half a star….only because it’s a book

It took me all of about three hours to get through the minutia that attempts to pass itself off as a horror fiction. In 2006 Dark Harvest was given the Bram Stoker Award. Really? Am I living on a different planet? Am I of a different species than those who read and rated this book? In my opinion, it was boring, not scary, and read like a Dick and Jane schoolbook. I kept hoping to be frightened. I kept hoping to turn the page and throw the book across the room.

But I suppose I fell into the media hype like most:

“If you’re looking for a scary Halloween tale, with lots of blood and gore--and candy--you’ve come to the right place.”--Rocky Mountain News on Dark Harvest

"Whether read as potent dark fantasy or a modern coming-of-age parable, [Dark Harvest] is contemporary American writing at its finest." —Publishers Weekly

Blood? Gore? American writing at its finest?

Were we reading the same book?

There’s this teenage boy, see, but he’s really a scarecrow with a carved out pumpkin for a face and tattered vines and husks for hands. And, of course there’s the sadistic cop who shoots everyone that crosses his path in hopes the October Boy (pumpkin face) won’t ‘make it to the church on time.’ Blah, blah, blah…..

Total waste.

In my opinion.
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