Book tour: The Girl in the Corn by Jason Offutt

It’s book tour time! I’m very pleased to be a part of Blackthorn Book Tour’s latest tour for Jason Offutt’s horror novel, The Girl in the Corn.

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About the book

Beware of what lurks in the corn.

Fairies don’t exist. At least that’s what Thomas Cavanaugh’s parents say. But the events of that one night, when he follows a fairy into the cornfield on his parents’ farm, prove them wrong. What seems like a destructive explosion was, Thomas knows, an encounter with Dauðr, a force that threatens to destroy the fairy’s world and his sanity.

Years later, after a troubled childhood and a series of dead-end jobs, he is still haunted by what he saw that night. One day he crosses paths with a beautiful young woman and a troubled young man, soon realizing that he first met them as a kid while under psychiatric care after his encounters in the cornfield. Has fate brought them together? Are they meant to join forces to save the fairy’s world and their own?

Or is one of them not who they claim to be?

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My review

Thomas sees a tiny woman in his father’s cornfield when he’s six years old, and so starts a decades long nightmare of powerful beings, monsters and manipulation.

This book reminded me of classic King and Koontz. It follows Thomas from childhood into adulthood like King, and plays with genre as Koontz books used to do. Many of the set pieces are classic horror, but much of the plot is dark fantasy or even science fiction.

I loved the creepy scenes in this book. There’s some recurring imagery that’s pleasantly chilling. Cornfields and children are fertile ground for horror, and the author works them to good effect.

Thomas’s life is mirrored by Bobby, another boy with an important part to play in a Lovecraftian game of chess. Initially Bobby was a one note villain, dripping stereotypical nastiness with every action, but as the book progressed I found him the better drawn and more compelling character. Thomas’s childhood promise never solidified for me, and as his character stumbled through chapters where he’s promised answers to be yet again denied them, I found Bobby’s dissatisfaction at the yoke he carried the hook that kept me reading.

While I loved the dark fantasy elements, I found myself increasingly frustrated by how little information was delivered. Important plot progressions were repeatedly teased and withheld, leading me to believe that either the author hadn’t worked out a more complex plot, or more likely, was withholding all the good stuff for the sequels.

Despite this, Offutt writes well and there is enough in the duel of good tortured soul versus bad tortured soul to keep you reading.

I award The Girl in the Corn…

I received an advance review copy from the author and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

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About the Author

JASON OFFUTT writes books. He is best known for science fiction, such as his humorous So You Had to Build a Time Machine and his end-of-the-world zombie novel Bad Day for the Apocalypse (a curious work that doesn’t include zombies), his paranormal non-fiction like Chasing American Monsters (that does), and his book of humor How to Kill Monsters Using Common Household Objects. He teaches university journalism, cooks for his family, and wastes much of his writing time trying to keep the cat off his lap. You can find more about Jason at his website,
http://www.jasonoffutt.com. There are no pictures of his cat Gary, and it serves him right.

Twitter: @TheJasonOffutt
Instagram: @thejasonoffutt