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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Know The Town..., December 6, 2006
This review is from: Dark Harvest (Hardcover)
Many years ago, I read a story called "Johnny Halloween" in Cemetery Dance magazine. It was a stark, hard boiled, noirish horror story set around Halloween. Look it up if you can find it. It cemented Partridge in my mind as one of the best horror writers out there. Ten years ago, his novel "Slippin' Into Darkness" hit another home run with its vivid descriptions of flawed characters that you might not have really liked but still cared for in a weird, voyeristic way. It was also pretty stark, and very well told. After that, I lost track of him. Now, I'll be looking up everything he's published between then and now, because "Dark Harvest" is one of the best Halloween books you'll read this year (or any other.)
Released in a signed limited edition as part of Cemetery Dance's 2006 Halloween line, "Dark Harvest" has been chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the year's best. How rare is it that a small press book gets this kind of recognition? Read it, and you'll find out why.
Partridge has created sympathetic characters that could very well be people you know. The story centers around a small town with secrets that has a Halloween ritual every year where the teenage boys are locked in their rooms without food for five days and unleashed in the town on Halloween night with the mission to find and kill the October Boy. The person who kills him will be given a free ride out of the city and his parents will be rewarded by the town. Every year this plays out, every year another winner. As the secrets of the town and the origin of the October Boy are revealed, it is appearant that nothing in this place is what it seems. A young boy and girl figure this out, and do what they can to escape.
The book is short, but Partridge tells you everything you need to know. He will shock you, leave you spellbound, leave you riveted to the page wanting to know what happens next. I read it in two sittings and wanted more when I finished even though I was fully satisfied by the ending. This would make a great horror movie... His style is sparse and fast paced, imagine Robert B. Parker writing horror. This book was released alongside Al Sarrantonio's great novella "The Baby." I would also recommend "The Pumpkin Boy" by Sarrantonio for another similar Halloween tale. As far as similar hard boiled horror styles go, I would recommend "Slob" by Rex Miller and "After the Paperman Comes" by Heywood Steele.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Night of the Scarecrow, October 15, 2007
I have been anxious to read Norman Partridge for some time now, and DARK HARVEST was a great introduction to the author. This book takes no prisoners and will punch your ticket from the get-go.
As the reader, you get the impression from the book description that you're going to be set for a rather typical good vs. evil, boy vs. monster plot scenario. But what Partridge delivers is so much more and so much different than your average horror novel. This is the tale of the scarecrow creature known as the October Boy. Upon his resurrection each Halloween, the small town's teenage boys compete for the honor of being the first one to destroy old Sawtooth Jack. Because if a boy is crowned the winner of the "Run", it's his ticket out of town. In fact, it's the only way anyone ever escapes the cornfields and the never ending nothingness of this particular midwest 'burg. Pete McCormick is 16 years old, and he is determined to be this year's winner of the Run. He wants out of town, and the only way to get his wish is to stop the October Boy from making it to the town square church before midnight.
However, Partridge's trick along the way is a clever story twist to keep the reader guessing about who the victims really are and who the monsters really are. What is the history behind this macabre tradition that has the farm folk running rabid every Halloween night? Partridge does a wonderful job of setting you up for one type of story, then stopping you in your tracks, and finally putting his own unique spin on the plot flow to really keep you guessing. His pacing and prose are both switch-blade sharp and will take you for a ride like few other authors can.
When I read DARK HARVEST, it reminded me of another novel by Joe R. Lansdale called THE NIGHTRUNNERS, which is also measured by hard hitting action and violent characters. In addition, I see some parallels with Partridge and author Charlie Huston. Material by all of these writers is actually some of the best dark fantasy and pulp noir to be found anywhere today.
As for the title of this review, it's really a nod to another October Boy, the mysterious scarecrow character from the early 1970's TV movie, DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW. The networks used to run it every fall, but I haven't seen it listed for many years now. It is still one of the best horror films ever to be offered by TV producers. Like the original NIGHT STALKER, this movie is very much in the same vein as the projects of Dan Curtis. I'm still waiting for someone to release it on DVD. In the meantime, read DARK HARVEST for an original Halloween treat. Almost as good as a carmeled apple or a popcorn ball......
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Your town? Better hope not., March 3, 2007
This review is from: Dark Harvest (Hardcover)
Norman Partridge shuns the modern world in Dark Harvest, instead choosing to focus on what many consider a more "innocent' time. Here's how the novella begins:
A Midwestern town. You know its name. You were born there.
It's Halloween, 1963 . . . and getting on towards dark.
Partridge follows these moody opening lines with a Bradburyesque description of the unnamed town (delivered by an omniscient narrator), evoking the likes of Sherwood Anderson and Thornton Wilder even as he veers off into edgier territory by introducing the Pumpkin Boy, a.k.a. Sawtooth Jack, a.k.a. Hacksaw Face. The Pumpkin Boy is a pumpkin-headed effigy (shades of Sleepy Hollow!) who stands guard over the town's crops; on Halloween, he comes to life to run a gauntlet of the town's young men, all out to destroy him. The gauntlet is an annual ritual, the result of an ancient pact between the town and a greater power, still honored even though most don't recall its original purpose. So far, the Pumpkin Boy has never successfully reached his goal, a church in the middle of town; he has always been stopped (read destroyed) by one of the town's young men, who win a one-way ticket out of the remote hamlet. The majority of the action is seen through the eyes of the Pumpkin Boy, and Pete McCormick, a young man desperate in his desire to escape the town's environs. Their adventures on this particular Halloween night reveal the horror beneath the calm, respectable façade of the unnamed town, uncovering secrets that threaten to destroy it.
It seems significant that Partridge set the novel in October 1963, only weeks before America was shocked by the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in the process losing what was left of its innocence; Partridge's unnamed town undergoes a similar, albeit more intense and personal, loss of innocence, done in by the actions of those who believe they are acting in the best interests of the community. Quintessential Partridge, this violent and explosive novella vividly evokes the early Sixties, touching on the frivolous, like hot rods, rock and roll, and going to the movies, but also delving into the darker aspects of that era, like juvenile delinquency and child abuse. In absolute control throughout, Partridge structures the story as a violent life-and-death race against time, giving it a rare immediacy and power. Doing so, he provides another example of why the novella sometimes seems the perfect vehicle for a tale of horror--it is storytelling stripped to its essentials, a format that forces writers to make their points succinctly and forcefully. That is not to say that they can't be subtle, either, just that they have to be more efficient. Because Partridge does this so well, he's able to make a little go a long, long way.
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