A review by kasscanread
Pumpkin by Julie Murphy

4.0

Read for Read Harder 2021 prompt #7: Read a fat-positive romance

Julie Murphy's Pumpkin is an endearing story about an up-and-coming drag queen learning to accept his body and embrace his true self after being nominated for prom queen.

Initially, I was put off by the main character, Waylon. I can't quite put my finger on it, but an as-far-as-I-know straight woman writing a very stereotypically gay character was a little thorny, even as tongue-in-cheek as Waylon was about himself. A few other queer and minority characters felt tokenized or one-note, as well. But it didn't take long for Waylon to begin to feel like a real person, thanks to the great writing and amazing voice he brought to the narration. And there was enough diversity in the main cast that it wasn't as if Murphy only knew how to write one type of gay character.

Another small issue I had with the story was that everyone spouted their True Feelings in little speeches every ten pages or so, but then miscommunicated the rest of the time. It gave me whiplash.

I ended the book as a big fan of Waylon. He really was a special character and it was so fun to follow his journey. This book had me more excited to read than most others I've read in 2021. Dumplin' on my tbr is much more of a priority read now.