What I love about Julie Murphy is that she really embraces writing about marginalized characters and does an excellent job at it. I loved the dynamic between Waylon and Clem. I loved that this story was about Waylon (a teen) wanting to be involved in drag. I can not think of a single other YA book that addresses this topic, and Murphy does it spectacularly. I loved that the characters from her other books show up, but you don't need to have read the others to read Pumpkin. The writing and character development are just so wonderful and I really appreciate how many "tough topics" Murphy tackles in all of her books.

This is book three in Murphy's Dumplin series. If you're like me and haven't read the other two books, don't worry, you won't be lost at all. Although now I must rush put and grab the rest of this series because if they are even half as good as this one is they'll be amazing. This is probably one of the funniest and most heartwarming books I've read all year. If I could give it more than five stars I totally would. Waylon, aka Pumkin, has become one of my favorite characters. His twin sister Clementine, her girlfriend Hannah, and the ever so handsome Tucker are also great characters, however there's just something extra fabulous about Pumkin. This is o e of those books that will be impossible to put down once you start.

In the third installment of the Dumplin' series, Waylon Russell Brewer is a fat, openly gay kid in a small West Texas town. Also, he's a twin and they both have red hair, so basically he sticks out like a sore thumb. He can't wait to leave town with his sister, Clementine so he can live his full self in Austin.
After he jokingly taped himself auditioning for his favorite tv show, Fiercest of Them All, and the tape gets out to the whole school, he is nominated for prom queen....as a joke. Although this throws his whole senior year into orbit, he decides to run with it and go for prom queen. Through the fight for the crown, he learns more about himself and his classmates, especially the good looking Tucker Watson.

This was a cute (I'm assuming) ending to this series. It was my favorite of the three (that belongs to Puddin'.) but I thought it was a little cheesy. The storyline hit home to me how you really get to know your classmates your last year of school and then feel bad that you didn't try the whole time you were in school. I thought Waylon was a strong character and his romance with Tucker was cute. The other friendship characters were't as strong to me as the other books.

Yes. Just...yes. This book is everything. Julie Murphy just keeps on delivering everything we've ever needed. I loved the nod to Ru Paul's Drag Race and also body inclusivity as well as drag in general. So here for this.

It’s not often that I really like a main character and end up not loving the book, but that is what happened for me with Pumpkin. Julie Murphy is great with developing character, and Waylon came to life off the page, making me instantly liked him. The problem with this book is he didn’t get the story he deserved. Waylon and Tucker’s relationship felt rushed, with too much of the book being used to show where the characters from the other books in the series are now. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to revisit Willowdead, Ellen, and the rest, but I would have preferred Waylon got a great love story instead of just an okay one.

Pumpkin by Julie Murphy

Synopsis: Waylon Brewer is a fat, openly gay boy in a small Texas town who has learned the fine art of living as invisible as possible. However, when he gets nominated for Prom Queen, after a video of his audition for a popular drag competition show gets leaked, he will have to decide if he’s done hiding in the shadows or if it’s time for him to take his place in the spotlight.

Review: Hooooo boy. This one got me, y’all. I am so thankful to be alive in a time when there are so many books that are featuring fat people as main characters, especially when they are queer and fat at the same time. My teenage self cannot even fathom that a book like this could exist (and even if it did my small town library wouldn’t have carried it, trust me). And, I don’t think I’ll ever have the words to really express how thankful I am to Julie Murphy for creating Waylon “Pumpkin” Brewer and I am so happy for all the fat queer youth who will get to have this story when it will resonate with them the most!
This book is absolutely charming. The characters are so well crafted that you feel like you become best friends with them throughout the book. The romance is absolutely swoon-worthy. The journey of Waylon learning how to love his own skin and not be afraid of being his fabulous, true self broke my heart and then put it back together with mascara and nail glue. I remember being a 6’3”, overweight, ginger in a small southern town - only I was very much in the closet. And, this book let me have a glimpse at what 18 could have been like without that fear and shame. This book is a hug, a warm blanket, and everything I could have wanted.
It was also nice to revisit characters from the other Clover City books, but this a true stand-alone in my opinion and can be enjoyed without having read Dumplin’ (which is great) or Puddin’ (which I have yet to read).

It’s out next week 5/25. Please do yourself a favor and pre-order this gem of a book or pick up a copy on it’s Pub Day!

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Many thanks to @netgalley and @harpercollins for a free ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review!

