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Harvest Home
It was almost as if time had not touched the village of Cornwall Coombe. The quiet, peaceful place was straight out of a bygone era, with well-cared-for Colonial houses, a white-steepled church fronting a broad Common. Ned and Beth Constantine chanced upon the hamlet and immediately fell in love with it. This was exactly the haven they dream of. Or so they thought.
For Ned and his family, Cornwall Coombe was to become a place of ultimate horror.
For Ned and his family, Cornwall Coombe was to become a place of ultimate horror.
401 pages, Hardcover
First published June 18, 1973
1424 people are currently reading
25111 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Tryon
26 books303 followersIt was Noel Coward’s partner, Gertrude Lawrence, who encouraged Tom to try acting. He made his Broadway debut in 1952 in the chorus of the musical Wish You Were Here. He also worked in television at the time, but as a production assistant. In 1955, he moved to California to try his hand at the movies, and the next year made his film debut in The Scarlet Hour (1956). Tom was cast in the title role of the Disney TV series Texas John Slaughter (1958) that made him something of a household name. He appeared in several horror and science fiction films: I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) and Moon Pilot (1962) and in westerns: Three Violent People (1956) and Winchester '73 (1967). He was part of the all-star cast in The Longest Day (1962), a film of the World War II generation, credited with saving 20th Century Fox Studios, after the disaster of Cleopatra. He considered his best role to be in In Harm's Way (1965), which is also regarded as one of the better films about World War II.
While filming the title role in The Cardinal (1962), Tom suffered from Otto Preminger's Teutonic directing style and became physically ill. Nevertheless, Tom was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1963. He appeared with Marilyn Monroe in her final film, Something's Got to Give (1962), but the studio fired Monroe after three weeks, and the film was never finished. That experience, along with the Cardinal ordeal, left Tom wary of studio games and weary at waiting around for the phone to ring.
After viewing the film Rosemary's Baby (1968), Tom was inspired to write his own horror novel, and in 1971 Alfred Knopf published The Other. It became an instant bestseller and was turned into a movie in 1972, which Tom wrote and produced. Thereafter, despite occasional film and TV offers, Tom gave up acting to write fiction full-time. This he did eight to ten hours a day, with pencil, on legal-sized yellow tablets. Years later, he graduated to an IBM Selectric.
The Other was followed by Lady (1975), which concerns the friendship between an eight-year-old boy and a mysterious widow in 1930s New England. His book Crowned Heads became an inspiration for the Billy Wilder film Fedora (1978), and a miniseries with Bette Davis was made from his novel Harvest Home (1978). All That Glitters (1986), a quintette of stories about thinly disguised Hollywood greats and near-greats followed. Night of the Moonbow (1989), tells of a boy driven to violence by the constant harassment he endures at a summer camp. Night Magic, about an urban street magician with wondrous powers, written shortly before his death in 1991, was posthumously published in 1995. The dust jackets and end papers of Tom's books, about which he took unusual care, are excellent examples of his gifts as an artist and graphic designer, further testimony to the breadth of his talents.
While filming the title role in The Cardinal (1962), Tom suffered from Otto Preminger's Teutonic directing style and became physically ill. Nevertheless, Tom was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1963. He appeared with Marilyn Monroe in her final film, Something's Got to Give (1962), but the studio fired Monroe after three weeks, and the film was never finished. That experience, along with the Cardinal ordeal, left Tom wary of studio games and weary at waiting around for the phone to ring.
After viewing the film Rosemary's Baby (1968), Tom was inspired to write his own horror novel, and in 1971 Alfred Knopf published The Other. It became an instant bestseller and was turned into a movie in 1972, which Tom wrote and produced. Thereafter, despite occasional film and TV offers, Tom gave up acting to write fiction full-time. This he did eight to ten hours a day, with pencil, on legal-sized yellow tablets. Years later, he graduated to an IBM Selectric.
The Other was followed by Lady (1975), which concerns the friendship between an eight-year-old boy and a mysterious widow in 1930s New England. His book Crowned Heads became an inspiration for the Billy Wilder film Fedora (1978), and a miniseries with Bette Davis was made from his novel Harvest Home (1978). All That Glitters (1986), a quintette of stories about thinly disguised Hollywood greats and near-greats followed. Night of the Moonbow (1989), tells of a boy driven to violence by the constant harassment he endures at a summer camp. Night Magic, about an urban street magician with wondrous powers, written shortly before his death in 1991, was posthumously published in 1995. The dust jackets and end papers of Tom's books, about which he took unusual care, are excellent examples of his gifts as an artist and graphic designer, further testimony to the breadth of his talents.
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October 23, 2018
”Again I heard the cry, and I approached, circling the tree until I was looking at it from the opposite side. From gnarled roots to blasted top, the large trunk was split open, a dark wound where a bolt of lightning had rent it apart and fire had burned its center out, leaving it hollow. A mesh of thick vines grew upward from the base, crawling along the withered trunk, sutures trying to close the gaping wound where the sides lay back like flaps of charred flesh. The wind streamed through the gap, tugging the cuffs of my wet pants, brushing at the grass, tearing at the leaves of the new growth around the tree. Then I heard the cry again, and once more I froze, for I discovered the thing that voiced it, almost hidden behind the moving greenery.
I was looking at a human skull, and it was from behind the parted jaws that the screams came.”
Ned and Beth Constantine decide that they want to leave the bustle of New York City for the idyllic life in the country. They find this majestic fixer upper in the town of Cornwall Coombe for considerably less than they had expected to pay. The people of this quaint little town are eccentric, but friendly. Their daughter Kate can have a horse, Beth can learn new crafts, and Ned has plenty of beautiful landscapes and interesting faces to sketch for his burgeoning career in the galleries back in the city. The economy of Cornwall Coombe is driven by agriculture and the crops especially the corn has been yielding bumper returns.
Corn is what sustains them
Ned’s relationship with Beth went from being great to being amazing.
”I listened to her easy, rhythmic breathing, watched the rise and fall of her breast, my eye lingering on the rounded fullness of the pale flesh, the darker, almost carmine-colored tips under pleated translucent cotton. Though pillow-creased and sleepy, a trifle wan and strained, her face to me, sixteen years her husband was infinitely pleasing. I was not only her spouse, her lover, but her admirer as well, and I speculated as to how many married couples were as good friends as we were.”
Bette Davis as the Widow Fortune
So I wonder as the town begins to drive a wedge between them, as the Widow Fortune makes herself indispensable, as Ned begins to discover the pagan secrets of the town, and finds himself locked in a struggle with forces as old as the Earth, will he look back on this moment of contentment with nostalgia or will it just make the losses he is about to experience all the more painful?
The Widow Fortune wants control of Beth for reasons beyond anything a sane person could ever believe. Ned is starting to be a problem not only in her efforts with Beth, but also with his amateur detective work. The Widow Fortune asks Tamar Penrose to show an interest in Ned.
Tamar Penrose is a nuclear bomb of sexual attraction.
”I could smell her scent, not just the perfume but the whole womanly, feminine scent of her. I looked up, felt her hair brush across my eyes. I started to turn away; she leaned insistently and the red mouth came closer, the lips moist, parted. She kissed me. I slid an arm around her neck and held her mouth to mine. I released her in confusion, and she shuddered, burying her lips in my shirt collar, then stepping away. ‘I knew,’ she murmured, and her head nodded as though in private conversation. ‘I knew’”
Now there are some mitigating circumstances involving Ned’s fall from Grace. There was home made corn liquor served to excess and there are certainly mystical aspects to Tamar with her Medusa eyes and her red curls and her luscious curves.
”There was something about her that seemed not merely predatory but demanding. Hers were not just the requirements of the town doxy form the local turnip-heads behind a haystack. There was something else in her, a deeply ingrained sense of something primitive, of the Woman Eternal, who demanded to be served--not just between her legs but to make man utterly subservient. Tamar the castrator.”
Your only hope as a man is that she doesn’t want you that she has her sights set on someone else. Although the relief you may feel at being passed over will be tinged with disappointment. There are few men who would find her undesirable. She is a Marilyn Monroe times ten. She is a very dangerous woman to any small town because she can destabilize any marriage, any relationship. Beth is, of course, being kept apprised of all of Ned’s errrrhhhh activities.
”She stared back, saw, failed to recognize me. The stranger-husband. Each of us now was imprisoned behind the bars of mistrust, of doubt, of disappointment. What could heal the breach?”
Corn is god in Cornwall Coombe and as Ned learns more about their pagan rituals, the worshiping the earth and the Harvest Lord and the “plowing of the Corn Maiden’s field”, he becomes desperate to find out what exactly is going on. He needs evidence to bring the whole unsavory history of this town to light. There are missing bodies and there are found skeletons he just needs to tie them to the murderer.
And he wants his wife and child back.
”I vowed war on Her. I vowed death and destruction. New blood--for Her? It it came to that, I would set a torch to every barn in the village, to every field that grew a stalk of corn. I would pollute the earth with some poisonous substance that would kill Her. I would rust the blade of the plowshare, I would break the handles. I would make a wilderness of briars and weeds.”
Thomas Tryon
In 1978 NBC aired a mini-series called The Dark Secret of Harvest Home starring Bette Davis. Just the thought of Davis playing the Widow Fortune gave me a chill. There is so much more in the book than what I’ve related here. I didn’t even mention Tamar’s clairvoyant daughter Missy or the man who stumbles into town with his tongue cut out and his mouth sewn shut.
