Calling it quits on this one.

I really wanted to like it as it had everything I like in small town horror. Characters from the normal to the weird, a sense of community in a place where there's history, everyone's known each other a local Halloween tradition, a family with a creepy secret. It's clear something is going to go very wrong very quickly.

I'm losing patience with the story, there's too many characters to keep track of and it seems like too much going on. My other major problem with this book is how poorly it's edited. Random words are missing from sentences or in some instances entire sentences are missing and while with most you can get the idea of what's going on, it's annoying and jars you out of the narrative. I've had enough, DNF. Not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the review copy.

ATTENTION reader. I am in a mood! Please take note of reason that follows.

A person needs to be careful when openly comparing themselves to those determined by the general public to be great.

In fact, don’t do it.

As stated, that’s for that general public to declare.

Same goes for storytelling. If the first page declares that what I am about to read will be comparable to works by King and Koontz, I have no choice but to measure by that. Literally zero choice!

You put those names in my head. After all, these are memories of teenage and early twenties reading. These are fond memories.

My girlfriend did not believe that 6 inches was 9, even though I said it as a statement, and nor should a reader take such bold statements as truth when starting a new book.

Save your opinion until the end and make your own comparisons. Maybe this opinion will be satisfactory, or (as in my girlfriend's case)…not.

Alex. Careful!

Review:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! The pumpkin harvest is complete, but another harvest is about to begin. Not that of the oblivious orange orb, but that of a reaper’s red rage.

Ember Hollows is a small town that goes all out for Halloween. Founded by a Wilcott Bennington who had some inclination for possible worship toward the Roman god Saturn. Apparently, there was some unpleasantness but no details were given by the end of the book, so I am inclined to believe this fact does not really matter to the story.

The first third of the book, as introductions to its characters are made, was rather hard for me to take in. Through my life at times, I would wonder if I had some sort of attention deficit problem or if I just take in too much coffee.

Turns out it’s the coffee, if it were the former, I don’t think the beginning would have been much trouble for me.

In what I could only guess was a method to quicken the pace of the story, we are exposed to all the towns leading stars by small snippets of information. Quick one or two thoughts that abruptly stop, switching to some other person. To make it worse, some of these quick glimpses are wrapped in a flashback for that character. I wouldn’t say its confusing. I understand the words in front of my nose, but I would have sincerely liked to been given a chance to be with one of the protagonists long enough to get attached. I did not.

Let’s give you some perspective.

Ever have a child grab the TV remote and start channel-flipping? Just have them pause long enough on each program to get your attention then boop! to the next one? There is a point where you explode. That kid is NOT touching the remote for the rest of the night!

...Sorry. It’s the future now...

Ever have someone on the controls of Netflix? They’re going hard to the right, and shit is spinning. You think your going to vomit. You don’t like it.

Well.

The characters.

For the “good guys," we got a 26-year-old recovering alcoholic, lead singer of a local punk band (it’s not totally punk in my opinion). We have his young teenage brother, having problems with a group of intelligent nerd bullies (I very much liked this). We have a young girl, love interest to said teenage brother plus younger sister to a psycho. There’s the Reverend, also a recovering alcoholic (this time old enough for the word 'alcoholic' to feel legit, not that I’m saying a 26-year-old can't be one) plus the reverend's sidekick, spirit-channeling church pianist.

For the “bad," we got ourselves the psycho, molested by priests, locked in a shed 364 days a year and fan of Halloween. The group of “nerd bullies,” very original and delightful antagonists. There’s the Reverend's assistant intent on poisoning the town with hallucination-inducing Halloween candy. And last but not least a possible ghost, throwing hard candy at unsuspecting reverends and playing tricks on the pianist.

There we have it. All the mixings for a basic King or Koontz novel. Just instead of Derry, we have a small town called Ember Hallow. The healthy number of bad guys ensures the potential for some interesting plot twisting, and the protagonists all seem to have some potential for good old personal struggle.

(Never happened.)

My hopes were not fulfilled. In fact, after finishing, I immediately called my girlfriend at her work and apologized for ever giving her hope regarding my endowment when we first met.

Character growth was at a zero.