(The original post can be found on my instagram: @thatbookishbear

I really really liked this book. Waylon is fun and sassy and so like one of my HS friends in the best ways possible. I appreciated the moments where Tucker seemed to see past all of Waylon's walls and got to the heart of what was going on under all his fabulousness. I was a HS GSA sponsor for 5 years, and I saw so many students come through the club who were represented in this book. I appreciated that this book was not one of coming out (in the traditional sense), it's a book of acceptance, the characters in this book are just who they are and they all have a beautiful story to tell. So...why didn't I LOVE the book? Well, and maybe it's a bit ironic how I am judging small West Texas towns, but I just felt that the diversity and wokeness of the minor characters was a tad bit unbelievable. Now, hear me out, I would love to believe that schools and small towns and bitty country churches are accepting of everyone, but I think we have quite a ways to go for true acceptance. Now, the book was really about Waylon accepting himself, for who he truly is, and for him to shine and be fabulous, and well, maybe he was just a bit judgmental of the people in his town...so I get it, I'm a bit like Waylon. Ok...so my second problem, umm and it's a spoiler, was the romance...I mean really? really? It was cute, but I also didn't find it really believable, it was definitely a "in your wildest dreams" sort of thing. So yea...I'll leave it at that. I'd definitely recommend this book to students, and I'm going to tell my librarian friend to buy a copy so all the GSA students will hear the words of wisdom spoken to Waylon...so maybe they'll shine and be their fabulous selves for the world.

I loved this, and I was so happy I did. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my friends frum Dumplin' again, and this time, seeing them exist mostly in the background while I got to meet Waylon! I have so many students who don't fit the mold of what someone "attractive" would look like who NEED to see that if you live your best life, you'd be surprised what happens.

Waylon Brewer has been out as gay for several years, but is still a closeted drag queen. He's got flaming red hair, a ton of freckles, and he's a big guy. Waylon's never been able to blend in with the crowd, despite his attempts at dressing in cargo shorts and polos like all the other hetero guys. He can't wait to go off to college with his BFF/twin, Clementine, where he can finally be his true self, which includes a much more adventurous wardrobe, and incorporating more of his drag persona, Miss Pumpkin Patch. All Waylon has to do is make it to graduation, which is easier said than done. When he gets nominated for Prom Queen as a joke, he knows he can either get mad or actually try to win. He gets paired up for pre-prom court activities with Tucker Watson, who has made it a point to avoid him at all costs throughout high school. Hijinks ensue, and a little romance too.

Ok, ok, ok.....first of all, I LOVE Julie Murphy and pretty much everything she does. She is a QUEEN and so darling and I'm pretty sure we would be friends if I knew her in real life. I absolutely adored Dumplin' and Puddin', and I was really hoping that Pumpkin would measure up. I was not disappointed. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. In true Julie Murphy fashion, there's laughter, love, and drama, heartfelt moments, heartbreaking moments, diverse characters and representation, and an ending that JUST MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD!! I love how JM always makes sure to bring in familiar characters that we know and love, and adds new characters that are so dang relatable and real. If you loved Dumplin', please do yourself a favor and read Puddin' and Pumpkin.

A couple years ago, along with the rest of the world, I fell in love with the residents of Clover City, Texas when Julie Murphy introduced us to them in her novel Dumplin’. A few years later came Puddin’ and readers got to know more students at Clover City High in this second installment. Imagine my surprise when i found out Julie was returning to this small Texas town in her newest novel Pumpkin.

Pumpkin, aKA Waylon Brewer, is just trying to survive as a fat gay high school senior along with his twin sister Clementine. As graduation draws near Waylon is left wondering what the future holds for him. This is a story of self-discovery that is highly relatable even to this thirty-seven year old. Julie’s characters are always real and have a confidence I wish I had at their age. This is not to say that their insecurities are left out of the story because they certainly are not. Julie’s main and supporting characters, including the ones in this book, are unapologetically themselves which leaves the reader inspired to follow in their self-assured footsteps.

This book also does a great job of handling LGBTQ+ representation by having characters that represent a variety of sexualities and personalities. It also does an excellent job of showing positive acceptance from friends and family members which is, unfortunately, a rarity in this day and age. The small town mindset is mentioned in the novel, but it is not heavily focused on.

This novel is recommended for teens, as well as adults like me, who want to relive their high school days or just enjoy coming-of-age YA novels. It is also a great novel for LGBTQ+ youth who may be seeking a relatable story. Readers who like character-driven novels with diverse and eccentric characters would love this book. I was also lucky enough to get the audiobook version of this book which I highly recommend for anyone who loves to listen. The narrator is a Broadway actor and does a great job capturing Waylon who narrates the novel.

A huge thanks to Netgalley and Libro.fm for allowing me to read and listen to this novel early.