This was a much more dense book with a more elaborate plot than I was expecting. Just like he did with The Other Thomas Tryon surprised me again with what an adept writer he is. I need to quit thinking of him as an actor dabbling in fiction, but more as a writer dabbling in acting. Truly there is horror in watching the life of Ned Constantine unravel like a frayed rug. The ended has a great twist that made my skin crawl as if someone had just walked across my future grave. Highly recommended for the Halloween season.
For those that may have missed it here is my review of The Other by Thomas Tryon
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
I was looking at a human skull, and it was from behind the parted jaws that the screams came.”
Ned and Beth Constantine decide that they want to leave the bustle of New York City for the idyllic life in the country. They find this majestic fixer upper in the town of Cornwall Coombe for considerably less than they had expected to pay. The people of this quaint little town are eccentric, but friendly. Their daughter Kate can have a horse, Beth can learn new crafts, and Ned has plenty of beautiful landscapes and interesting faces to sketch for his burgeoning career in the galleries back in the city. The economy of Cornwall Coombe is driven by agriculture and the crops especially the corn has been yielding bumper returns.
Corn is what sustains them
Ned’s relationship with Beth went from being great to being amazing.
”I listened to her easy, rhythmic breathing, watched the rise and fall of her breast, my eye lingering on the rounded fullness of the pale flesh, the darker, almost carmine-colored tips under pleated translucent cotton. Though pillow-creased and sleepy, a trifle wan and strained, her face to me, sixteen years her husband was infinitely pleasing. I was not only her spouse, her lover, but her admirer as well, and I speculated as to how many married couples were as good friends as we were.”
Bette Davis as the Widow Fortune
So I wonder as the town begins to drive a wedge between them, as the Widow Fortune makes herself indispensable, as Ned begins to discover the pagan secrets of the town, and finds himself locked in a struggle with forces as old as the Earth, will he look back on this moment of contentment with nostalgia or will it just make the losses he is about to experience all the more painful?
The Widow Fortune wants control of Beth for reasons beyond anything a sane person could ever believe. Ned is starting to be a problem not only in her efforts with Beth, but also with his amateur detective work. The Widow Fortune asks Tamar Penrose to show an interest in Ned.
Tamar Penrose is a nuclear bomb of sexual attraction.
”I could smell her scent, not just the perfume but the whole womanly, feminine scent of her. I looked up, felt her hair brush across my eyes. I started to turn away; she leaned insistently and the red mouth came closer, the lips moist, parted. She kissed me. I slid an arm around her neck and held her mouth to mine. I released her in confusion, and she shuddered, burying her lips in my shirt collar, then stepping away. ‘I knew,’ she murmured, and her head nodded as though in private conversation. ‘I knew’”
Now there are some mitigating circumstances involving Ned’s fall from Grace. There was home made corn liquor served to excess and there are certainly mystical aspects to Tamar with her Medusa eyes and her red curls and her luscious curves.
”There was something about her that seemed not merely predatory but demanding. Hers were not just the requirements of the town doxy form the local turnip-heads behind a haystack. There was something else in her, a deeply ingrained sense of something primitive, of the Woman Eternal, who demanded to be served--not just between her legs but to make man utterly subservient. Tamar the castrator.”
Your only hope as a man is that she doesn’t want you that she has her sights set on someone else. Although the relief you may feel at being passed over will be tinged with disappointment. There are few men who would find her undesirable. She is a Marilyn Monroe times ten. She is a very dangerous woman to any small town because she can destabilize any marriage, any relationship. Beth is, of course, being kept apprised of all of Ned’s errrrhhhh activities.
”She stared back, saw, failed to recognize me. The stranger-husband. Each of us now was imprisoned behind the bars of mistrust, of doubt, of disappointment. What could heal the breach?”
Corn is god in Cornwall Coombe and as Ned learns more about their pagan rituals, the worshiping the earth and the Harvest Lord and the “plowing of the Corn Maiden’s field”, he becomes desperate to find out what exactly is going on. He needs evidence to bring the whole unsavory history of this town to light. There are missing bodies and there are found skeletons he just needs to tie them to the murderer.
And he wants his wife and child back.
”I vowed war on Her. I vowed death and destruction. New blood--for Her? It it came to that, I would set a torch to every barn in the village, to every field that grew a stalk of corn. I would pollute the earth with some poisonous substance that would kill Her. I would rust the blade of the plowshare, I would break the handles. I would make a wilderness of briars and weeds.”
Thomas Tryon
In 1978 NBC aired a mini-series called The Dark Secret of Harvest Home starring Bette Davis. Just the thought of Davis playing the Widow Fortune gave me a chill. There is so much more in the book than what I’ve related here. I didn’t even mention Tamar’s clairvoyant daughter Missy or the man who stumbles into town with his tongue cut out and his mouth sewn shut.
This was a much more dense book with a more elaborate plot than I was expecting. Just like he did with The Other Thomas Tryon surprised me again with what an adept writer he is. I need to quit thinking of him as an actor dabbling in fiction, but more as a writer dabbling in acting. Truly there is horror in watching the life of Ned Constantine unravel like a frayed rug. The ended has a great twist that made my skin crawl as if someone had just walked across my future grave. Highly recommended for the Halloween season.
For those that may have missed it here is my review of The Other by Thomas Tryon
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
March 7, 2019
This book was incredible! It was beautifully written and paced. The story successfully blends mankind's (or perhaps womankind's ) oldest themes with small town New England life- in the most creepy atmosphere possible. A slow burning tale involving a move from the city to a simple country life ruled by the land. These characters, the locals, were multi-layered and fascinating.
This is an example of why horror literature (that's right, I called it literature!), became so popular in America in the 80's. Authors like Thomas Tryon sparked the imagination of those horror writers that became the mainstream later on, like King or McCammon. Here, you can find the seeds of all that came later. Children of the Corn? It's here. Evil in a small town? It's here.
Some may find the subject to be dated or the denouement disappointing, but that wasn't the case with me. It was refreshingly, (mostly), gore free, while maintaining a humming level of tension throughout. I sat down and read the last hour and a half straight through. It was a wild ride and I highly recommend it!
This is an example of why horror literature (that's right, I called it literature!), became so popular in America in the 80's. Authors like Thomas Tryon sparked the imagination of those horror writers that became the mainstream later on, like King or McCammon. Here, you can find the seeds of all that came later. Children of the Corn? It's here. Evil in a small town? It's here.
Some may find the subject to be dated or the denouement disappointing, but that wasn't the case with me. It was refreshingly, (mostly), gore free, while maintaining a humming level of tension throughout. I sat down and read the last hour and a half straight through. It was a wild ride and I highly recommend it!
June 15, 2017
Harvest Home is an immersive experience above all things. A small family moves to the small village of Cornwall Coombe; strange things eventually occur. Eventually. Although marketed and designed as a slow-burning horror novel, the pleasures I took from this book were almost totally unconnected to the horror. When the horror comes - after hundreds of pages - it is wrenching and brutal. But before that, Tryon really gets inside this village, inside of its people and traditions and all of the interactions and day-to-day minutia of life in this cozily endearing, intriguing, eventually very real place. His writing style is decidedly literary, and so resists the standard mechanics of many horror narratives. Expect contemplation and rumination, lovely descriptions of nature, characterization that has surprising depth, and many admirable turns of phrase. Interesting mysteries rather than night terrors. His prose is more than technically proficient; it is genuinely impressive, particularly its lyrical qualities. I lived in this village alongside Harvest Home's narrator, and much like him, I was at first fascinated and then came to love the experience. And then, like him, I became slowly agitated and finally, horrified. (And also thrilled, but hey I'm not the narrator.)
Here's an excerpt from an entertaining review that describes the horror and the style perfectly (click on the link to get to the full review):
A Hollywood actor cast as a stalwart leading man type, sort of a faintly cheesier version of John Gavin or a more stiff and saturnine Rock Hudson. He never achieved the popularity his handlers clearly intended for him, and so turned to writing instead. For that, I'm glad! Although I did enjoy his histrionics in Otto Preminger's The Cardinal. Angsty Hollywood hunks trying to be very, very serious are always entertaining and I have pleasant memories of a scene where he's whipped just cause he's trying to do the right thing. Poor Cardinal!
Here's an excerpt from an entertaining review that describes the horror and the style perfectly (click on the link to get to the full review):
...while there’s plenty of gasping and breast-clutching over nature’s beauty, it feels less jarring in a book that’s all about nature’s beauty being a dangerous deception. It takes a while, but by the time nature starts to show its teeth, Cornwall Coombe is such a quaint idyllic paradise that you’re in as deep a denial as the characters. Surely it can’t be as bad as all that? Let’s all just take a breath and be reasonable. Please?Who is Thomas Tryon?
A Hollywood actor cast as a stalwart leading man type, sort of a faintly cheesier version of John Gavin or a more stiff and saturnine Rock Hudson. He never achieved the popularity his handlers clearly intended for him, and so turned to writing instead. For that, I'm glad! Although I did enjoy his histrionics in Otto Preminger's The Cardinal. Angsty Hollywood hunks trying to be very, very serious are always entertaining and I have pleasant memories of a scene where he's whipped just cause he's trying to do the right thing. Poor Cardinal!
August 21, 2024
The Eternal Return...
Thus It Was Since Olden Times
HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tryon
No spoilers: 5 stars. I've read a lot of horror stories, and I consider HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tryon to be up near the top of the list, just behind THE CEREMONIES by T.E.D. Klein...
See what you think...
Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and daughter Kate move from bustling New York to the quaint farming hamlet of Cornwall Coombe where all life revolves around the corn crop...
The family arrives in the Coombe at the start of the Harvest Home rites, which happen every seven years... the Constantines try to assimilate into the community as well as understand the reason for the season...