Any and all protagonists ended just how we found them. The punk star showed up drunk after his first stressful event. His little brother didn’t even get the chance to have a showdown with his bullies. The Reverend was still a reverend.

The “nerd bullies" I knew I would love didn’t even come close to making it to the climax.

The psycho killer was enjoyable, to be honest. I mean, if it were a Stephen King book he would have had some supernatural aspect revealed later on, but this is, without a doubt, NOT a King book. The problem with this psycho though, was that he didn’t have much depth, just kill kill, fun fun, trick or treat.

The Reverend's assistant fits in nicely. Had a plan. I understood her motives and enjoyed her struggle as she would run into obstacles on her path to cleanse the unworthy from the town.

By its finish, the story had a couple of decent characters and…oh wait there was a ghost wasn’t there…right. That’s how important the thing was to the story; forgot all about it. Well turns out it was the ghost of the town's founder, Wilcott Benror-whatever.

My problem is when you have a plot with all this potential and so many places you can take it, but only a fraction of it is realized, it’s like you have all these choices on the path before you and you decide to sit and eat a sandwich.

The channel flipping dispersed near the middle, thankfully, starting up near the end but appropriate to the plot's speed.

And I’m reeeally pissed about the nerds. What a waste. I mean, come on, intellectuals who use their wit to torment and buy muscle through doing homework for the football goons. How could an average kid overcome this enemy? I guess the author didn’t know either so he got rid of them before anything could come of it.

Now there are more tales of Ember Hallows on the way. My opinion can always change as a new perspective is introduced. There is a teaser for the sequel that involves the ex-boyfriend of the reverend's assistant, breaking out of jail with the help of his werewolf gang.

So who knows.

(And yes actual f***ing werewolves with absolutely no hint or foreshadowing to such things existing in the Red Harvest universe….may as well be god-damn orcs from Mordor.)

This one gets 4 out 10 jack-o-lanterns.

Almost the worst Dean Koontz book I’ve ever read. Didn’t even have a talking dog, or the word “penultimate.”

Thank you very much!

Red Harvest by Patrick C. Greene, this book for me started off slow, reallll slow but it got better as it went along better but not great. There were alot of characters to try to remember who was doing what and why, I had to go back a few times to refresh myself on who certain players were. This is about a boy/man who absolutely loves Halloween but does more than just want treats he likes the tricks part of it too, a little to much it seems. This contains supernatural, murders (lots) and child abuse...alot going on in one book! Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for allowing me to read this ARC book in return for leaving my opinion.

While I thought I downloaded all the books before their archive date, it seems I missed this one. I will give a 5 star in order to not hinder review, but I will not be sharing elsewhere.

Red Harvest by Patrick C. Greene seems to be the first book in the Haunted Hollow Chronicles. This one is a horror story set in a small town right at the Halloween season so with Halloween coming up I thought it would be a perfect read to get into the fall mood, however I wasn’t quite the fan I thought I would be.

Red Harvest takes place in the small town of Ember Hollow that lives for the Halloween season and goes all out on the activities every year. From the multitude of jack o lanterns, the pumpkin parade to the devil’s night celebration the town is known as the place to be to celebrate.

This Halloween however things in Ember Hollow are a bit creepier than normal and the citizens find themselves battling to figure out what is real and what is imaginary. With dark and disturbing visions haunting them are they losing their minds or is something evil in the town?

Alright, obviously this is another book that just wasn’t for me. It started off alright enough bringing on the creepy vibe very early on however once getting really into the story it fell apart a bit. I struggled with whether I thought the author brought a bit too many characters or too many situations in or perhaps a bit of both but I found it hard to follow and began to lose interest. In my mind there’s some good ideas but as a whole this one felt a bit like mashing up a short story collection and trying to make one book out of many so sadly I wasn’t a fan.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book was scary, thrilling, and touching all at once. Sorry to the big guys, but this author has out-Kinged, out-Koontzed, and out-Straubed every modern horror novel I've read in a long time.

Halloween is always celebrated in a big way in this small town, but this year will top them all. I won't give spoilers, but Mr. Green has carved us a glorious jack-o-lantern that will have a much longer shelf life than the squash kind.

Horror fans, get your copy of Red Harvest and be prepared to stay up and read all night!

