Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge is a horror fable about how one town has a crazy Halloween ritual that takes place in the 1960’s. This novella is a small story but with some really well thought out twist. The best thing about the novel is the writing which reminded me of a hard crime novel the way harsh metaphors are used. “It’s as black as a licorice whip under and October sky ” is one of my favorite descriptions. The book takes place in one day and we get 5 characters perspectives. The pace moves really fast and the climax was enjoyable. The big thing that it is missing is the history of the night, so some part the book reminded me of Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery with elements of The Hunger Games by Collins and a sprinkled with a little of the Long Walk by King. The cover art is so awesome for this book. This book is getting adapted into a movie from director David Slade who has previously directed 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy.

Plot Summary: An entity is born every Halloween called the October Boy which is a pumpkin headed monster that walks on vines and is filled with candy and has a candy heart. The October Boy walks with a butcher knife and comes alive at midnight, his destination is an old church, if he makes it there by midnight the game is over no October boy has made it before. The hunters are five days starved teenage boys who need to kill to leave the town and have their family set up very nicely. The boys are to crack open the head and eat it’s candy heart. There are no rules only death and it is every boy for himself.

What I Liked: I can’t say enough things about the awesome cover art which I hate to say was a big reason I picked this novella up. The language used is really unique and memorable and took me back to a 1960’s hard crime noir story but told in a horror setting. I loved the idea behind the October Boy and the twist with how it is born and what exactly it is. I liked some of the characters, some felt like they came out of early Stephen King novels but it fit in here. i liked the people manipulating the legend of the October Boy. This novel had some intense action that was fun.

What I Disliked: The rules for the October Boy were not written, if it makes it to the church what does happen, all we know is chaos once we find backstory on the October Boy, but nothing else. We never find out the why of the October Boy does there have to be one is it for good crops, it seems like it could be a deterrent not to leave but that is still not explained.

Recommendations/Rating: The story is a quick novella with some good ideas and great language. A really good fall read. I will recommend you check out Dark Harvest. It’s a good unique horror story. This is my first Norman Partridge book and want to read more just based on language alone. I rated Dark Harvest 4 out of 5 stars.