Cornwall Coombe is nestled among small hills near a river... it is a farming community with old farms and silos and fences of stone...
... if you cross the Lost Whistle bridge, you'll be in the taboo Soakes's Lonesome woods... the Soakes family operate a moonshine still there, and it is believed their woods are haunted...
The seventh year is special and sacred to the Coombe; six years there's just feastin' and carryin' on, but on the seventh year, Harvest Home is celebrated...
... townsfolk chose a Harvest Lord six years ago, and he, in turn, has chosen his Corn Maiden... the townsfolk will celebrate with...
... Planting Day, the Spring Festival, Midsummer's Eve, Agnes Fair, the Corn Husking Bee, Kindling Night, and finally...
... Harvest Home will complete the festivities... taking place at midnight by moonlight across the river in the woods and groves of Soakes's Lonesome...
What is Harvest Home, you ask? It is when secrets are revealed... secrets that no man may know nor woman tell...
... It is the Eternal Return... time to make the corn... as it has been done since olden times...
This is an excellent, intricately woven tale where the author did some thorough research on Demeter, goddess of the harvest; very similar to the research T.E.D. Klein did for his classic horror novel, THE CEREMONIES.
For those reading HARVEST HOME for the first time, a little pep talk: the story slowly meanders along until you are at 50%, then it begins to move like a swift river until the end.
This novel was made into a made-for-TV movie starring Bette Davis in the 1970s called THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST HOME. It is somewhat obscure, but if you find a copy of it, it follows the book pretty closely.
Thus It Was Since Olden Times
HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tryon
No spoilers: 5 stars. I've read a lot of horror stories, and I consider HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tryon to be up near the top of the list, just behind THE CEREMONIES by T.E.D. Klein...
See what you think...
Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and daughter Kate move from bustling New York to the quaint farming hamlet of Cornwall Coombe where all life revolves around the corn crop...
The family arrives in the Coombe at the start of the Harvest Home rites, which happen every seven years... the Constantines try to assimilate into the community as well as understand the reason for the season...
Cornwall Coombe is nestled among small hills near a river... it is a farming community with old farms and silos and fences of stone...
... if you cross the Lost Whistle bridge, you'll be in the taboo Soakes's Lonesome woods... the Soakes family operate a moonshine still there, and it is believed their woods are haunted...
The seventh year is special and sacred to the Coombe; six years there's just feastin' and carryin' on, but on the seventh year, Harvest Home is celebrated...
... townsfolk chose a Harvest Lord six years ago, and he, in turn, has chosen his Corn Maiden... the townsfolk will celebrate with...
... Planting Day, the Spring Festival, Midsummer's Eve, Agnes Fair, the Corn Husking Bee, Kindling Night, and finally...
... Harvest Home will complete the festivities... taking place at midnight by moonlight across the river in the woods and groves of Soakes's Lonesome...
What is Harvest Home, you ask? It is when secrets are revealed... secrets that no man may know nor woman tell...
... It is the Eternal Return... time to make the corn... as it has been done since olden times...
This is an excellent, intricately woven tale where the author did some thorough research on Demeter, goddess of the harvest; very similar to the research T.E.D. Klein did for his classic horror novel, THE CEREMONIES.
For those reading HARVEST HOME for the first time, a little pep talk: the story slowly meanders along until you are at 50%, then it begins to move like a swift river until the end.
This novel was made into a made-for-TV movie starring Bette Davis in the 1970s called THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST HOME. It is somewhat obscure, but if you find a copy of it, it follows the book pretty closely.
October 30, 2023
HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tryon
Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: First time. Want to read The Others next
Affiliate Link: https://a.co/d/4tvh6o2 (Kindle Unlimited!)
Release Date: (June 1973)
General Genre: Horror, (location: New England), Witchcraft, Occult, Folk Horror
Sub-Genre/Themes: Rural, isolated village, old religion/belief system, rituals & festivals, marriage, infidelity, murder mystery, secrets & lies, outsiders
Writing Style: Compelling, detailed, fast-paced, intricately plotted
What You Need to Know: This is available on Kindle Unlimited and that’s how I read it, as an eBook. I have 20 Notes and 49 Highlights on Goodreads if you’re interested. It was fun!
My Reading Experience: This book is DELICIOUS. I had so much fun reading it. I spent almost an entire Saturday highlighting and notetaking and writing updates because this is the blueprint of modern folk horror. All of it is right here in this book.
Rural setting (check)
Small town or village (check)
Secretive religion (check)
New people move in (check)
They ignore all the quirky behaviors (check)
Trying to fit in, they allow themselves to get drawn in (check)
Festivals, rituals, traditions, (check, check, check)
AND THEN…
Everything goes off the rails just like you want it to–exactly how you were hoping it would. Thomas Tryon delivers.
The folks that live in Cornwall, Coombe have been there for a long, long time. Ned, Beth and their daughter Kate move into their dream home (the beginning scenes with the house and moving in are VIBES)
Tryon leaves the reader with so many breadcrumbs, dropping loads of clues in the form of red flags. The kids in the village don’t go to school, they are warned several times that they have to get on board with their traditions and beliefs, and there is a clear emphasis on corn farming that seems very extra. Of course, they ignore all the red flags because this is HORROR!
I loved the descriptions of the town preparing for their Corn Festival with their choosing of the Harvest Lord and the Corn Maiden and anticipating “Kindling Night”. Ugh, folk horror at its BEST.
Never a dull moment. Especially once things start sliding off the rails into total madness.
**One trigger for rape. There is a sexual assault scene that kind of comes out of nowhere and it’s pretty graphic. It’s a complicated scene because the male character has intent and the female character is not exactly in a position of victimhood. Anyway, just thought I’d put it out there. There are a lot of sex acts in this book honestly, so just be aware. I didn’t mind it. It served the story, in my opinion.
Final Recommendation: Quintessential folk horror. This is literally everything you could ever want if you're a fan of the genre. It was pleasently kinky, deliciously eerie and all kinds of messed up.
Comps: MIDSOMMAR (film 2019), Children of the Corn by Stephen King, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, White Pines by Gemma Amor, The Wicker Man (film 1973) The Reddening by Adam Nevill
Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: First time. Want to read The Others next
Affiliate Link: https://a.co/d/4tvh6o2 (Kindle Unlimited!)
Release Date: (June 1973)
General Genre: Horror, (location: New England), Witchcraft, Occult, Folk Horror
Sub-Genre/Themes: Rural, isolated village, old religion/belief system, rituals & festivals, marriage, infidelity, murder mystery, secrets & lies, outsiders
Writing Style: Compelling, detailed, fast-paced, intricately plotted
What You Need to Know: This is available on Kindle Unlimited and that’s how I read it, as an eBook. I have 20 Notes and 49 Highlights on Goodreads if you’re interested. It was fun!
My Reading Experience: This book is DELICIOUS. I had so much fun reading it. I spent almost an entire Saturday highlighting and notetaking and writing updates because this is the blueprint of modern folk horror. All of it is right here in this book.
Rural setting (check)
Small town or village (check)
Secretive religion (check)
New people move in (check)
They ignore all the quirky behaviors (check)
Trying to fit in, they allow themselves to get drawn in (check)
Festivals, rituals, traditions, (check, check, check)
AND THEN…
Everything goes off the rails just like you want it to–exactly how you were hoping it would. Thomas Tryon delivers.
The folks that live in Cornwall, Coombe have been there for a long, long time. Ned, Beth and their daughter Kate move into their dream home (the beginning scenes with the house and moving in are VIBES)
Tryon leaves the reader with so many breadcrumbs, dropping loads of clues in the form of red flags. The kids in the village don’t go to school, they are warned several times that they have to get on board with their traditions and beliefs, and there is a clear emphasis on corn farming that seems very extra. Of course, they ignore all the red flags because this is HORROR!
I loved the descriptions of the town preparing for their Corn Festival with their choosing of the Harvest Lord and the Corn Maiden and anticipating “Kindling Night”. Ugh, folk horror at its BEST.
Never a dull moment. Especially once things start sliding off the rails into total madness.
**One trigger for rape. There is a sexual assault scene that kind of comes out of nowhere and it’s pretty graphic. It’s a complicated scene because the male character has intent and the female character is not exactly in a position of victimhood. Anyway, just thought I’d put it out there. There are a lot of sex acts in this book honestly, so just be aware. I didn’t mind it. It served the story, in my opinion.
Final Recommendation: Quintessential folk horror. This is literally everything you could ever want if you're a fan of the genre. It was pleasently kinky, deliciously eerie and all kinds of messed up.
Comps: MIDSOMMAR (film 2019), Children of the Corn by Stephen King, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, White Pines by Gemma Amor, The Wicker Man (film 1973) The Reddening by Adam Nevill
August 15, 2022
This is a tough one to rate!
I decided to settle on 3.5 stars because I did like some of the twists at the end.
Harvest Home has quite a few things about it that I enjoyed, along with some issues that would have made it a better reading experience for me.
The book is about Cornwall Coombe, a small rural community in Connecticut. This community is very close and they're all about farming and living a simple life.
The community is very isolated from everyone and there's some incestral shenanigans going on since the community is so small. For instance, you wouldn't be surprised if a second cousin married another second cousin. 😱
And of course, they’re all about the corn.
Holy shit, don't f!¢k with their corn harvest.
Our main characters, Ned & Beth drive through the countryside and fall in love with the small community.
Ned is an artist. He would love to paint while living in Cornwall Coombe. While driving through the small town, they see a beautiful old home that they would love to renovate.
They reach out to the neighbors and community to see if they can buy the house and move there.
