–published 2006
–169 pages, Tor Books
–Bram Stoker Award, International Horror Guild Award
–4.5/5 stars
“It’s Halloween, 1963… and getting on towards dark. Things are the same as they’ve always been. There’s the main street, the old brick church in the town square, the movie theater—this year with a Vincent Price double-bill. And past all that is the road that leads out of town. It’s black as a licorice whip under an October sky, black as the night that’s coming and the long winter nights that will follow, black as the little town it leaves behind.”
Thus begins Dark Harvest, one of the rarest of Halloween treats–a contemporary novel with the underpinnings and atmosphere of a classic horror novel.
What happens when you are supposed to die? When one day a sudden, pointless accident ends your life? If you are Ben Gould then the unexpected happens: you do not die as was your fate. Your ghost appears and falls in love with your ex-girlfriend. Your dog can talk to your ghost revealing the interconnected, communicative nature of the animal kingdom. The Angel of Death appears and warns of a glitch in the system. Your entire life begins to unravel at the seams…
Earlier in the year I had hoped to feature an interview with Anne-Julie Aubry but periods of heavy work on both sides of the world and the extra effort Anne-Julie has to make for translation from French to English meant that this had to be put off until another time. In my previous feature on the art of Anne-Julie Aubry I mentioned that she designates the art on her site under the categories of ‘dark’ and ‘whimsical’ and although I enjoy both I am more drawn to the darker, more melancholic art. In thinking about this it came to me that featuring her interview during the R.I.P. III Challenge couldn’t be more perfect, especially as it would give me an opportunity to showcase some of her latest work and review some favorite darker images.
In addition to sharing some of her thoughts with us Anne-Julie Aubry has graciously donated some items for a giveaway mentioned at the end of this post AND is offering a special deal for one week only for readers of this very post.
“A Fabulous Melancholy” isn’t a comment on the very sweet Anne-Julie Aubry, it is a statement of how her work makes me feel. Come along and see for yourself…
If I had the opportunity to script it myself I could not have come up with a more perfect way to spend the first day of what is arguably my favorite month of the year: reading Neil Gaiman’s long anticipated new young adult novel, The Graveyard Book in its entirety. I started shortly after midnight, October 1st, and it was my companion throughout this work and fun-filled day. For all intents and purposes the book did not leave my side all day. It waited patiently for me on the bedside table as I slept. It traveled with me to work to sit in my office for a brief shared lunch. It traveled with me to my off-site meeting and then back to a serendipitous reading spot. It went with me to the comic shop on request to say ‘hello’ to my friend Jeff and it traveled back home with me for one enchanted evening. And now it sits again by my bedside awaiting a new journey…but more on that to come.
