The Harvest

De: Alex Hunter

Narrado por: Samuel Pitt

Something is coming for the children.

Tim Waverly, a young teacher, escapes London's spiralling housing costs by becoming a live-in caretaker at an abandoned orphanage. But his arrival triggers a series of frightening events.

An ancient evil has awakened. A new Harvest has begun.

As Tim and those around him become engulfed in a dark nightmare, he is forced to confront his deepest fears in order to save countless innocent lives.

The Harvest is a work of terrifying imagination from a new voice in horror. Both frightening and deeply moving, Alex Hunter's debut novel will linger long after the final tick.

©2024 Black Rose Writing (P)2025 Black Rose Writing

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Hunter weaves a tale that has the "modern horror fairytale" feel of books like Coraline or IT, while weaving in mature topics that add weight to the narrative. His exploration of grief, found family, and the search for purpose create some truly hard-hitting moments. I was thoroughly rapt by this novel.” –Carlos E. Rivera, author of The Local Truth, Blackout, and A Hole in the World

The Harvest

The creepy cover and description of the book drew me in, but I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the actual execution of the story. Tim Waverly is a young teacher struggling to find a decent, affordable place to live. He decides to become a live-in caretaker at an abandoned orphanage. He soon starts to see and hear things that make him think the old building is haunted.

You meet a nosy neighbor, a closet pedo, and a young boy named Sanjay who lives in the neighborhood. Then, you have a couple of teenage friends interested in ghostly events (cue Oiuja Board!) and an older woman named Mary who knows a few things about the building. You are introduced to an entity/demon who is looking for children to consume and the troubled youth who was probably responsible for arousing this entity (demon possession?).

The story had potential, but I got lost with all the dream sequences, flashbacks and flash forwards (who even knew there was such a thing!) and a few gratuitous and gruesome death scenes. Then, you have the fantasy trope of a quest to find something while wondering through a dreamscape/alternate universe and I just lost interest. I would have liked to know more about the entity (where it came from, etc) and less about the weird dreams.

The narrator did a pretty good job, but I had to speed up the narration to 2x for it to keep my interest. Overall, I was not impressed with this book.