Starting Spooky Season Early! Book Review for “Dark Harvest” by Norman Partridge🎃

The Fourth of July is over so you know what that means? It’s officially spooky season… at least for me. I decided to kick it off with a creepy novella, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge but unfortunately, it fell a bit flat. This review will have spoilers.

Synopsis:

Halloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol’ Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever the name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. How he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death.

Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in this one-horse town. He’s willing to risk everything, including his life, to be a winner for once. But before the night is over, Pete will look into the saw-toothed face of horror – and discover the terrifying true secret of the October Boy…

My Thoughts:

• Rating- ⭐⭐⭐

I love a good, small town horror story. The addition of a creepy cornfield and a monster with a pumpkin head gave me very high hopes that this would be an excellent read. Dark Harvest definitely wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. The spooky vibes were there but I was left feeling more sad than scared. There also wasn’t as much detail or backstory as I would’ve liked, but I typically feel that way about novellas.

Each year a teenage boy is sacrificed and becomes the next October Boy. He’s buried, grows into this creature with a pumpkin head and arises on the next Halloween. The cycle then repeats. This is an open secret in the town but most of the teenagers have no clue that if they are the one to kill the October Boy. they are doomed to become the next. It’s implied that this ritual insures a good crop for the next year but it’s never explained how this came to be or for how long it’s been going on. Girls are also forbidden from taking part in the hunt for the October Boy and it’s not explained why the ritual wouldn’t work with a girl. Along with the lack of backstory, I felt that the characters were flat but again, that can be a problem with novellas.

This story was strongly inspired by The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I read it in high school and it has stuck with me for years. If you’ve read The Lottery and enjoyed it, then you would probably like this Halloween version. If you’re looking for a super creepy detailed story, though, you won’t find that here.

Final Thoughts:

I don’t regret reading this and definitely recommend it if you’re wanting a fast read. Let me know what spooky book I should read next! Thanks for reading and have a great day!