Pumpkins are a motif throughout the novel, from the hand pollination of the pumpkins on the Bonner farm, to the traditional riverside lighting ceremony, to “Lady Jane Grey,” Peyton Bonner’s prized pumpkin that she carried everywhere with her as a child. The pollination brush that Sam uses in his farm work leads to his first kiss with Miel—the tipping point between their childhood friendship and the bloom of first love. While pumpkins are conventionally thought of as being uniformly orange and grown for a singular purpose, the novel takes time to explore the wide range of pumpkin variations and some of the magic that leads to their growth.

The first pumpkin the reader is introduced to in the novel is Peyton’s childhood companion: “a small gray pumpkin that, in that light, looked almost blue. She had it cradled in one arm, and with the other hand was petting it like a bird” (4). Immediately, Anna-Marie McLemore introduces the reader to a visual of a pumpkin different from the traditional orange archetype. More images of specific varietals are introduced throughout the narrative: “There was no orange like the girls’ hair or the Cinderella pumpkins, flat and deep-ribbed.