It held a lot of potential, I loved how this started off. But it ended up being a disappointing and frustrating read for me.
Rating: 2/5
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?
I received a free book from Blackthorn Book Tours. Thank you for this opportunity!
This started off strong, only to end leaving me scratching my head saying to myself, “That’s it?” I think I ended this having more questions than anywhere else in the story. I found this to be more of a frustrating disappointment. Which is such a letdown because I loved the premise and the beginning of this was so good!
I found this to be more of a frustrating disappointment. Which is such a letdown...
The Girl in the Corn follows Thomas, who when he was 6 sees a tiny girl in the corn field of his family’s farm. The girl turns out to be a fairy who says he’s the key to saving his world from destruction. After his experience with the fairy, he has constant nightmares of it that have him screaming throughout the night, but he can’t remember what happened and it ends up with him getting treatment at an asylum for children. There he meets two others, a girl who he feels connected too, and a boy who’s committed murder. Years later, as an adult Thomas’ path crosses with them again and he must face the nightmares that plagued his dreams all those years ago.
The premise immediately caught my eye. A paranormal horror with fairies? Yes, please! And at the start, it held up to that promise. I loved seeing the girl in the corn, a fairy. She captivated me instantly. But as we reach the night that gives Thomas nightmares, I became lost. I didn’t understand what happened as it’s not fully explained until after Thomas can remember the details of that night again. But even after that happens, I had questions remaining.
I felt like this tried too hard to be like an IT reimagining. Once we see Thomas in the ward, I was getting strong IT vibes, and these vibes stayed throughout the remainder of the book. Along with what I felt was a similar style ending. And at first, seeing that similarity, I loved it. But the further I got in the book, I wanted something different. That’s not to say the entire book felt like IT. Just as someone who really enjoyed IT, it gave off too many IT vibes, and not all of them I appreciated.
I felt like this tried too hard to be like an IT reimagining.
And then even the details that were unique, especially around the fae, a lot of it just didn’t make much sense. We’re told the basics and then basically are told that anything else is a need to know basis and we just don’t need to know… I’m sorry, but I need to know! Especially after that ending. I have ALL the questions.
Honestly, it’s the ending that I liked least about this one. Especially after 400 pages, I felt like I shouldn’t be having so many questions. We should have gotten some answers after the resolution. I definitely think we could have had less filler and more context. I genuinely found a lot of the middle section of this one to be unneeded fluff. During that whole middle section, I couldn’t help but think when are we going to get back to the issue at hand? Again, as I said, we weren’t really explained a whole lot until absolutely necessary if at all. And that just really bugged me.
Overall, this was a big miss for me. It held a lot of potential, I loved how this started off. But it ended up being a disappointing and frustrating read for me.