Review: "Dark Harvest" by Norman Partridge

There is not much I can say about Norman Partridge’s Dark Harvest. At its worst, it is forgettable fun horror fair; at its best, it is fairly decent horror fair. Even after only finishing it a little over a week ago, some of the details are slipping my mind. Maybe if I had read it during Halloween as I originally planned it might have been a more memorable experience. It does not reach the level of effectiveness Slippin Into Darkness had, which was felt like a darker, more assaulting version of The Virgin Suicides, but it doesn’t need to be. All the aspects of this book never reach deplorable status; this is simply a book that you may read once, have a good time, and let it slip into the back of your memory, where it will only show its face when you are scanning your bookshelves out of boredom or whatnot. The plot is a rather over the top one involving an unnamed town in the early 60’s, where every year, the towns youthful boys hunt and kill the October Boy, a mythical creature that is birthed in the woods and has a carved pumpkin for a head. With a description that outlandish, you wouldn’t expect this book to be too serious, and it isn’t for the most part. Pete McCormick, the main character, is going to use this opportunity to kill the October Boy as a way to leave his alcoholic father and the suffocating town he lives in. but he is about to find out the true nature of the October Boy, and what he must do to stop it. If this were made into a movie, it would be really good, I hope. But as a book, it is forgettable, yet briefly fun seasonal horror fiction.

Rating: 4/5