Pumpkin is an adorable coming-of-age novel about acceptance, first love, and all the emotions that go with graduating high school. It’s the perfect conclusion to Dumplinverse that you’re going to love regardless of whether you’ve read the other two books.

Waylon is openly gay and he couldn’t hide it if he wanted to. He is looking forward to the end of his senior year when he will move to Austin with his twin sister for college. He plans to go Full Waylon at college and live out his true self. Waylon gets mad after getting dumped and makes an audition tape for his favorite TV drag show. It is meant for him and his sister, but when it accidentally gets shared with the entire school, he somehow ends up on the prom court as a queen nominee. What was meant to be a joke on Waylon turns into a chance to let the school truly know who he is! What will Waylon learn about himself, his sister, and his schoolmates as he finishes his senior year?

Pumpkin is the third book in the Dumplin’ series. With that said, each book is not a direct sequel, and readers who pick up this novel will be able to have the full experience without having read any of the previous books. I will say that the book took a bit of time to get rolling. Early on I was considering not even finishing it, but once Murphy had all the characters in their places, the story was a whirlwind of joy to read. I even found myself having happy tears at the end. I recommend Pumpkin to everyone who enjoys coming-of-age stories.

Where do I start???
Absolutely loved the cover!!! Didn't even read the synopsis before I requested the book lol.
Super loved that everyone was back again.
This was by far my favorite of all these books.
I loved seeing Waylon come into himself and be a fearless Queen! Every message in this book was sooo good. Definitely in my top 5 faves of this year ♡

Pumpkin is the perfect book to round out the Dumplin’ universe. Every character is lovable and fully developed, the plot is heartwarming high school rom-com perfection. Julie Murphy can do no wrong! I cannot wait to put this book in my classroom library for all the Waylons of the world.

Julie Murphy returns to Clover City, Texas with her latest novel in the Dumplin' series, Pumpkin. Julie captured the hearts of millions in 2015 with her debut, Dumplin', and she was applauded for creating an authentic and relatable teenage character in the novel's focus - Willowdean Dickson - a plus-sized diva with no qualms about who she is or what she is about. 2018 gave us Puddin', an equally body-positive novel starring some of the minor characters from Dumplin'. In 2021, Murphy is back with Pumpkin, a novel about a loud, proud, and yes, fat, gay boy, adorably nicknamed Pumpkin (his real name is Waylon Russell Brewer), who finds himself unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight after a drag video he makes goes viral (at least, viral at his high school, which is bad enough!)

Julie Murphy's novels are easy to love because she writes people just as they are. She doesn't expect her characters to be something they are not, which is a refreshing take in a world that applauds the fake by way of filtered photos and body-morphing apps, just to name a few. Murphy's books are not only body-positive, but are also accepting of orientation and race. In the case of Pumpkin, we are presented with a teenage boy living in a small Texas town who is not only fat, but gay as well. If you think that Waylon, AKA Pumpkin, is hiding in the shadows, think again. He embraces himself, even when it is difficult, and demands that others treat him with respect. As a woman in my 30s, I wish that novels centered on self love and acceptance were more widely published when I was a young adult, as it is encouraging and inspiring to not see teenagers falling into the trap of changing who they are just to make someone else comfortable.

Serious stuff aside, Pumpkin' is a fun, entertaining novel about a boy who dabbles in drag and makes the most of things when he is unexpectedly outed by his own twin sister! Waylon is witty and sarcastic, and a lot of fun to be around - if that's your sort of thing, check out this book! Heavy on the LGBTQIA elements, Pumpkin will appeal to readers who love novels that focus on representation and acceptance.

It's time to visit Clover City, Texas, once again, this time through the eyes of high school senior Waylon Brewer. Waylon and his twin sister, Clementine, have a plan to make it through the rest of the school year before starting new lives in Austin, looking forward to more acceptance and opportunities. However, girlfriends, gay bars, unexpected friendships, and self-acceptance turn their school year into anything but just coasting through.

I've adored the first two books Julie Murphy wrote in this series, but Pumpkin felt like a breath of fresh air. Waylon's matter-of-fact way of speaking and adoration of his sister made him an easy protagonist to love, but Murphy still manages to show his moments of loneliness and self-doubt. I LOVED reading a YA book about gay teens whose parents were affirming, especially in a part of the world where that isn't always the norm. The relationship between Waylon, Clem, and their parents made me just want to hug everyone. Throw in a few cameos by characters from Murphy's other books and you've got a winning conclusion to the Clover City stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Balzer + Bray for providing an ARC!