Because here's the thing, not anyone can move to Cornwall Coombe.
They are very particular about who lives in their community and this is not a racial or immigration issue in case you are wondering. This is something else entirely and I can't explain it because it's very spoiler like.
Ned & Beth get the green light to move to Cornwall Coombe. They are excited!
The married couple are living in New York City and want to get out of the rat race. They also have a daughter with bad asthma and are hoping the healthier setting will help her thrive and get better.
I enjoyed the writing by Thomas Tryon. His writing is more old school and it takes a bit to settle in when you start one of his books. His plots are a slow build and I knew this after reading The Other.
I'm okay with a story evolving over time, as long as I'm invested in the plot and characters.
But my two biggest complaints with this book are length and pacing.
While reading this, I would have had a better reading experience if it had been shorter and some of the extra details on Cornwall Coombe were left out. It also would be better if the plot was not so slooooooow before we get to the 'shock and awe' moments.
Harvest Home just took too long for the plot twists to come and when they did, they didn't work as well for me like The Other.
I stilled enjoyed them, especially the one at the end. It leaves you with some "what the f!¢k" moments! 🤣😂
Would I recommend this one? Yes!
If you love slow moving plots with some epic and twisty moments, you might enjoy this one. If this pace sounds excruciating to you, you might struggle.
I decided to settle on 3.5 stars because I did like some of the twists at the end.
Harvest Home has quite a few things about it that I enjoyed, along with some issues that would have made it a better reading experience for me.
The book is about Cornwall Coombe, a small rural community in Connecticut. This community is very close and they're all about farming and living a simple life.
The community is very isolated from everyone and there's some incestral shenanigans going on since the community is so small. For instance, you wouldn't be surprised if a second cousin married another second cousin. 😱
And of course, they’re all about the corn.
Holy shit, don't f!¢k with their corn harvest.
Our main characters, Ned & Beth drive through the countryside and fall in love with the small community.
Ned is an artist. He would love to paint while living in Cornwall Coombe. While driving through the small town, they see a beautiful old home that they would love to renovate.
They reach out to the neighbors and community to see if they can buy the house and move there.
Because here's the thing, not anyone can move to Cornwall Coombe.
They are very particular about who lives in their community and this is not a racial or immigration issue in case you are wondering. This is something else entirely and I can't explain it because it's very spoiler like.
Ned & Beth get the green light to move to Cornwall Coombe. They are excited!
The married couple are living in New York City and want to get out of the rat race. They also have a daughter with bad asthma and are hoping the healthier setting will help her thrive and get better.
I enjoyed the writing by Thomas Tryon. His writing is more old school and it takes a bit to settle in when you start one of his books. His plots are a slow build and I knew this after reading The Other.
I'm okay with a story evolving over time, as long as I'm invested in the plot and characters.
But my two biggest complaints with this book are length and pacing.
While reading this, I would have had a better reading experience if it had been shorter and some of the extra details on Cornwall Coombe were left out. It also would be better if the plot was not so slooooooow before we get to the 'shock and awe' moments.
Harvest Home just took too long for the plot twists to come and when they did, they didn't work as well for me like The Other.
I stilled enjoyed them, especially the one at the end. It leaves you with some "what the f!¢k" moments! 🤣😂
Would I recommend this one? Yes!
If you love slow moving plots with some epic and twisty moments, you might enjoy this one. If this pace sounds excruciating to you, you might struggle.
October 29, 2014
It’s hard to understand why Tryon’s second book still isn’t in print today. Harvest Home was his only other horror novel besides The Other, and it’s a doozy. Set in a sleepy Connecticut village, it kicks off with artist Ned, his wife, and their daughter ditching dirty old New York City for the rural paradise of Cornwall Coombe, which appears to be the town that time forgot. In a trope that readers will by now be all-too-familiar with, it turns out that the town takes its corn harvest a little too seriously.
Today, this kind of rural horror, where pagan fertility rituals crash into city slickers with their framed country quilts and adorable folk art museums, seems pretty common, but in the early ’70s it was not. Tryon’s Harvest Home is a great big galumph of a book that’s in no hurry to get anywhere. Clocking in at over 400 pages, it’s the kind of leisurely read that reflects its setting, Cornwall Coombe, where nothing ever seems to happen faster than a horse-drawn cart, and where life is slow, gentle, quiet, and “real.” Fortunately, Tryon is a much more confident writer this time around and while there’s plenty of gasping and breast-clutching over nature’s beauty, it feels less jarring in a book that’s all about nature’s beauty being a dangerous deception. It takes a while, but by the time nature starts to show its teeth, you’re in as deep a denial as the characters. Surely it can’t be as bad as all that? Let’s all just take a breath and be reasonable. Please?
Read the rest of this review.
Today, this kind of rural horror, where pagan fertility rituals crash into city slickers with their framed country quilts and adorable folk art museums, seems pretty common, but in the early ’70s it was not. Tryon’s Harvest Home is a great big galumph of a book that’s in no hurry to get anywhere. Clocking in at over 400 pages, it’s the kind of leisurely read that reflects its setting, Cornwall Coombe, where nothing ever seems to happen faster than a horse-drawn cart, and where life is slow, gentle, quiet, and “real.” Fortunately, Tryon is a much more confident writer this time around and while there’s plenty of gasping and breast-clutching over nature’s beauty, it feels less jarring in a book that’s all about nature’s beauty being a dangerous deception. It takes a while, but by the time nature starts to show its teeth, you’re in as deep a denial as the characters. Surely it can’t be as bad as all that? Let’s all just take a breath and be reasonable. Please?
Read the rest of this review.
October 15, 2021
"What happens on Harvest Home?...What no man may know nor woman tell."
I read Harvest Home as part of the Night Shift Halloween reed-a-thon. If you're looking for an awesome group to discuss all things horror, strictly no romance, then you could do worse than checking out this excellent group. But enough of the shameless plugging and back to the book in question...Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home.
The story itself follows the Constantine family who are fleeing the city for a life in rural New England, where the inhabitants whole life revolves around the cycle of the corn crop. They soon become involved in the traditions and customs, but all is not as it seems. Tyron creates a constant mood of unease and discomfort. There's some heavy Wicker Man vibes going on here and I recall reading somewhere that the book did serve as inspiration for the movie.
"Folks around here are dumb enough to believe all kinds of things. I guess ghosts are the least of 'em."
I've somewhat mixed feelings on this book. I will say that most of those feelings sway towards the good. However, this story is the slowest of slow burns. It took me back to my boy scout days of trying to start camp fires. No matter the quality of the flint or wood I could not for the life of me get that baby going. That in effect is Harvest Home. Some of it is used for effect and the rest is Tryon get carried away in his highly descriptive prose. If you've not got a degree of patience and want instant frills then this is definitely not the book for you.
So here's where we get to the good stuff. While we're on the subject of prose they are beautiful. Tryon writes this style of story, the country life, with ridiculous authenticity. It's uncommon in the horror genre and a pleasure to read. The dialogue has a genuine quality and provides a very immersive experience.
The quality of writing helps paint a vivid landscape. The village of Cornwall-Coombe is a living breathing entity, with its myriad of component parts, that I loved spending time in. You can picture it and the inhabitants so vividly. The level of craft is impressive and you can't help but feel that Tryon has lived and breathed the life he is describing.
"Who was I? Who were they? The villagers of Cornwall Coombe; and I an alien, an outsider, never to be an insider."
There's a wide array of characters that breathe life into the village and although I wasn't overly endeared by the main character of Ned Constantine and his family, I found some of the side characters to be highly memorable. None more so than the Widow Fortune who provides one of the great characters of horror literature. She really is a piece of work and absolutely fascinating.
Tyron builds the narrative, albeit very slowly, to a crazy and very memorable finish. So there's definitely a payoff in store should you stick with it. Is it worth it? That's debatable. Personally, I would say it is and that this is very well crafted story.
Final thoughts...a solid four star red that had potential for a full five if not for the pacing issues and a few issues with the main character. I can definitely see how this book provided inspiration for all those other small town horror tales. If you like the sound of it then definitely give it a try.
"Come Harvest Home you take what there is - too late for repentance."
Tom Tryon
November 21, 2014
Dude has some talent as a writer but dear god this was a slow moving story. I had to DNF halfway through. If it were any slower I could have accidentally traveled back in time. I can't risk that right now.
September 20, 2012
I'd give it three and a half stars if I could. The book is very good and has a timelessness that I don't often find in novels as old as this one (1973), but ultimately it suffers from two problems that prevent me from giving it four or five stars. First, it just takes too long to get to the real meat of the narrative. The narrator doesn't begin to suspect the town is more sinister than it appears until almost three quarters of the book (300 pages) have passed. Tryon's prose is engaging, but his pacing isn't as good as his description. Second, the narrator does some very weird things toward the end that both seem contrary to his character and considerably reduce the reader's sympathy for him. [MAJOR SPOILERS] I can't say that if I'd just uncovered a twenty-year-old plot to murder a girl and fake her suicide, my first reaction would be to go skinny dipping and then violently rape* the woman trying to ruin my marriage. Perhaps the knowledge of the murder deranged him, but they both seem like strange choices to make when what he really ought to be doing is convincing his wife and daughter to help him pack the car.
EDIT: I should add that there is one other big character issue that is frustrating me a little. To me, the real source of threat throughout the entire story is the danger to young people--especially girls--represented by A) what really happened to Grace Everdeen and B) the presence and well-established frailty of Ned's daughter. It seems completely out of character, given his concern for Kate at the beginning of the book, that Ned is not more concerned about her well-being in the middle and at the end. Instead of trying to locate and extricate his daughter from the danger represented by the upcoming Harvet Home ritual (he does this in a shallow way during the dance scene, but it is never more urgently revisited as things go from bad to worse), he seems more interested in simply understanding the secret ritual being kept from him.
