A review by punkyjewster
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon

dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I wanted to love this so badly. It was recommended to me because Midsommar is one of my favorite movies, and I was looking for similar folk horror. 

The first 300 pages are not horror in the slightest. I didn’t love the main character but some of the side characters (like The Widow) were enough to keep me interested. It was a slog to get through, but I was hoping for payoff. 

The end of the book is atrocious. If you picked up on the author’s misogynistic undertones in the beginning of the book, you win! You get several pages of a
GRAPHIC SA perpetrated by the narrator for revenge, and somehow all the people in the town just… don’t really care that much???
. The ending was so easy to see coming, and it was evident through his language that he really wanted to portray all of his female characters as conniving and evil. 

Again, I REALLY wanted to love this book. Horror about an isolated group of people who welcome outsiders and end up being terrifying? One of my favorite sub-genres. But my goodness, this felt like a waste of time with no payoff. 
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