I'm always so glad to be back in Clover City! As always, I appreciate the amount of care Julie Murphy treats her characters with, and that there are always a couple of interesting plots running consistently. It's often a friendship arc and a romance arc, and in this book, it was a sibling arc, which was great! I would recommend rereading the other Dumplin' books to refresh on some characters, because the world of the book is starting to get quite crowded. But it's also great to see all these old pals. I certainly hope this book can make fat, femme gay boys, especially those in small towns, feel seen.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.***

Once you come out of the closet, there’s no going back in. The freaking closet door disappears, and you’re left totally unprotected in the middle of the world at the mercy of everyone else’s goodwill, hoping the people you’ve known your whole life really are decent and kind and that all that unconditional-love Bible stuff people spew is the real deal. That’s what coming out in a small town is.

Right from the start, I fell into Waylon’s voice (and returned to the world of Clover City) like I was falling into a warm hug.

Mind you, I don’t like hugs, so that might not sound like the compliment I meant it to be. Like falling into a really cozy chair? I dunno.

Regardless, despite the roller coaster of emotions rolling through this, I loved seeing the main cast of characters (even if I was more invested in Willowdean and what’s-his-face’s drama than Waylon and his dude) reunited, as Waylon gets swept up into this lovely friend group.

Okay, wow, I didn’t know I could care even less about an organized sports thing.

There was less actual drag queening going on than I had expected and/or wanted, and quite honestly the plot was a bit of a snore, but Waylon’s voice more than made up for the fact that he really didn’t…do anything the entire time? He’s kind of that sort of character I generally find annoying—the one everyone else praises as someone they admire because they are [insert at least three of these] so smart, so accomplished, so incredible, so loving, so confident, so whatever. Waylon just kinda…exists?

And so this is the story of him coming out of his shell, and realizing that the wide-world of high school is awful, but not quite as bad as he was anticipated. He blossoms into full-Waylon, and learns that he can step apart from his twin and that that’s okay—and that it’s okay to not know with 100% certainly what you want to do immediately after high school. That it’s okay to realize that pressing pause and figuring shit out is normal and very smart.

While I wanted more of the drag queens to be present, I was so, so happy that Waylon discovered he was not alone, that there were thriving queer communities in his home town—even if they were sometimes hard to find out about if you weren’t tapped into the culture already, or didn’t know someone.

And I loved his grandmother, who was fantastic. And I loved the school nurse, who understood her role was healing even if it wasn’t healing of a medical sort but as a sanctuary for kids who were a little different.

When the world isn’t settling what you’re looking to buy, you just have to take it upon yourself to cut your own pattern.

There’s a lot of prom court stuff and it was relatively interesting, although Waylon’s LI (yeah forgot his name, don’t care to look it up) was more of a wooden plank with a six-pack than a human being.

I do love the last thing Waylon does for his school, as he kinda realizes that being openly visible means he can help those who come after him, even if he doesn’t want to be an icon or a figurehead or That Gay Kid in school—and he realizes there are ways he can extend the ladder to those below, to allow them some smalls ways to find solace and comfort in knowing they aren’t alone, and to let them climb up after him.

Ultimately, though, I was left wanting moahr. More story, more drama, more of Waylon post-high school.

Admittedly, my dog passed away when I was reading this (not as I was reading this), so a lot of my memories are fuzzy and a lot of the things I normally pay attention to were just kinda…let away. Mostly I felt a lot of the emotions, and really took comfort in knowing that this book would end well and that Waylon was a joy to read.

This is the latest book in the Dumpling series by Julie Murphy. This may be my favorite book of all. In this book, you meet Waylon a gay boy from a small town in Texas that wants to one day become a drag queen. His twin sister Clem is dating Hannah who we meet in Dumpling. This book is about accepting who you are no matter what you look like or what your sexual orientation is. After watching their favorite show and being upset about who won Waylon see an email from Clem's about acceptance into a Georgia college. Waylon thought they were both going to go to a Texas community college and live together. That same night he sees a tweet about the drag show he just watches and how they are now accepting applications so he decides to make a video for fun. He show his sister but no one else, then days later it is all over the school. In a joke some of the kids in school vote Waylon on the prom court as prom queen and Hannah on the prom court as prom king. They decide to go ahead a run and see what happens. Overall this book is a fun look at the life of some teens in a small city that go against what other thing they should do and succeed.

I cannot sing enough praises about "Pumpkin." While I have loved every one of Murphy's books in the Dumplin series, there was something about Pumpkin that just made my fat queer heart sing. It is so rare to see yourself so fully in a book, and I think any person who has been, or is, a fat teenager will see themselves in this book and will feel beautifully represented.

I am not a re-reader, but this is one of those books that I will be purchasing immediately because I cannot imagine not revisiting this book that very much felt like the hug I so desperately needed as a teen.