Ultimately, the end works well and it is clear how many modern horror writers and film makers Tryon has inspired with this book. I really enjoyed it, but it's not without its warts.
*Also, the character's internal monologue during the rape where he imagines killing his (willing) victim with his dick was perfectly ridiculous.
EDIT: I should add that there is one other big character issue that is frustrating me a little. To me, the real source of threat throughout the entire story is the danger to young people--especially girls--represented by A) what really happened to Grace Everdeen and B) the presence and well-established frailty of Ned's daughter. It seems completely out of character, given his concern for Kate at the beginning of the book, that Ned is not more concerned about her well-being in the middle and at the end. Instead of trying to locate and extricate his daughter from the danger represented by the upcoming Harvet Home ritual (he does this in a shallow way during the dance scene, but it is never more urgently revisited as things go from bad to worse), he seems more interested in simply understanding the secret ritual being kept from him.
Ultimately, the end works well and it is clear how many modern horror writers and film makers Tryon has inspired with this book. I really enjoyed it, but it's not without its warts.
*Also, the character's internal monologue during the rape where he imagines killing his (willing) victim with his dick was perfectly ridiculous.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2011
I wasn't sure if I'd be able to write this review, because after I finished Harvest Home, I curled into a fetal position and stayed there for three days. Ordinarily, I would have welcomed the chance to rest, but there is no rest for readers of this book. Just delicious, unrelenting insomnia. I don't scare easily, but when I do, it's thrilling. There's no cure for 21st century malaise like sheer terror. And Harvest Home is terrifying in its tone, imagery, and plot.
I'm surprised Tom Tryon isn't as well known as Ira Levin and Stephen King as a master of horror, because this book is easily as good as the best of their work. I'm eager to read his other books, but not before laying in a hefty supply of muscle relaxers and sleeping pills. I doubt the resulting nightmares will be as interesting as Tryon's stories, but hope springs eternal.
I'm surprised Tom Tryon isn't as well known as Ira Levin and Stephen King as a master of horror, because this book is easily as good as the best of their work. I'm eager to read his other books, but not before laying in a hefty supply of muscle relaxers and sleeping pills. I doubt the resulting nightmares will be as interesting as Tryon's stories, but hope springs eternal.
November 5, 2015
While rehabbing his "new" three hundred year old house and adjusting to country life from The Big Apple, Ned feels there is something not quite right in the small town of Cornwall Coombe and is determined to get to the bottom of it......at all costs!
Together with mysterious deaths and the screaming skull apparition in the cornfield, Ned begins to question his own sanity as well as the Old Widow Fortune's medicinal elixirs. When the whole town turns against him and his modern ways, he unfortunately learns the true meaning of the ultimate warning: "Beware the night......the all-prevailing night"
Although rather slow-going in the beginning, it changes course midway with a repulsive turn of events resulting in a creepy good October read!
May 12, 2020
A book that answers the question, "What if Stephen King was an incel?"
I was genuinely shocked to check out Goodreads after finishing this book to see so many glowing reviews. Sure, it's not without it's charms - the setting is extremely vivid, the atmosphere captures the folksy, insular nature of the rural northeast, and the last hundred pages or so are quite gripping - but the misogyny that runs through the veins of this book is too much. I almost gave up at the graphically, almost lovingly described sexual violence in the final third of the book, but I was roped in by the sunk-cost fallacy. Or should I say phallus-y?
Up until that scene, Harvest Home's big drawbacks were it's molasses-slow pacing and awful protagonist. The pacing I didn't mind so much: it helps give the sense of an old time-y town where nothing much of interest happens and change never comes, almost like Brigadoon. However, the protagonist, Ned, wore on my nerves. It's clear that Tryon thought highly of Ned: an artist who nevertheless can connect with simple farm folk, a stalwart family man who still regularly gets it on with his wife well into their decade-and-a-half long marriage. Tryon favors the reader with accounts of Ned's sexual exploits with shocking regularity.
In addition to his virility, Ned gains the trust and respect of the insular villagers for no reason that I could discern. He fights back-to-back with the manliest man in town, is taken under the wing of the village matriarch, and is immediately lusted after by the town Jezebel. But why? That's probably the biggest mystery of Harvest Home, as Ned manages to be bland and infuriating in equal measure.
IDK, man. If you're reading this review and thinking of picking up Harvest Home, don't. Put it out of your mind. There are so many excellent books out there, and life is short. Don't sacrifice yourself to Thomas Tryon.
I was genuinely shocked to check out Goodreads after finishing this book to see so many glowing reviews. Sure, it's not without it's charms - the setting is extremely vivid, the atmosphere captures the folksy, insular nature of the rural northeast, and the last hundred pages or so are quite gripping - but the misogyny that runs through the veins of this book is too much. I almost gave up at the graphically, almost lovingly described sexual violence in the final third of the book, but I was roped in by the sunk-cost fallacy. Or should I say phallus-y?
Up until that scene, Harvest Home's big drawbacks were it's molasses-slow pacing and awful protagonist. The pacing I didn't mind so much: it helps give the sense of an old time-y town where nothing much of interest happens and change never comes, almost like Brigadoon. However, the protagonist, Ned, wore on my nerves. It's clear that Tryon thought highly of Ned: an artist who nevertheless can connect with simple farm folk, a stalwart family man who still regularly gets it on with his wife well into their decade-and-a-half long marriage. Tryon favors the reader with accounts of Ned's sexual exploits with shocking regularity.
In addition to his virility, Ned gains the trust and respect of the insular villagers for no reason that I could discern. He fights back-to-back with the manliest man in town, is taken under the wing of the village matriarch, and is immediately lusted after by the town Jezebel. But why? That's probably the biggest mystery of Harvest Home, as Ned manages to be bland and infuriating in equal measure.
IDK, man. If you're reading this review and thinking of picking up Harvest Home, don't. Put it out of your mind. There are so many excellent books out there, and life is short. Don't sacrifice yourself to Thomas Tryon.
Read
October 1, 2021Well.....I tried with this book, but it is too much of a slow burn for me. There were a couple of freaky things that happened around the 21%/23% mark of the book, but when a book drags along and I am falling asleep which I did some last night when trying to get through it, I know it is time to put it down.
Lots of characters too within the story, but not enough suspense and tension to keep me invested in it. Maybe it is the mood I am in too - for now it is just not for me. Maybe down the road I will pick it back up. Also just because I wasn't into it doesn't mean that other people won't be. Different strokes for different folks. As with books I give a "dnf" on there will be no rating as I don't rate books I don't finish.
Lots of characters too within the story, but not enough suspense and tension to keep me invested in it. Maybe it is the mood I am in too - for now it is just not for me. Maybe down the road I will pick it back up. Also just because I wasn't into it doesn't mean that other people won't be. Different strokes for different folks. As with books I give a "dnf" on there will be no rating as I don't rate books I don't finish.
October 31, 2020
"When you hear that bell, you make sure you're to home." He touched his fingers to my arm. "And son," he added, almost an afterthought, "make sure you stay there."
Well . . . he can't say he wasn't warned!
For a while there, things seem pretty idyllic when a new family moves to a quaint little New England town that time seems to have forgotten.
" . . . there's a sort of timelessness about Cornwall Coombe that often strikes outsiders - or even newcomers - as unusual."
Despite the fact that it is 1972, many in the town still get around by means of a horse and buggy.
"You get plenty of resistance around here to new ways. I suppose Cornwall Coombe's always been a world unto itself."
The uncannily prescient townsfolk seem to have predicted that corn would one day be added to just about everything Americans eat, and they not only grow it, they kinda worship it. And, therein lies the secret of Harvest Home, a shrouded celebration that many love, and some do not survive.
"What no man may know nor woman tell."
There's a delightful eeriness to this book, and a terrible sense of foreboding that put me in mind of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. It's a slow, simmering read, but the pacing is good, and the ending is terrific. I'm glad I finally found a genuinely creepy book to round out my Spooktober reads!
Well . . . he can't say he wasn't warned!
For a while there, things seem pretty idyllic when a new family moves to a quaint little New England town that time seems to have forgotten.
" . . . there's a sort of timelessness about Cornwall Coombe that often strikes outsiders - or even newcomers - as unusual."
Despite the fact that it is 1972, many in the town still get around by means of a horse and buggy.
"You get plenty of resistance around here to new ways. I suppose Cornwall Coombe's always been a world unto itself."
The uncannily prescient townsfolk seem to have predicted that corn would one day be added to just about everything Americans eat, and they not only grow it, they kinda worship it. And, therein lies the secret of Harvest Home, a shrouded celebration that many love, and some do not survive.
"What no man may know nor woman tell."
There's a delightful eeriness to this book, and a terrible sense of foreboding that put me in mind of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. It's a slow, simmering read, but the pacing is good, and the ending is terrific. I'm glad I finally found a genuinely creepy book to round out my Spooktober reads!
November 6, 2014
This book remains one of the most unsettling ones I've read, due to the way the 'horror" creeps up on you. When you consider the year this book was written, it shows that Tryon really captured something unique for his time.
