Published by: Macmillian Children's Books
Genre: Contemporary YA
Publisher's Synopsis
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 goodbye every Halloween, and they're reunited every September.
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 goodbye.
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, 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?
My Review
First Impressions: I had high hopes for this book. It kept getting recommended to me as something I would enjoy and the cover also drew me in.
I enjoy graphic novels so much. They have a unique way of storytelling - they convey pictorially as much as they do with text and you often get a story on two levels - what is happening on the surface and what is in the subtext.
The Upside: I liked the illustrations. The setting was good. There is a map of the pumpkin patch so you get a feel for the place.
One of two ways to interpret this novel is that it is subtle - very subtle. There is not much happening on the surface and you only get a glimpse of what could be going on from the subtext.
What I found in the subtext:
Deja has an unhealthy relationship with junk food and is in denial about it. I am not judging her. I would have been interested to know what's her story.
Josiah is so shy he can't speak to a co-worker that he has had a crush on for 3 years. He has never spoken to her. Not once! What's that about? I would have been interested to know what's his story.
Deja and Josiah are close but they only interact with each other 3 months in the year. What's that about? Is it a race thing? I would have been... (You get my drift.)
The Downside: The other way to interpret it is that the story is simply dull. I kept hoping it would get more interesting, but it never did. So I created my own, a horror story [The pumpkin patch is a perfect setting.] where my protagonist arrives in Omaha, Nebraska, enters its idyllic pumpkin patch and at first experiences a perfect family attraction, until said protagonist realises that something strange and disturbing has happened to the people who work there. My protagonist would meet Josiah and Deja, who are afflicted characters trapped in a nightmare: They have been brain washed into believing that the best thing in life is working in a pumpkin patch! Josiah, who is obsessed with the place, is so convinced of this that he does not ever want to leave and is terrified of what life has to offer outside of Omaha. My protagonist is determined to discover what happened to the people in this town and (hopefully) save them from death by banality. [There is something of The Stepford Wives about it].
Sadly, my protagonist doesn't show up, the horror is never revealed and, instead the story continues to focus on these two boring teenagers. Deja at least is more forward thinking than Josiah, and she convinces him to embrace rebellion and 'live a little'. But, all the plot reveals is that they both have a pitiful idea of what it means to have an adventure.
The Verdict:
An unremarkable time waster. My advice is skip it and read This One Summer, instead.
