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Title details for Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge - Available

Dark Harvest

by Norman Partridge
Vikas Adam
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 2 copies available

"This is contemporary American writing at its finest." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

Winner of the Stoker Award and named one of the 100 Best Novels of 2006 by Publishers Weekly, Dark Harvest is a powerhouse thrill-ride with all the resonance of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."
Halloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol' Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever the name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. How he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death.
Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in this one-horse town. He's willing to risk everything, including his life, to be a winner for once. But before the night is over, Pete will look into the saw-toothed face of horror—and discover the terrifying true secret of the October Boy...

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 4, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250252968
      • File size: 131990 KB
      • Duration: 04:34:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 25, 2006
      At the start of this mesmerizing new fantasy from Partridge (Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales
      ), it's Halloween night in 1963 in Anytown, U.S.A., and the local teenage boys are ramping up for the annual hunt for the October Boy, a pumpkin-headed being cultivated by the town fathers to run the gauntlet each All Hallows' Eve. The boy who brings him down before he makes it to the local church wins a highly coveted ticket out of town and, as most believe, liberation from the stultifying ennui of small-town life that has crushed all ambition and dreams out of the adults. Pete McCormack is among the most determined boys on the hunt, but this evening he will learn horrifying truths about his town's tradition and the terrible price he must pay for his manhood. Partridge has always had a knack for sifting deeper significance from period pop culture, but here he brilliantly distills a convincing male identity myth from teen rebel drive-in flicks, garish comic book horrors, hard-boiled crime pulps and other bits of lowbrow Americana. Whether read as potent dark fantasy or a modern coming-of-age parable, this is contemporary American writing at its finest.

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2022

      On Halloween in 1963, Pete McCormick is about to join the other teenage boys in his small town on the Run, the annual attempt to capture the menacing and dangerous October Boy, who comes out of the cornfields to stalk the townsfolk every year. Killing the October Boy is the only way Pete can see to have a future for himself and his sister away from his hard-drinking father, even if he has to risk his own life--and steal a police officer's gun--to do it. But when his harrowing journey finally leads him to the October Boy, he'll have to confront the town's horrifying truth. Luckily for fans of scary stories, Partridge's (Lesser Demons) 2007 Bram Stoker Award--winning work of folk horror is finally available as an audiobook, with the incomparable Vikas Adam narrating. Adam's rich, gravelly voice is the ideal pairing for this story, which is frequently compared to Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," another look at the dark underbelly of a seemingly placid small town. VERDICT With a movie adaptation coming later this year, demand for Partridge's cult classic is going to skyrocket. Public libraries should make sure to have it in all formats.--Stephanie Klose

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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