Re-read 11/2014; rating stands at 5 stars. :)
Re-read 11/2014; rating stands at 5 stars. :)
May 24, 2010
Can I give this book negative stars? My mom gave me book to read, she read it forty years ago and remembered loving it. Upon rereading we both agreed that it was very sad (and shocking) that it was ever a best seller. Page upon page of useless detail chronicling the passage of time that did not need to be chronicled. Ned, the main character, was a narcissist (not intentionally), none of the teenagers acted anything like teenagers, especially Ned's daughter. At first I chalked up the sexism in the book to the time period of the book, but by the time I finally reached the end of the book, had turned into full out abhorrence of women. I've never read the words "the women" and felt so rage, hatred, and disgust by the author. Talk about an execrable distortion of pagan nature worship, ancient fertility ceremonies, and the role of women in the cycle of rebirth and motherhood. For a brief moment I thought Tryon and Ned were going to redeem themselves but then it just got a whole lot more demeaning. The writing itself was nothing special, the characters were one-dimensional and there were too many superfluous ones, and the plot was weak to say the least. I found the book dull instead of suspenseful and frightening. The only good thing I can say about it is that once you dig through all the crap, the basic premise that the author was aiming for would have made an intriguing story if Tryon had known how to storytell and hadn't turned goddess worship into an affront to his manlihood.
April 15, 2017
This is my Book Of the Month- September 2016 with GR group- Horror Aficionados
A very reluctant 3 stars as I can say I did like it, kind of.....
There were many times while reading this when I felt I just don't want to go on but I had heard that there is a great twist at the end which is worth reading.
So was this worth reading? Well, the ending is definitely weird and had me creeped out. Even when I finished this and few days had passed by, thinking about the ending and what all happened made me feel sad for
The whole of Cornwall Coombe is soo cosy and ideal for country living but when the reality starts to sink in it's just too late...
Widow Fortune- How can a sweet old helpful lady be evil?
"I cursed and damned Her, and I swore that She would not win against me."
The first 60% of the book is really slow and you have got to have the patience to continue it but in the last 40% it all comes together and is rather what I was looking for all along.
After reading this book, I don't think I will be eating corn for a long time to come!!
A very reluctant 3 stars as I can say I did like it, kind of.....
There were many times while reading this when I felt I just don't want to go on but I had heard that there is a great twist at the end which is worth reading.
So was this worth reading? Well, the ending is definitely weird and had me creeped out. Even when I finished this and few days had passed by, thinking about the ending and what all happened made me feel sad for
The whole of Cornwall Coombe is soo cosy and ideal for country living but when the reality starts to sink in it's just too late...
Widow Fortune- How can a sweet old helpful lady be evil?
"I cursed and damned Her, and I swore that She would not win against me."
The first 60% of the book is really slow and you have got to have the patience to continue it but in the last 40% it all comes together and is rather what I was looking for all along.
After reading this book, I don't think I will be eating corn for a long time to come!!
October 18, 2023
Allora....e già se uno parte così non ci si può aspettare qualcosa di buono.
Siamo in un villaggio del New England , dove tutto e dico tutto, ruota attorno al granoturco, dalla coltivazione alle feste in onore della "pannocchia".
Ho letto qualche recensione che paragonava questo testo a quelli di Shirley Jackson e mo me spiego del perché non mi ha preso 😅...
Dai, a parte gli scherzi, le prime 300 pagine na noia mortale, non si arrivava a nulla, quando sembrava stesse per succedere qualcosa.....niente di niente e infatti ci ho messo un sacco a leggerlo. Poi, un po' perché mi sentivo in difetto (il gruppo carbonaro lo aveva già concluso) un po' perché avevo voglia di levarmelo dalle pannocchie gli ho dato il colpo finale....e 200 pagine sono volate, tra una palpebra cascante e qualche caffè.
Alla fine mi sento di dargliele 3 stellette, qualcosa succede anche se abbastanza citofonato, i personaggi abbastanza odiosi, l'unico che si salvava, che non era stato plasmato dal granoturco.....SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER muore e in un modo atroce.
Alcune scene poi, nemmeno nei peggiori Harmony che ha in negozio la mia parrucchiera.
Vah facciamo che le stelle sono 2 e mezza pannocchietta
Siamo in un villaggio del New England , dove tutto e dico tutto, ruota attorno al granoturco, dalla coltivazione alle feste in onore della "pannocchia".
Ho letto qualche recensione che paragonava questo testo a quelli di Shirley Jackson e mo me spiego del perché non mi ha preso 😅...
Dai, a parte gli scherzi, le prime 300 pagine na noia mortale, non si arrivava a nulla, quando sembrava stesse per succedere qualcosa.....niente di niente e infatti ci ho messo un sacco a leggerlo. Poi, un po' perché mi sentivo in difetto (il gruppo carbonaro lo aveva già concluso) un po' perché avevo voglia di levarmelo dalle pannocchie gli ho dato il colpo finale....e 200 pagine sono volate, tra una palpebra cascante e qualche caffè.
Alla fine mi sento di dargliele 3 stellette, qualcosa succede anche se abbastanza citofonato, i personaggi abbastanza odiosi, l'unico che si salvava, che non era stato plasmato dal granoturco.....SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER muore e in un modo atroce.
Alcune scene poi, nemmeno nei peggiori Harmony che ha in negozio la mia parrucchiera.
Vah facciamo che le stelle sono 2 e mezza pannocchietta
September 24, 2016
I first read this about forty years ago and really loved it. I have long wanted to reread it to see if it could withstand the test of time of if my memory was playing tricks on me. Fortunately, the GR Horror Aficionados group chose it as their selection for September. It was an excellent way to usher in autumn.
Ned and Beth Constantine decide to quit the rat race and retire to the country but have trouble finding just the right place for them until they stumble upon Cornwall Coombe, a picturesque New England village off the beaten track that evokes images of Currier and Ives at harvest time. For the Constantines, it’s love at first sight and, together with their daughter Katy, they abandon New York for the pastoral village. For a time life seems to be a dream for them but before long Ned starts to see oddities in the behavior of the villagers and the kindly village matriarch, Widow Fortune. The more Ned digs, the more his dream life begins to turn into a nightmare.
On rereading Harvest Home, I found that the plot progressed a little more slowly than I remember it but, once things start rolling it gets thrilling, even when I know what will happen. What I enjoyed most the second time around were the many ways in which the story draws on . I think if I had been more familiar with this when I first read it I might have been able to see what was coming.
Bottom line: Even the second time around this was a great read, even though the character of Ned started to grate on me this time around.
Ned and Beth Constantine decide to quit the rat race and retire to the country but have trouble finding just the right place for them until they stumble upon Cornwall Coombe, a picturesque New England village off the beaten track that evokes images of Currier and Ives at harvest time. For the Constantines, it’s love at first sight and, together with their daughter Katy, they abandon New York for the pastoral village. For a time life seems to be a dream for them but before long Ned starts to see oddities in the behavior of the villagers and the kindly village matriarch, Widow Fortune. The more Ned digs, the more his dream life begins to turn into a nightmare.
On rereading Harvest Home, I found that the plot progressed a little more slowly than I remember it but, once things start rolling it gets thrilling, even when I know what will happen. What I enjoyed most the second time around were the many ways in which the story draws on . I think if I had been more familiar with this when I first read it I might have been able to see what was coming.
Bottom line: Even the second time around this was a great read, even though the character of Ned started to grate on me this time around.
January 27, 2023
Story 5/5
Narration 5/5
In my opinion, a good horror story should be built on a good character development, a good plot, and a sinister atmosphere.
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon is perfectly written. This is a very good one. The ending makes me want to kill certain characters. I’m furious!
What a good story.
I highly recommended it.
Narration 5/5
In my opinion, a good horror story should be built on a good character development, a good plot, and a sinister atmosphere.
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon is perfectly written. This is a very good one. The ending makes me want to kill certain characters. I’m furious!
What a good story.
I highly recommended it.
December 19, 2016
Please note that I gave this book 4.5 stars and rounded it up to 5 stars on Goodreads.
I read this for Halloween Bingo 2016 and for September's group read for the Horror Aficionados on Goodreads as well as for the Fall Fear Challenge.
Taking place in the early 1970s, a couple (Ned and Beth Constantine) and their young daughter (Kate) move to the small village of Cornwall Coombe in New England.
Told in the first person by Ned, we have him at first charmed and then dismayed by the village of Cornwall Coombe. Ned starts to ask questions about people who have come before, what in the world happened to a young girl that made her kill herself, and why is Harvest Home (a celebration that occurs) so essential to the village.
Ned is an aspiring painter, and his artistic bent is seen as setting him apart and a little above from the village full of farmers and farmers wives. However, after a while, Ned is seen as being a busy body who wants to meddle in things best left alone.
I did love the character of Ned, though after a while even I was like, dude, come on, stop. He kept pushing and pushing and digging into things because in his mind, even though he was a new comer, he saw the village and inhabitants as backwards except for a few friends he made (the Widow, his next door neighbors, and a young man who helps him out around his new home) and I think in his mind, if he could pry the mystery off of the village, then things would be better. That he could make the village more align with what he wanted for it. Ned gets spooked early on in the book by a young girl that the village claims can see into the future and from then on he seems to be running from a fate that he ends up bringing about.
What made me laugh, and ultimately what made the ending so satisfying, is that Ned really didn't think things through. He seemed to think that people didn't know what was going on and why. And though he was a man and was used to being in charge and decisive, it made him uncomfortable to see his wife and daughter growing apart from him, and women being in charge of this village.
I was fascinated by so many characters, and could have read about this village for hours. To see how Tyron tied a village in America, back to England, and even then back to something else I thought was pretty smart.
The writing was top notch throughout. The main reason why I didn't give this five stars though is that the book starts off slow (I mean really slow) and it takes a good long while before things start going. I think most readers would not even see this as a horror book at first because you start to feel after a while you are just reading about the day to day happenings in a small New England village and that's for a good 80 percent of the book before things take a turn.
