The Last Harvest by Kim Liggett
This reads so much like a 90’s slasher movie it’s worth pulling out the popcorn and turning the lights off. It’s good fun, does not take itself too seriously and invokes a lot of those Exorcist feels. A lot of this will be new and fresh for the younger audience it’s aimed at and with a dash of sex, some high school football and a bit of drug use, it certainly ticks some of the traditional genre specific boxes as well as some new ones.
Last Harvest starts with a few mysteries a year after a major and bloody event involving Clay Tate. It’s left to us to guess what exactly his father did that now makes Clay and his remaining family pariah’s in the community, what Clay did at the football game a day later that makes him dangerous and unpredictable and what role the strange Preservation Society plays in all the shit going down in this rural small town. You just know they are dodgy as hell and not to be trusted and thankfully the author does not spend any time creating “Oh I was wrong they are lovely people” type moments to try to throw us off.
Clay is our protagonist and must deal with being responsible for his two younger sisters and slightly mad mother as well as the farm they all live on. His dream is to get his youngest sister Noodle out of the small town and into a bigger and more ambitious school. Beyond that it is one step at a time especially as he copes with the tangles of his first love being part of the spooky society, his other younger sister turning goth and hanging out with the wrong sort of kids and the possibility that he is communing with the devil unintentionally.
The writing maintains a good pace throughout and I found it very easy to read, finishing it in two days over three sittings. It’s pretty straightforward and the twists are nice with the finale being particularly satisfying in terms of both fulfilling and surprising the reader’s expectations.
At the end of the day I always judge a horror novel by whether it made my heart beat faster and whilst there was certainly some very horrific things happening in this book I don’t know that I ever felt so caught up that I was afraid. There were shocking moments of gore, brutal and bloody sacrifice and the final sprint was a blast but overall it just didn’t quite spook me. If you are after a teen thriller with a bit of spunk go ahead but if you are trying to really scare yourself I’d say your search will continue.
6.5/10
