Children of the Corn: A thrilling book review of Thomas Tryon's, "Harvest Home"

Welcome back! Boy has it been a crazy of couple weeks. Between breaking my ankle in November (which got me to finally start this blog) and being immobilized since then, and yes I still am not walking to Christmas, the New Year and just everything that comes with the holidays, to starting competition and meet season for cheer and gymnastics for my two older daughters, it has been crazy! Now that I am in the groove again with gymnastic meets and cheer competitions, I can finally sit and write an actual review. It's not like I had much physical things to complete, but just the organizing, hotel reservation making, and else everything that comes with these trips had me wracking my brain to make sure everything was set and ready. I am sure most of you can relate, or even empathize.

As you all, hopefully saw, I wrote a spotlight post on Thomas Tryon. He wrote psychological thrillers/horror novels in the 1970's to 1995, when he passed away due to AIDS. A recap, he was born in Connecticut and lived his adult live in Hollywood as he became an actor alongside some great actors, one in particular, Marilyn Monroe. In 1973, he wrote his first novel, The Other and it became a movie as well in 1973. Yes, this was prior to the well-known and favorite of this genre, Stephen King, wrote his first novel Carrie.

Now, onto the actual review.

Where to even begin with this totally charming novel and definitely unexpected ending. I mean it really hits you in the face and it is NOT what I had expected. Little bit of information, this novel was the inspiration of the fan favorite movie, The Children of the Corn. It has another genre attached to it, folk horror. Which when you read it, you will understand why it is considered folk horror. As I mentioned in my post about Mr. Tryon, I never anticipated to like this genre as I am not a fan of horror or Stephen King, so I was hesitant. However, my mom, told me that I needed to read this book. This was the first of his books I have read. I am currently reading his very first book; heck, my mom purchased ALL of books for me. I just love my mom for loving and supporting my passion for books and reading. And I love her simply because she is my mom.

The book takes place in modern day, for when he was writing, and it takes place in a small rural area in New England. A couple named Ned and Beth and their teen daughter, Kate from busy New York, New York decide to take a gamble and get away from the hustle and bustle, craziness, bad memories, and events that are just eating them alive. So, they decide to take a drive and vacation in New England. Who doesn't love a lovely country drive with fresh air, aside from the more likely putrid smell of manure, but regardless, it is lovely. Anyway, as they are driving they come across this picturesque home on acres of land, and corn fields abundant. They stop to see if it is occupied and it is vacant, according to the friendly neighbors. Catch is, it is owned by the town widowed medicine woman and elder. And it has quite a strong meaning for her.

Once Ned, Beth, and Kate (who is chronically ill from some unknown breathing issue) get the go ahead to purchase the home on a whim, these city slickers move to the countryside to a town that is stuck in their old time, folk traditions. No one really owns a car, the church is the center of everything, the dress is very puritan, and the train of thought is that the corn crop is the most important thing. Corn of all things! They don't even use machinery to do anything. Everything is done through the old methods, and the calendar of the year is based around the corn. They even have a Harvest Lord who is picked every couple years to lead the harvesting festival and he has a maiden of which he chooses. Seems very quaint and fairy tale like to these newcomers. They become engrossed and semi-accepted into this odd society, especially Beth. With her grief of miscarriages and her past trauma with her father, Beth is an easy target. Ned, well he begins to love this town, but he starts to question. Questioning their methods and traditions is a big no-no.

This mystery starts to pain Ned. He wants to know the mysteries and weirdness that surrounds this community and know what it is he saw after given a drink by the local elder woman. His neighbor, a former professor, is blind and will not tell why. The elder of the town, keeps everything together and holds all the cards and answers. Then there is a very odd and creepy child who apparently has a gift of foreseeing the future, and there is a mysterious death of a young, beautiful woman from few years back, who became the Corn Maiden, yet had gone insane and apparently committed suicide. Things begin to not sit well with Ned as he starts poking around while trying to help a youngster (a young man that catches the eye of Ned's daughter, Kate), who is helping him renovate the home, get out of town as he wants nothing to do with the old ways and the harvest corn festival. He especially doesn't want to become the Harvest Lord as he knows what must be done after he becomes Harvest Lord. Simply, he wants nothing of the sort. The deeper Ned dives into learning about this town and its' traditions the more trouble he encounters.

Corn is life to this community. Everything revolves around corn. Corn is their lively hood. As long as you just follow along and do not question, you can live a great wholesome and wonderful life. But is it really wholesome?

I give this book at 5 out 5. Between character development, setting, to the suspense factor that keeps you entirely engaged, I honestly love this book. It is not a long read, and it makes you want to continue reading, especially once you reach the middle of the novel in order to figure out what the secrets are that no one will tell. These secrets of wayward and folk traditions are kept out of reach of outsiders like Ned. Outsiders are not privileged to know the ins and outs. I will give a warning, there are some gruesome parts and even a very explicit part to the book. Actually, they were somewhat demented, but it goes with the territory of psychological thriller meets horror meets suspense meets folk literature. As the book unfolds, many answers are answered and I can truly say, it caught me off guard. It was not an ending that I saw coming. I was shocked. I recommend you read the book to find out what it is about. I won't give away the ending, because it truly is crazy especially with all the people it includes.

What is nice about this book, is that it is a short and quick read that engages all your senses and emotions. You learn to love certain characters, question certain characters, and be fooled by lovable characters that will leave you stunned and say to yourself, "What in the world!?!". I highly, highly recommend this book! If this is your genre, or not, do not be afraid to check out what I would call a classic psychological thriller/horror/folk horror novel. His writing makes it so easy to visually picture the characters, setting, the actions and feel what the characters feel. So, head on over to your favorite bookstore, local library, Amazon, ABE Books, Thrifty Books, wherever you purchase or get books from and read Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon. Until next time all my book loving people. Happy reading!