Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge

3 reviews

zachisreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Dark Harvest is a book made for Halloween. A mysterious town, in the middle of nowhere that on the surface feels like any other Midwest farming center in the late 1960s. You have a theater, a school, and a church right in the middle of everything. You might be excused for believing the place to be very white bread and even a bit boring. Then you hear how the town locks up its teenaged boys for nearly a week leading up to Halloween without food. Then, Halloween night, the boys are sent out on the hunt. 

The book follows the hunt flashing between perspectives, eager to keep you off balance for the 169 pages of bizarre horror fiction. Mysteries are piled on mysteries, but the characters all only seem to want out. There will be twists and turns to take at breakneck speeds, but precious few answers as the book races towards the explosive climax. 

With all the racing, many elements of horror never really sink in until the book is over. By then the frights have lost much of their impact. The characters seem equally forgettable. It's not that what they went through isn't still capturing my mind, but that they all seem to blend together in a mixture of anger and despair, never really differentiating one person from another. They are not badly written. Our view of them is just limited to the point of uniformity. 

This uniformity also strikes in certain acts of obeisance that make you question the integrity of the story. The backstory, indeed, are the shaky stilts the majestic manor is built upon. Looking too closely at them could make you not want to go in. Yet the grand internal architecture and furnishings are well worth it. 

Even with its many flaws, Dark Harvest is the sort of book that could easily be closed after the last page, turned over, and read again. Definitely a Halloween staple. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Car accident, Body horror, Trafficking, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Classism, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Child abuse

Minor: Gaslighting and Alcohol

ravenpuff's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcoholism and Car accident

Minor: Car accident, Classism, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Sexual harassment

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

Tries to be gritty but just falls flat. Do not get invested in the plot as it is never fully explained and just leaves you feeling unsatisfied. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Car accident, Police brutality, Suicide, Gun violence, Cursing, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Kidnapping, Confinement, Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Minor: Cancer