The setting of Cornwall Coombe was perfectly done. I like how Tyron showed a town that was content to stay in the past and not change and how he throughout the story showed that change was going to come one way or another (he brings up a nearby commune, more and more young people wanting to move to New York and get away, one of the younger people in the village buying a tractor) to the village, and now my mind wonders about this fictional town and did it survive after the conclusion to the story. Could they go on with what they were doing or would they eventually have to move on from the old ways.
The ending answered so many questions and you know realize why one man in the town was reluctant to do much to help Ned. It would have been great to read a sequel and see how the town had gone on 7 years from the ending of this novel.
I can definitely see why it is a horror classic, and I really did enjoy this one a lot.
I read this for Halloween Bingo 2016 and for September's group read for the Horror Aficionados on Goodreads as well as for the Fall Fear Challenge.
Taking place in the early 1970s, a couple (Ned and Beth Constantine) and their young daughter (Kate) move to the small village of Cornwall Coombe in New England.
Told in the first person by Ned, we have him at first charmed and then dismayed by the village of Cornwall Coombe. Ned starts to ask questions about people who have come before, what in the world happened to a young girl that made her kill herself, and why is Harvest Home (a celebration that occurs) so essential to the village.
Ned is an aspiring painter, and his artistic bent is seen as setting him apart and a little above from the village full of farmers and farmers wives. However, after a while, Ned is seen as being a busy body who wants to meddle in things best left alone.
I did love the character of Ned, though after a while even I was like, dude, come on, stop. He kept pushing and pushing and digging into things because in his mind, even though he was a new comer, he saw the village and inhabitants as backwards except for a few friends he made (the Widow, his next door neighbors, and a young man who helps him out around his new home) and I think in his mind, if he could pry the mystery off of the village, then things would be better. That he could make the village more align with what he wanted for it. Ned gets spooked early on in the book by a young girl that the village claims can see into the future and from then on he seems to be running from a fate that he ends up bringing about.
What made me laugh, and ultimately what made the ending so satisfying, is that Ned really didn't think things through. He seemed to think that people didn't know what was going on and why. And though he was a man and was used to being in charge and decisive, it made him uncomfortable to see his wife and daughter growing apart from him, and women being in charge of this village.
I was fascinated by so many characters, and could have read about this village for hours. To see how Tyron tied a village in America, back to England, and even then back to something else I thought was pretty smart.
The writing was top notch throughout. The main reason why I didn't give this five stars though is that the book starts off slow (I mean really slow) and it takes a good long while before things start going. I think most readers would not even see this as a horror book at first because you start to feel after a while you are just reading about the day to day happenings in a small New England village and that's for a good 80 percent of the book before things take a turn.
The setting of Cornwall Coombe was perfectly done. I like how Tyron showed a town that was content to stay in the past and not change and how he throughout the story showed that change was going to come one way or another (he brings up a nearby commune, more and more young people wanting to move to New York and get away, one of the younger people in the village buying a tractor) to the village, and now my mind wonders about this fictional town and did it survive after the conclusion to the story. Could they go on with what they were doing or would they eventually have to move on from the old ways.
The ending answered so many questions and you know realize why one man in the town was reluctant to do much to help Ned. It would have been great to read a sequel and see how the town had gone on 7 years from the ending of this novel.
I can definitely see why it is a horror classic, and I really did enjoy this one a lot.
September 11, 2016
This book remains one of the most unsettling ones I've read, due to the way the 'horror" creeps up on you. When you consider the year this book was written, it shows that Tryon really captured something unique for his time.
Re-read 11/2014; rating stands at 5 stars. :)
Re-read 9/2016; rating 5 stars. :)
Re-read 11/2014; rating stands at 5 stars. :)
Re-read 9/2016; rating 5 stars. :)
April 2, 2018
I'll give this 2 stars as it is very well written but I (only) give it 2 stars as I don't care for this type of book. If you want a creeping belly drop horror with no redeeming qualities or anything uplifting in the ending to relieve the stress, only one that leaves the horror intact...this is your book.
It's not mine.
I read this at a time of what might be called "undue stress" anyway and it effected me very badly. I've got to say that due to the combination of the book's story and the situation I was in, this book probably left me more profoundly depressed than any other novel I can think of since childhood and Old Yeller'.
It only escapes a 1 star rating because I recognize that it is well written and my reaction won't be everyone's. This will be just what some of you are looking for. Still, a gut-wrenching story that stayed with me (negatively) for some time. I didn't read anything else by Tryon (though my wife wanted to see the movie of The Other, I found it almost as depressing and it was the movie) so...not my cup of tea, or hemlock if you will.
It's not mine.
I read this at a time of what might be called "undue stress" anyway and it effected me very badly. I've got to say that due to the combination of the book's story and the situation I was in, this book probably left me more profoundly depressed than any other novel I can think of since childhood and Old Yeller'.
It only escapes a 1 star rating because I recognize that it is well written and my reaction won't be everyone's. This will be just what some of you are looking for. Still, a gut-wrenching story that stayed with me (negatively) for some time. I didn't read anything else by Tryon (though my wife wanted to see the movie of The Other, I found it almost as depressing and it was the movie) so...not my cup of tea, or hemlock if you will.
October 15, 2016
About 10 years ago, we were driving to a small town in western PA to visit a friend's brother's glass-blowing studio. At some point we made a wrong turn and wound up on a rather neat looking street with perfectly mowed lawns, historic houses with large, comfortable-appearing front porches, and even an occasional picket fence or so. While beautiful and charming, it struck me that this was the sort of neighborhood that was its own community, and that they may not be so friendly towards outsiders. We hadn't particularly seen anyone, so that feeling was entirely unfounded, but I sometimes get a feel for the mood of a place and can tell when I'm not welcome.
Knowing we needed to turn around, we pulled into a driveway to quickly look at the map before moving on. As my partner did that, I looked around and saw in the passenger side rear view mirror a little girl standing across the street. She was just standing there, looking at us. Being a fan of horror movies, I expected to turn around in my seat to find that there was no one really there, and then turn back and look again in the mirror only to have her right there next to my window.
But she was really there, standing there across the street, staring at us silently. It was unnerving. I pointed her out to my partner and we both nervously giggled. There was something not quite right about the way this little girl was watching us. You'd think little girls in patent leather shoes couldn't be that bad, but obviously you have never seen a horror movie, nor do you have an overactive imagination. I know from my vast experience in the horror realm that children are full of evil.
A few moments later, confident in where we needed to go, we pulled out of the driveway (with a warning from me to make sure the little girl hadn't darted into the street behind us) and drove back down the street to get back to the main road. I watched the girl in the mirror the entire time and could see that she watched us the entire time as well. I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure she put a curse on us.
I thought about thatdevil's spawn little girl throughout reading this book. Ned and Beth and their asthmatic teenage daughter, Kate, have an opportunity to move into a Colonial house in Cornwall Coombe, a seemingly bucolic village. The price was right, the family loved it, and the neighbors... well, everyone mostly seems on board with the Constantines moving to town, but they are outsiders after all.
Over time, however, the Constantines really settle in and become a part of the community. There is a little girl in town who does point at Ned with her hands covered in the blood and viscera of chickens at one point which seems a bit unusual, at least to Ned, but everyone else is pretty okay with this.
I have a penchant for novels about strange communities that are closed to outsiders and are full of secrets. I chose that sort of setting for my "novel" I wrote two years ago for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Think Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and, well, a lot of Jackson's writing besides that one. Towns and villages that have these old ideas and traditions and don't like outsiders with all their city-thinkin'. Think the original movie (not the Nicholas Cage version, the 1973 Christopher Lee one) of The Wicker Man. I love that shit.
Because it feels so real in all of its creepy glory.
I love road trips, and I enjoy (usually) finding these old fashioned towns that have otherwise been forgotten by time. I like to imagine their stories, all of which involve some sort of sacrificial ceremony because that's what happens in all small towns, right?
I wasn't necessarily a fan of Tryon's characterizations here. Ned and his family are relatively well-written, and the little girl with the bloody hands is appropriately freaky (if not a bit stereotypical cause all mentally impaired children are considered freakish, y'know?), but everyone else sort of blurs together after a while, though intellectually I understand there are significant changes between many of them.
If you're considering buying a historic house in an old village and everyone seems really open to you living there, and the house is super cheap, you might investigate the town and its inhabitants (as well as their beliefs and superstitions) before signing the paperwork and moving in the furniture. Just sayin'.
Knowing we needed to turn around, we pulled into a driveway to quickly look at the map before moving on. As my partner did that, I looked around and saw in the passenger side rear view mirror a little girl standing across the street. She was just standing there, looking at us. Being a fan of horror movies, I expected to turn around in my seat to find that there was no one really there, and then turn back and look again in the mirror only to have her right there next to my window.
But she was really there, standing there across the street, staring at us silently. It was unnerving. I pointed her out to my partner and we both nervously giggled. There was something not quite right about the way this little girl was watching us. You'd think little girls in patent leather shoes couldn't be that bad, but obviously you have never seen a horror movie, nor do you have an overactive imagination. I know from my vast experience in the horror realm that children are full of evil.
A few moments later, confident in where we needed to go, we pulled out of the driveway (with a warning from me to make sure the little girl hadn't darted into the street behind us) and drove back down the street to get back to the main road. I watched the girl in the mirror the entire time and could see that she watched us the entire time as well. I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure she put a curse on us.
