“The Farm” by Scott Nicholson

Only works if you have a fear of goats. -- 2 Stars

Scott Nicholson came highly recommended to me by my son’s best friend. We frequently have similar tastes in books, so I gave Nicholson a shot. But if “The Farm” is any indication, it looks like we’re not of like minds here.

“The Farm” is about a mother and daughter who move into the Blue Ridge Mountain area with their new husband/step father, a conservative, strange, older man. In spite of a strained relationship and very differing views of child rearing, the mother, Katy, wants her new relationship to work, but the daughter, Jett, begins to suspect that all it not what it appears on this farm.

It is difficult to say much more about the story overall without giving away the plot, such as it is. Some elements, such as haunting by a ghost and an animated scarecrow, were fairly interesting (if a bit obvious) and somewhat creepy, and the writing style itself was sufficient.

Where this novel fell flat for me was its primary frightening tool: Goats. Yes, you read that correctly. Goats.

Goats to this novel are what spiders or snakes or other creepy crawlers have been to many a horror movie or book. Mean, prolific goats, showing up at every turn, behaving strangely and eventually turning violent.

The problem is, while I understand that goats CAN be stubborn and hostile in real life, that does not make them into the “great white sharks” of farming communities. Not for this reader, anyway. All the scenes involving the supposedly scary goats fell flat, and since they were such an important part of the book, that means that most of the novel fell flat.

Again, I have no particular complaints about Nicholson’s writing itself, and may or may not try another of his books in the future. But unless you have a deathly phobia of goats, “The Farm” fails as a horror novel.