate through affirming stories like that of Waylon’s adventures in the weeks ahead of the senior prom.

Pumpkin completes Murphy’s trilogy that began with Dumplin’, also a popular Netflix movie, and continued with Puddin’. The three work as standalone novels aimed at a young adult audience. They are timely, well written and would be ideal selections for adult, library-sponsored book clubs and online groups such as the Sixties Plus Reading Room. This new fan hopes Murphy will consider writing a fourth related novel, perhaps, set a decade into the future to allow us to catch up with these sweet, quirky teens.

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
ISBN: 9780062880470
Linda Hitchcock

Linda Hitchcock is a native Virginian who relocated to a small farm in rural Kentucky with her beloved husband, John, 14 years ago. She’s a lifelong, voracious reader and a library advocate who volunteers with her local Friends of the Library organization as well as the Friends of Kentucky Library board. She’s a member of the National Book Critic’s Circle, Glasgow Musicale and DAR. Linda began her writing career as a technical and business writer for a major West Coast-based bank and later worked in the real estate marketing and advertising sphere. She writes weekly book reviews for her local county library and Glasgow Daily Times and has contributed to Bowling Green Living Magazine, BookBrowse.com, BookTrib.com, the Barren County Progress newspaper and SOKY Happenings among other publications. She also serves as a volunteer publicist for several community organizations. In addition to reading and writing, Linda enjoys cooking, baking, flower and vegetable gardening, and in non-pandemic times, attending as many cultural events and author talks as time permits.

One Comment

  • Gregory Reinhart says:

    What a joy to tumble upon this article. Author Julie Murphy seems to resemble in many ways my own Texas-bred, best friend in college, and the story of Pumpkin could have happened (almost) in any small town in America; it certainly resembles my own small town, back in the day! Hitchcock shows us there is a lot of ernest decency and hard work behind the scenes in this crazy tossed salad of characters, and the happy, feel-good ending is the affirmation we need to hear lots of these days. A great review, and it sounds like a great movie or musical comedy is on the way for Pumpkin!

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