I thought about that
Over time, however, the Constantines really settle in and become a part of the community. There is a little girl in town who does point at Ned with her hands covered in the blood and viscera of chickens at one point which seems a bit unusual, at least to Ned, but everyone else is pretty okay with this.
I have a penchant for novels about strange communities that are closed to outsiders and are full of secrets. I chose that sort of setting for my "novel" I wrote two years ago for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Think Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and, well, a lot of Jackson's writing besides that one. Towns and villages that have these old ideas and traditions and don't like outsiders with all their city-thinkin'. Think the original movie (not the Nicholas Cage version, the 1973 Christopher Lee one) of The Wicker Man. I love that shit.
Because it feels so real in all of its creepy glory.
I love road trips, and I enjoy (usually) finding these old fashioned towns that have otherwise been forgotten by time. I like to imagine their stories, all of which involve some sort of sacrificial ceremony because that's what happens in all small towns, right?
I wasn't necessarily a fan of Tryon's characterizations here. Ned and his family are relatively well-written, and the little girl with the bloody hands is appropriately freaky (if not a bit stereotypical cause all mentally impaired children are considered freakish, y'know?), but everyone else sort of blurs together after a while, though intellectually I understand there are significant changes between many of them.
If you're considering buying a historic house in an old village and everyone seems really open to you living there, and the house is super cheap, you might investigate the town and its inhabitants (as well as their beliefs and superstitions) before signing the paperwork and moving in the furniture. Just sayin'.
October 15, 2018
Tryon's The Other and Harvest Home are two high-water-marks of twentieth century horror before Stephen King and after Psycho. Highly recommended... perfect reading for a cool, dark night!
October 17, 2021
UPDATE: 10/17/21, REREAD
I recently participated in a group read of HARVEST HOME for the month of October. As I had somewhat suspected would happen, reception was mixed. I had rated this a full 5/5 before, and after taking some others’ thoughts into consideration, I think they have some valid points. By far the biggest complaint about this book is that it’s too slow. For whatever reason, this didn’t bother me on either read of the book, but on my second read, it did take a bit longer than I had recalled to really get moving. Significantly, even. Though the fact that this didn’t really bother me begs the question, is this a problem? Well, for me it really wasn’t, but I think the fact that it is a problem for many readers says that Tryon may not have hit the mark totally with his pacing here. There also aren’t too many likable characters in this book; that is something I really noticed this time around as well.
Despite all this, I still loved the book and for the most part have to stand by my rating, but I am going to bring it down to a 4.5/5, as a 5/5 implies that this is close to a perfect book, which it is not. I considered dropping it to 4, but I just can’t do it. The ultimate reason for that is Tryon’s writing, which I enjoyed even more this time around. He has a way with words that I just find to be beautiful, unique, and really paints a picture.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Harvest Home is an early 70’s horror novel that set a bar that writers are still trying to meet fifty years later. Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and their daughter come from New York City with a dream to leave their former life behind and move to the country. While driving around the hills of what I assume to be Northwest Connecticut, they come across a small, isolated little town called Cornwall Coombe-it’s a town that seems to be a time capsule of the old ways of the early settlers, and they couldn’t be more charmed. After talking to some people they manage to make it happen-despite the locals apprehension about out of towners moving in, they are sold a house and welcomed into the community. They soon begin to notice some very odd happenings around town, and Ned begins to poke his nose into a few mysteries he shouldn’t be poking around in. Things begin to go from weird to weirder, and soon they will discover the core of the old ways that makes this town tick, for better or for worse…
I love this novel. Absolutely love it-I read it 8-9 months ago and it’s still fresh in my mind. It still pops into my head from time to time. It did its job. As I said before, this is a book that has inspired many others, from Robert McCammon’s Bethany’s Sin to Stephen King’s Children of the Corn, the fingerprints of Harvest Home are on countless novels. In my opinion, none have done it as well as Tryon did here.
The first thing that is immediately apparent when reading this book is the extremely high quality of the writing. Tryon’s prose shares more DNA with someone like John Steinbeck than other early writers of the era like Ira Levin. He is more Peter Straub than Stephen King. The writing is beautiful and evokes the feel of a time that has passed us by, and it feels true, honest and authentic. His pacing is perfectly deliberate; you spend quite a bit of time in this book slowly getting to know Cornwall Coombe and it’s strange inhabitants right alongside the Constantines (also, that name, Constantine is no accident). The horror unravels slowly, but it is always lurking. The feeling of dread that builds in this novel is very unsettling.
Some people will hate this book-it forces you to be patient, as you are along for the ride with the protagonists. As Ned and Beth begin to acclimate to this particular bizarre brand of small town New England life, you’re torn between wanting them to stay and fit right in and telling them to run like hell and don’t look back. This kind of book, stylistically, just isn’t written anymore. It requires some perseverance but if you stick to it, you will be rewarded.
Bottom line: Tryon is a truly great writer and knew how to tell a truly chilling tale. It’s a shame he didn’t write more horror novels in his too-short career as a writer. This book gets a full boat of 5/5 from me.
I recently participated in a group read of HARVEST HOME for the month of October. As I had somewhat suspected would happen, reception was mixed. I had rated this a full 5/5 before, and after taking some others’ thoughts into consideration, I think they have some valid points. By far the biggest complaint about this book is that it’s too slow. For whatever reason, this didn’t bother me on either read of the book, but on my second read, it did take a bit longer than I had recalled to really get moving. Significantly, even. Though the fact that this didn’t really bother me begs the question, is this a problem? Well, for me it really wasn’t, but I think the fact that it is a problem for many readers says that Tryon may not have hit the mark totally with his pacing here. There also aren’t too many likable characters in this book; that is something I really noticed this time around as well.
Despite all this, I still loved the book and for the most part have to stand by my rating, but I am going to bring it down to a 4.5/5, as a 5/5 implies that this is close to a perfect book, which it is not. I considered dropping it to 4, but I just can’t do it. The ultimate reason for that is Tryon’s writing, which I enjoyed even more this time around. He has a way with words that I just find to be beautiful, unique, and really paints a picture.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Harvest Home is an early 70’s horror novel that set a bar that writers are still trying to meet fifty years later. Ned Constantine, his wife Beth, and their daughter come from New York City with a dream to leave their former life behind and move to the country. While driving around the hills of what I assume to be Northwest Connecticut, they come across a small, isolated little town called Cornwall Coombe-it’s a town that seems to be a time capsule of the old ways of the early settlers, and they couldn’t be more charmed. After talking to some people they manage to make it happen-despite the locals apprehension about out of towners moving in, they are sold a house and welcomed into the community. They soon begin to notice some very odd happenings around town, and Ned begins to poke his nose into a few mysteries he shouldn’t be poking around in. Things begin to go from weird to weirder, and soon they will discover the core of the old ways that makes this town tick, for better or for worse…
I love this novel. Absolutely love it-I read it 8-9 months ago and it’s still fresh in my mind. It still pops into my head from time to time. It did its job. As I said before, this is a book that has inspired many others, from Robert McCammon’s Bethany’s Sin to Stephen King’s Children of the Corn, the fingerprints of Harvest Home are on countless novels. In my opinion, none have done it as well as Tryon did here.
The first thing that is immediately apparent when reading this book is the extremely high quality of the writing. Tryon’s prose shares more DNA with someone like John Steinbeck than other early writers of the era like Ira Levin. He is more Peter Straub than Stephen King. The writing is beautiful and evokes the feel of a time that has passed us by, and it feels true, honest and authentic. His pacing is perfectly deliberate; you spend quite a bit of time in this book slowly getting to know Cornwall Coombe and it’s strange inhabitants right alongside the Constantines (also, that name, Constantine is no accident). The horror unravels slowly, but it is always lurking. The feeling of dread that builds in this novel is very unsettling.
Some people will hate this book-it forces you to be patient, as you are along for the ride with the protagonists. As Ned and Beth begin to acclimate to this particular bizarre brand of small town New England life, you’re torn between wanting them to stay and fit right in and telling them to run like hell and don’t look back. This kind of book, stylistically, just isn’t written anymore. It requires some perseverance but if you stick to it, you will be rewarded.
Bottom line: Tryon is a truly great writer and knew how to tell a truly chilling tale. It’s a shame he didn’t write more horror novels in his too-short career as a writer. This book gets a full boat of 5/5 from me.
June 28, 2007
I was pretty dissapointed with Harvest Home. It wasn't bad, but I had hoped for better. I read it because I'd heard the original Wicker Man movie was loosley based on it. The story itself moved pretty slowly, which I can deal with, but Tryon's long tangents about painting and scenery had me bored to tears, and I found myself skipping over paragraphs at a time. Beyone that, the main character was really dumb. It really bothered me. The scene towards the end where he witnesses the secret ritual in the woods reminded me of Lovecraft. That degenerating speech thing is straight out of The Rats in the Walls. The highlight of this whole book was a really bizarre and random two or three paragraphs describing violent hate sex between the narrator and the town whore. It was just hilarious. There's no way to write a scene like that without it being really funny or really disturbing, and this one leaned more towards being funny.
February 28, 2022
Interesting folk horror…
July 27, 2021
This book and I really did an interesting back and forth dance at first. This book was extremely difficult for me to read and get into up until about chapter 13 of 30. However, once it picked up, it really picked up and climaxed very quickly and well. Being a horror fan I was able to figure out the "twist" at the end however I'm sure the leisure reader would be thrown for a loop by it. The detail in the book went way overboard at times and by the end of the book the author's tendency to over-explain settings and/or situations became rather monotonous. But again, the story's core was well thought out and worth the read in the end. And I definitely love the story. I would definitely recommend this book.
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