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obsidian_blue 's review for:
Dark Harvest
by Norman Partridge
An unnamed town in 1963 is home to a yearly event on Halloween called the "Run" which tracks down a thing called October Boy. Grown each year and set free on Halloween, he is given a butcher knife to use against boys between the ages of 16 to 19. The boy that kills October Boy is free to leave the town and his family does not have to pay for a thing for the next year. However, this year the Run is going to be different.
I thought this book was equal parts the Lottery and also The Long Walk. I think my biggest issue is that you don't ever get an explanation on the first Run. How in the world did the townspeople even know how to do the things that they did. Why can't people leave the town? It doesn't seem that something terrible will occur. I think the only reason for things to keep continuing is for the harvest, but the town is small and does not seem well off so I had a hard time with the rationalization for any of this. But that's my big problem with most horror books, it has to make sense to me otherwise I don't enjoy it.
The book switches perspectives a bunch of times. We go from the October Boy, to Pete McCormick, Officer Ricks, Mitch Crenshaw, and a few others. No one gets much development besides Pete McCormick and I would say the October Boy. Everyone else is paper thin as anything.
For example, we get a young girl who is somehow part of the Run. It doesn't even make sense since girls are not to participate. But this one is and when you hear the reasoning why I had to go huh a dozen or so times to myself. It was like that a few times when I came to certain parts.
The writing was repetitive and nothing earth shattering to me. I never want to read the words licorice road again. It is said repeatedly about a road that leads out of town. Maybe because I hate black licorice it was just enough to set me off. Who knows.
The flow was kind of a mess from the frog leaping among characters. There are certain things left unexplained that I decided in the end where not worth the headache of trying to see if it was explained elsewhere.
The setting of a small town gone mad has obviously been done before. I think that besides the cool reveal, there was not much here for me to recommend reading it. It honestly was not scary to me. There are a couple of gruesome things talked about and done, but I have read worse.
The ending definitely leaves one wondering what is going to happen to the town.
I read this for Halloween Bingo 2016 and the "Set on Halloween" square. I also was lucky enough to have this count for Horror Aficionados September runner up group read.
I thought this book was equal parts the Lottery and also The Long Walk. I think my biggest issue is that you don't ever get an explanation on the first Run. How in the world did the townspeople even know how to do the things that they did. Why can't people leave the town? It doesn't seem that something terrible will occur. I think the only reason for things to keep continuing is for the harvest, but the town is small and does not seem well off so I had a hard time with the rationalization for any of this. But that's my big problem with most horror books, it has to make sense to me otherwise I don't enjoy it.
The book switches perspectives a bunch of times. We go from the October Boy, to Pete McCormick, Officer Ricks, Mitch Crenshaw, and a few others. No one gets much development besides Pete McCormick and I would say the October Boy. Everyone else is paper thin as anything.
For example, we get a young girl who is somehow part of the Run. It doesn't even make sense since girls are not to participate. But this one is and when you hear the reasoning why I had to go huh a dozen or so times to myself. It was like that a few times when I came to certain parts.
The writing was repetitive and nothing earth shattering to me. I never want to read the words licorice road again. It is said repeatedly about a road that leads out of town. Maybe because I hate black licorice it was just enough to set me off. Who knows.
The flow was kind of a mess from the frog leaping among characters. There are certain things left unexplained that I decided in the end where not worth the headache of trying to see if it was explained elsewhere.
The setting of a small town gone mad has obviously been done before. I think that besides the cool reveal, there was not much here for me to recommend reading it. It honestly was not scary to me. There are a couple of gruesome things talked about and done, but I have read worse.
The ending definitely leaves one wondering what is going to happen to the town.
I read this for Halloween Bingo 2016 and the "Set on Halloween" square. I also was lucky enough to have this count for Horror Aficionados September runner up group read.