GUEST WRITER EMMA MURRAY RECOMMENDS KILLER HARVEST BY CHRISTOPHER KROVATIN
Killer Harvest is a fast-paced novel set during the spooky season that leads up to Halloween, making for a festive and fun read. The story follows a boy named Marcus who is forced to go on a fall weekend trip because of his misbehaviour in school. He meets two other classmates there who have also been labeled as “troubled youth”, Kris and Angie. The three are in a small town called Gentle Valley that is so perfect it doesn’t seem real. As they peruse the town’s Harvest Festival, they begin to feel unsettled by the corn maze. Marcus, Kris and Angie are sucked into a sinister town plot to prey on youth that genuinely left me unnerved – and maybe a little scared.
The three kids do not associate with each other at school but find themselves bonding in a meaningful way while talking about their past traumas. This dynamic introduces quickly a main theme of friendship. The friendship bond is not uncommon in books in the middle school level and for good reason. In Killer Harvest, friendship means working together with everyone’s strengths and loyalty. They are each given reasons to save themselves and forget about the other two and they never choose to. These nuances within friendships are introduced to young readers through a riveting plot.
Further, there is serious empathy for the students labeled as the “bad kids.” The misunderstood Marcus unloads his heavy burdens onto Kris and Angie as the author lets the reader into what the root of his behavioural issues are. Grief and the grieving process is an underlying theme in Killer Harvest. Marcus has been wracked with grief and has bothered him immensely and effected his life in all aspects. The author alludes to Marcus acting out because of his struggle with losing someone very close to him. Killer Harvest depicts “bad kids” in a kind light, reminding readers we can’t always tell just from observing the someone from the surface. Killer Harvest is a middle novel worthy of recommendation because of the sophisticated themes that lay within the thrilling story.
Emma Murray is a BEd student at the University of New Brunswick and appreciates the horror genre. She consumes books for every meal and wanders aimlessly in libraries and bookstores.