The Last Harvest

November 1, 2016
Clay Tate never believed his dead father's crazed ramblings about devil worshippers in Midland, Oklahoma. When he finds a slaughtered calf on his family's farm, though, Clay knows that something evil is plaguing his town and that he and his friends--who also happen to be the sixth generation of the town's founding farmers--might be responsible for ushering in the apocalypse. Though populated and narrated by young people, the book does not feel in touch with its putative audience, and in particular, Clay's teenage voice is unauthentic. Supporting characters come across as generic: Clay's mother is a prop character whose purpose seems to be to give the illusion of an authority figure in Clay's life; the town sheriff plays the dual good cop-bad cop role but never moves beyond that character arc; and one of the novel's main villains has no real substance. Clay, white with dark-blond hair, and Ali, white with dark-brown hair, spend much of the novel pining for each other, but unfortunately, Ali is a cookie-cutter version of the girl next door, and their romance is lackluster. Though the book seems to want to read like a teen version of Stephen King's "Children of the Corn" with romance, its implausible characters and chaotic plotline will leave readers cold. (Horror. 14-18)

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November 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Clay Tate, high school quarterback and descendant of one of the six founding families of Midland, OK, was a local hero. Then he found his father dying on the neighbor's barn floor. Clay has spent the subsequent year tilling the wheat on the family farm, taking care of his mother and two sisters, and trying to forget. But Midland won't let go of Clay so easily. The Preservation Society, a cultlike club comprised of the other five founding families, has begun pressuring Clay to take his place on the council, while everyone else in town is asking Clay to reclaim his role on the school football team. Clay doesn't know what to do, and now that he's seeing unexplainable things, he doesn't know whom to trust. Clay's deep distrust of the Preservation Society; his ache for his former love, Ali; his dependence on his guidance counselor, Miss Granger; and an ever-increasing paranoia take center stage in a tense and suspenseful drama. The story line is sometimes predictable, with cliched plot turns, and the depictions of Midland's reverential view of high school football and general alcohol and drug abuse are a little heavy-handed. But a final twist brings the tale to a strong conclusion. Mature language is included, as are sexual situations and references to satanic worship. VERDICT An additional purchase for collections catering to avid fans of suspense and horror.-Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson University R. M. Cooper Library, SC

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 A midwestern farming town conceals a satanic cult seeking to birth the Antichrist in Liggett's latest horror novel. Midland, Oklahoma, is all about farms, football, and family, and 18-year-old Clay is losing his hold on them all. A year after his father's descent into madness and grisly death, Clay is struggling to harvest the wheat and provide for his sisters and mother. The thought of selling the farm to the hated Neelys is too much; Clay has already lost his girlfriend and star quarterback position to Tyler Neely. Secretly, Clay is worried that he inherited his father's madness, which caused him to accuse the town's prominent families of devil worship. Why else would Clay be beset by waking nightmares of ritualistic births and deaths? Clay is a decent, hard-working kid way out of his depth, making him an effectively poignant focal point. Laden with mysteries, rebirth metaphors, and gory imagery, Liggett's demonic thriller can be convoluted and frustratingly coy with its secrets, but it's also atmospheric and frightening and delivers the goods on its disturbing premise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)