Dark Harvest

Fall is here, and with it, that greatest of holidays, Halloween. There's a chill in the air (metaphorically, if not actually), and the times call for a matching chill in reading material. What could be better than a good scary story on a chilly Halloween night?

I came to Norm Partridge's Dark Harvest with high hopes: I'm a big fan of his collection The Man With the Barbed-Wire Fists, so I already knew he could write. But even having read him before, I wasn't prepared for how quickly this book sucked me in.

I'm normally not a fan of second person narrative; it tends to pull me out of the story. But for this one, it works, granting an immediacy and an intimacy necessary for the story's impact.

And what an impact. This story moves, man, and show more all you can do is hang on for the ride.

It's October, 1963, in Anytown, USA, and the teenage boys 16 and up are getting ready for the Halloween ritual: the Gauntlet, wherein Sawtooth Jack, a pumpkin-headed horror, attempts to make it from the field outside of town where he was born to the church in the middle of the town. It's the job of the boys to stop him (permanently), and the one who does gets a one-way ticket out of town.

We spend most of the book with 2 characters. Pete is 16 and running his first gauntlet. His family life has collapsed with the death of his mother and his father's descent into unemployment and alcoholism. He's had to grow up fast, and he wants more than this backwards little town can offer. He has to win tonight, so he can get out.

Bu things are never quite what they seem. The other character we get to know is the October Boy, and what we learn about him lifts the lid on the dark undercurrents running beneath this small, placid town.

On the one hand, Dark Harvest is a fast-moving Halloween chiller, with action that's fast and furious and genuinely scary. But on the other hand, It's also a coming of age story, and the journey of Pete and the October Boy as they discover the truth of the ritual will both chill your blood and touch your heart.

Dark Harvest is a marvel, and the perfect treat for your Halloween bag. show less

Wow. I think maybe other than one short story, my first Norman Partridge. And it was absolutely great. Its been likened to the lottery, which I suppose in some ways its similar thematically, but I would argue both more readable and with a lot more layers to it. There's some interesting things happening with point of view and the narrator, moving between following several townsfolk and a conversation between the narrator and the reader wherein the reader is part of past events. I think there are other layers of meta-narrative involving film and the theater that could be dug into as well. The whole thing taking place in a liminal nowhere town reminiscent of a hybrid of King and Bradbury styles of Americana. All of it grounded firmly in show more the 90s/00s splatterpunk style. show less

“He’s the October Boy...the reaper that grows in the field, the merciless trick with a heart made of treats, the butchering nightmare with the hacksaw face...and he’s gonna getcha!”

I really liked the setup for this story! The October Boy, the Run, the Line, all of it! And the crazy, creepy town that supports it! But, it began to drag for me about page 100, and the excitement and novelty wore off. And the ending was sort of a whimper after the whiz-bang of the beginning. But, it's a good read and I would be interested in a prequel type story, if one ever was written!

I had no idea who Norman Partridge was when I picked up Dark Harvest. It was the cover that caught my eye (as so happens with books!). That image of a Jack o' Lantern-headed scarecrow, eyes and mouth glowing with an inner fire, making his way through a cornfield completely caught my imagination and I had to know what this story was about.

Reading Norman Partridge's Dark Harvest was a pleasant surprise. Well, not a pleasant surprise, since a story about a living scarecrow who is trying to make his way to the small town church before midnight on Halloween, while all the boys in the town, who have been locked up for five days with no food, are set loose to try and kill him... well, that story really can't be all that pleasant, now can it? show more However, what surprised me so much was how strongly I was pulled into this story.

Every Halloween in this small town in the middle of nowhere, the October Boy is raised from the cornfields and makes his way towards town. For the previous five days, all the boys from sixteen to nineteen have been locked up, with no food, awaiting their release out into the Run, hunting the October Boy before he can make his way to the church. Whoever kills the October Boy gets a free ride out of town, and his family are showered with gifts, a new house, no bills, for that entire following year, until the next Halloween comes around and the cycle starts all over again. Part of why I loved this book is that there is no explanation as to why things are this way in this unnamed town. Why is the October Boy raised every year? Why can't the residents leave, or why are they not allowed to leave town? What will happen if the October Boy actually reaches the church? What are the consequences of this? None of these questions are truly answered, simply hinted at, yet you don't doubt the importance of any of the actions of the townsfolk, or the October Boy. You simply accept that this is the way things are, and this is how the story has to unfold, and you carry on with the story. And not having to answer these questions is, at least to me, what makes Partridge such an impressive, new-to-me author.

The characters are sympathetic; they could be anyone that you know in any small town. The small town could be like any other small town in America. Yet, there is something evil and unsettling just under the surface, something that these people have come to understand and respect in their own way. You as the reader accept these things too, however unpleasant that they may be, and will keep reading to find out more. As the secrets of this small town start to unravel, you will feel even more sympathy for them, and yet find revulsion at the same time. And you'll still want more. This is a quick read, but one that will leave you wishing there were more to the story, wanting to know what happens next, what the ultimate fate of the October Boy and this small town will be.

I will definitely be on the look out for more by Norman Partridge. Recommended. show less

Every year the teenage boys of a small town surrounded by corn fields hunt down a monster. The winner is never seen again. Yes, you know where THAT'S going. Big King vibe here, but the prose chews the scenery, just biting in there and chewing it all up, and the narrator goes right with it, absolutley living every moment. Good pulp Halloween fun.

This was a fun halloween book. It had some interesting premises I hadn't thought about, and I enjoyed the ending.
I did tink the language was almost too descriptive in some parts. And I want to know more about the group behind the Run and why they did it.

It's 1963. Halloween night in a small Midwestern town. Out in a barren field where a lone pumpkin grows into the old clothes of a scarecrow, a mysterious man carves a face into the pumpkin, stuffs the body with candy, and hands the knife to this new creature, watching as the October Boy shakily makes his way toward town with only one thought on his mind.

Meanwhile, the town's 16- and 17-year old boys, freed from their 5-day prisons without food, are let loose upon the town, their sole mission to stop the October Boy from reaching its destination. Whoever stops the October Boy has a free ticket out of town with his family earning all sorts of monies and distinctions. No one knows this better than Pete McCormick, whose drunk, deadbeat show more Father gave up on him and his sister years ago. Stopping the October Boy will free him from the prison his life has become in that small Midwestern town.

When Pete runs into Kelly Haines, the only girl running around this Halloween night, who should be inside away from the insanity that fuels the young men of the town, he learns some hard truths about the October Boy and the townsfolk who set the boys after him. And what he decides to do with that information will change the town forever.

The October Boy is supposed to be the evil creature, ready to hack and kill to get what he wants so I automatically distrust him. It's what I'm supposed to do. But author Norman Partridge surprises me with this story by tossing in an atypical twist or two, forcing me to figure out for myself just who the "bad guys" truly are. I enjoy that about this story, one that challenges me to see what's in front of me in a different light. And with touches resembling Ray Bradbury's "The Halloween Tree", the tale involves the reader, making him or her a character with a knowing wink as to what's really going on behind the scenes in the little town.

"Dark Harvest" offers a violent, bloody and horrific Halloween treat, fit for anyone who loves their horror with a twist. show less