It can be argued that, among horror fans, there are few things as sacred as the time honored traditions of Halloween. Unstoppable slashers, jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treat, and gore galore are but a few of these wonderfully dreadful customs we revel in every October, seeking out the appropriate mediums through which to obtain our Halloween thrills and chills. In Dark Harvest, emerging rock star of horror literature Norman Partridge attempts to bring all of these holiday haunts home to roost, and while his efforts are admirable, he fails to make the kill.
I can honestly say I cannot remember the last time a horror novel caught my eye quite as firmly as Dark Harvest. With ringing endorsements from Stephen King and Peter Straub on the back cover as well as paragraph long praises from each on the inner pages, and a generally accepted mark of excellence, the Bram Stoker Award, proudly displayed under the title, my interest was already piqued, and with the Rocky Mountain Post bandying around mouth-watering words like “blood”, “gore”, and “candy” for all to see in the books Praise section, I was already prepared to lay my money down, to say nothing of the fantastically ghoulish cover art.
And then there is the premise; and what a premise it is: In a “small Midwestern town” in 1963, teenage boys are locked in their rooms and starved semi-mad for days leading up to Halloween, when a terrifying tradition unfolds. From a cornfield on the outskirts of town, a macabre aberration is given life. It walks on the body of a man, constructed of gnarled roots, rising from the earth and ending over six feet high with the head of a jack-o-lantern, stuffed with candy and glowing an otherworldly light and carrying a butcher knife in hand. As the ravenous, incensed adolescents of the town are released, so to is this Halloween monstrosity, known as the October Boy, Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. On these annual Halloween nights (the dark ritual is held every year), the October Boy must cut a swathe through the frenzied youth of the town or be cut down, and to the winner go the spoils.
Partridge has crafted, perhaps, one of the best Halloween premises to be released in any form in years. Unfortunately, he overextends and under extends his story in all the wrong places. The novel follows a teen by the name of Pete McCormick as he joins the “Run” for the first time, and the author does an excellent job of fleshing out the character in a very short time frame. However, the novel is simply too short. Although Pete is the focal character, Partridge also shifts his focus over to several other characters throughout the story, and in a book capping off at only 169 pages, there just is not enough time to truly execute a character study. It is understandable that the author would want to make this story as epic as possible to captivate on the love horror fans have for Halloween, but he needs to decide whether he wants quality or quantity.
As it stands, the novel is too short for the kind of character study he tries to make it, and the while the underlying mystery of the story is intriguing and original, it removes a great deal of the scare factor. In fact, the October Boy himself is not at all frightening, and the novel as a whole is not particularly bloody or gory. With a work of horror this short, Partridge would have been much better off to have gone for an open and shut slice-and-dice gorefest capitalizing on his interesting characters and fiendish monster. A novel roughly twice the size of what is offered in Dark Harvest would be better suited to carry the deep story the author tries to cram into his brief work.
While the characters are well done for the brevity of the novel (the true villain of the story, Officer Ricks, being one of the most profoundly malevolent villains I’ve encountered in a novel in quite some time) the balance of guts, grue, and good ol’ fashioned scares and depth are out of whack. This is a case of ambition outweighing execution, as Partridge attempts to offer up a Halloween extravaganza, but bites off more than he can chew. For what its worth, I cannot think of too many horror authors who could stuff so much story into so little space, but it never hits the jugular.
– Travis Anderson
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
