Dark Harvest

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.

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

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