"A Midwestern town. You know its name. You were born there. It's Halloween, 1963... and getting on toward dark…" - Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
Dark Harvest is one of those books that I had always known about but never read. I have this weird tic where if a lot of people recommend something, I immediately doubt if it's something I would like.
I've seen it on social media, I've seen it come up on 'Best Halloween Books' lists, I've seen it pop up in searches as "Customers who bought this also bought…" and every time I saw it I've thought "Well how good could it be?
Turns out: pretty good.
Interestingly, I saw the film version FIRST without even knowing that this was the book it was based on. I saw a trailer, thought it looked good, and rented it for my Halloween-themed Halloween movie on October 31, 2023.
So while traveling through Phoenix and stopping at the Changing Hands bookstore, I spotted an on-sale copy and decided to dive in based on my good cinematic experience.
What a great read! Norman Partridge's writing style is somewhere between a well-told campfire story and a briskly written screenplay. You feel the momentum of the telling and Partridge is having a blast doing so.
At only 176 pages, it really hums along (and with a standard screenplay running at 120 pages, I make the comparison again of it feeling like a screenplay).
So I have become one of the many who recommend this book as a great Halloween read.
I've not given you any plot details and that's because you can read those on the jacket itself or your favorite online shoppe. There are a few twists, so going in blind might be best.
My elevator pitch would be: a Halloween creature feature with notes of Happy Days and Hunger Games.
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