I feel like this book had lots of potential - tainted candy, murderous child, haunted sanctuary, deranged church lady - but it didn't quite deliver. I read it all, but I just couldn't find myself caring much about what happened, which is a shame because I love Halloween. And it probably didn't help that I have an older copy with the missing words and quotes.

REVIEW: RED HARVEST by PATRICK Greene. A psychotic killer, a ghost, an anti- Halloween religious nut, tainted Halloween candy, and a bit too much going on for one book! I felt like the author should have saved a bit of storyline for future books The premise was good but a little over the top. ⭐⭐⭐Three stars

Red Harvest by Patrick C. Greene was received direct from the publisher. This author is new to me but the book description of being an old school Stephen King type story attracted me to read it. For my first Halloween book of the season (yes I already saw Pumpkin beer at the store, here in August), Red Harvest was a Halloween story that read, to me anyway, like the original movie of the same name. Another great feature is a slasher, no ghosts (mostly), witches, demons or the like, just a mentally disturbed person running around using whatever weapons he can find to dispatch who may have wronged him in some way. If old school “80’s like” slasher horror excites you or someone you buy gifts for, certainly give Red Harvest a read.

5 stars

Short Take: Addiction is terrifying.



(*Note - I received a free copy of this book for review.*)

Yes, I KNOW that it’s still August (it’s so crazy-hot that my buns are perma-toasted) but today, I have an extra-special Halloween treat for y’all. Try, if you can, to imagine a world that’s pretty much our own. It has the same traditions, music, and movies, but with a few teensy little changes - cell phones and computers aren’t used, ghosts and psychics are real, and OH!! My darling nerdlings, the nerds rule the school! Ok, they are absolutely terrible people, but they are still MY people, and so that last one tickled me purple.

On the surface, Red Harvest is Our Town on a nightmare acid trip. You see, the town of Ember Hollow itself is one of the main characters, in that there’s a strange, possibly dark and pagan history to the town’s founding, and traditions such as the annual Pumpkin Parade, and a lot of people with only a degree or two of separation. It’s a small town where everyone knows everyone, but nobody really KNOWS what goes on behind closed doors.

Take for example Everett Geelens, a freakishly strong Michael Myers-ish young man who has a child-like obsession with all things Halloween, especially the blood and death. He’s kept locked up by his family, but when he gets loose on Devil’s Night, well, I don’t have to tell you that nothing good will come of it, do I?

Or Ruth. She has recently discovered religion, and has decided that it’s God’s will that she do whatever it takes to put an end to all the “satanic” Halloween festivities. And if “whatever it takes” involves some decidedly un-Christian acts, well, the ends will justify the means, of course.

Then there’s Dennis Barcroft, lead singer of the Chalk Outlines, a punkabilly band with a spooky sensibility. He’s tried to channel his demons into his music, and his thirteen year old brother Stuart is only too happy to tag along, especially if it means the chance to impress Candace Geelens, who is Everett’s younger sister and the object of his first real crush.

I could list another dozen or so really great characters, but you see, all these fascinating people, and the beautifully complex web of alllllll their relationships isn’t what Red Harvest is really about. Neither is the high-octane plot that swings effortlessly between the strands of Everett’s violent spree, Ruth’s growing madness, a haunted church, a minister with his own difficult past, all the trials and tribulations of high school, and a zoot-suit wearing music agent.

What Red Harvest is REALLY about is addiction. Every one of the characters has their drug of choice, whether it’s Halloween, booze, religion, music, or power, and that’s what makes this book so amazing. It’s easy to make bad guys bad and good guys good. But by showing us how thin the line really is, and how even good people can do bad things for the sake of what they value most, or how bad people can genuinely believe they are doing a Good Thing, Mr. Greene has brought a brilliant level of complexity and humanity to a horror novel.

Don’t get me wrong - the horror elements are flawless in this one, but for me, the real horror is how believable so much of it is. Except maybe for the nerds who are drunk with power. That just seems needlessly cruel.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and a pumpkin spice anything, because I’m so ready for fall now!)

