A quick review for a quick read. I picked up Pumpkin Heads because I’m a complete sucker for Halloween and autumn is my favourite season and from a quick glance I was totally enamoured with the art style. It’s cute and light-hearted and the colour palette just screams autumnal energy. I ended up reading it earlier in October than I anticipated after Gideon the Ninth ripped out my heart and tossed it aside, and The Deathless Girls trampled all over its remains. Pumpkin Heads was exactly what I needed to cheer me up.

Pumpkin Heads follows two friends who work together every year on the local pumpkin patch. Deja wants to finish out their final year in style and her plans include eating all the snacks they sell in the patch and finally getting Josiah to talk to his crush. Her plans go awry when Fudge Girl is sent all over the patch to different stalls and they have to track her down. Things might go a little differently than Deja and Josiah expected, but there may still be romance on the cards…

This is a very American story, based in what I would guess are fall traditions and snacks. Some of it I loosely recognised, some of it I didn’t recognise at all. Most of it made me jealous that we barely do anything for Halloween in the UK because it’s my favourite holiday and nobody celebrates here. Even with the Americanisms I didn’t recognise the story was wholesome and comforting, easy to follow and the kind of cute easy romance that I’ve come to expect from Rainbow Rowell. I particularly loved that Deja was beautifully, shamelessly bi, and beautifully, shamelessly curvy. She loves men, she loves women, and she loves food. As a big bi girl myself, I love her. Most people would probably see the ending coming, but honestly I was so sucked in by the characters and the fun, campy autumnal setting that I was still kind of pleasantly surprised by it.