I love any and all things Halloween related, so give me a rock and roll horror story set in a town that is pretty much the Halloween capitol of the planet and I'm all over it. I loved Stuart and his relationship with his punk rocker brother Dennis, who is recently sober and has moved back in with Stuart and his mom while they are all still struggling with the loss of Dad. Halloween is always a huge deal in this town but this year holds the promise of a possible recording deal for Dennis and his band, who tour around in a tricked out hearse.
As the town is preparing for their annual celebration there is someone who aims to put a permanent stop to all the fun, and someone else who has far different ideas about how to celebrate.
While I did have a couple of minor issues with the plot and would have rather the reasoning behind certain happenings had been just a little different I did enjoy this book and thought it was a lot of gory fun. I will definitely be back for the next installment of these Haunted Hollow Chronicles.

Ember Hollow takes Halloween to a whole other level! Parades, music, and this year something even more sinister.

The premise of this book was good. The execution was not. I spent most of the book filling in missing words and trying to decide who was speaking. I almost gave up half-way in because it was more work than pleasure.

I would have liked more background on the characters. Unfortunately this was more of a guess what the next word could/should be.

Netgalley/ September 4th 2018 by Lyrical Underground

As hard as I tried I just couldn't get into the novel. So approximately 75% of the way through I put the book down as I had no real desire to finish it. Hence the one star rating (I reserve those for DNF novels).

There were a few positive points to the novel:
1) Although the main villian was a little too much Michael Myers he was interesting. I wish the reader could have learned more about why/what made him out to be so evil and interested in killing. The reader did get a bit of his life growing up but that was only after he became a danger to himself and others, I'm curious what made him become evil in the beginning.

2) The beginning of the novel was a bit creepy which was great, it gave the novel a nice Halloween feel. Sadly this went away after the first 20% or so.

The bad parts of the novel:
1) There were far too many characters. The reader isn't sure who is important and who isn't. For the longest time I thought DeShaun was the only main character but then Ruth kept making an appearance. I found the huge swash of characters confusing, especially since the author focused way too much time on secondary characters who just make one or two appearances.

2) The rationale for the villians.

3) The characters felt very one-dimensional with bad one-liners and bland characterization.

4) The quality of the novel. I know it is an unfinished novel that I got for free from Netgalley but this made the novel almost impossible to read. Entire portions of dialogue were missing. It's had to read a novel when you can't follow dialogues or action scenes. I would have rather waited another month before reading this novel if it meant that the book was actually complete. I can handle bad grammer or sentence structure but not an incomplete novel.

In summary, this would have been an okay novel if it was complete. I would suggest it to anyone who enjoys B rated action movies as it reminds me of a written slasher movie.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

Oh My Gods! This book was everything!!!!!
It was creepy and horrific and terrifying. It was exactly what horror lovers are looking for!
The plot was fantastic, the characters were odd and fabulous.
This is a new to me author and I can't wait to get my hands on anything more he writes!!

If you like 80s or 90s straight-to-home-VHS B-horror, this book is for you.

What I liked about Red Harvest:
The Halloween atmosphere, the characters, and the 90s B-horror movie feel.

What I didn't like:
Missing words made it very hard and frustrating to read along. The horror was more comedic than scary, it just ends--no further explanations. Gore for the sake of gore.

3 stars

This book has a creepy bad guy and outlines his horrific deeds. It is fairly well written and plotted. I, too, had trouble on my Kindle with missing words and empty quotation marks (as another reader said). It certainly wasn’t as classy as a Stephen King novel, but I think he and Dan Simmons have ruined most other horror writers for me.

I mildly enjoyed the book, but it passed relatively slowly for me, and that I did not enjoy. I usually get a better quality of writing from books I request from this publisher, so I was disappointed there as well. Oh well, a reader can’t like them all.

I want to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books/Lyrical Uderground for forwarding to me a copy of this fairly good book for me to read and review.

Review: RED HARVEST by Patrick C. Greene
(The Haunted Hollow Chronicles Book One)

Set in the Appalachian hills of Western North Carolina, this novel of extreme horror is the first in a continuing series, invoking both Supernatural elements and the horrifying evils in the human hearts. There are some stomach-churning moments and revelations in this compelling story, but what most impressed me was the characters, their delineation, and the emotional impacts they cause on each other. I'm quite looking forward to the next entry in The Haunted Hollow Chronicles, as once again, good and evil battle for supremacy in tiny, tucked-away, Ember Hollow.