By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Warning: Before I begin this review, I insist that you read my review of the book, Boy From Two Worlds as this book will reveal important spoilers in this series. I will also reiterate that this review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!
I find it an interesting experience to read a book series out of order. Sometimes, it can be very confusing. Sometimes, it can be tedious if the exciting parts happen in the earlier volume so we have to encounter the exposition. Other times, it actually makes the books better especially if you think of them as though they were meant to be written out of order.
An example of the latter experience falls in The Girl in the Corn by Jason Offutt which is actually the first book in Offutt’s two part series but is actually the second book that I read in the series after its follow up Boy From Two Worlds. Reading the two books in the proper order works in a linear storytelling fashion in which the plot points are introduced, conflicts begin, action builds up to a climax, the events expand in the next volume, characters evolve, the scope of the threat expands, solutions are given, and resolutions are made.
But Offutt gives his books a unique gift in which they are just as well written out of order as they are in. Instead of thinking of the books as an ongoing series, one can instead look at Boy From Two Worlds as the main book that tells the important story and Girl in the Corn as the prequel that sets up the situation retroactively. They can be read in order or out of order and the Reader would still be just as fascinated either way.
In Boy From Two Worlds, a mass murder committed by Bobby Garrett sets up a chain reaction that includes the birth of his son, Jakey, by a woman named Marguerite Jenkins, the disintegration of the relationship between Thomas Cavannaugh and his girlfriend Jillian Robertson, and a series of strange events that get stranger. It is eventually revealed that there are fairies that are violent predators who feast on human flesh and live for their suffering. Jakey inherited some of their powers which the fairies want to take full advantage of in their campaign against the mortals of St. Joseph, Missouri
Girl in the Corn takes us back in time to when 6-year-old Thomas first encounters a fairy in his mother’s garden who tells him that he is special. The fairy girl appears throughout his life telling him that he must defeat Dauor, a dark creature from her world. Meanwhile we are introduced to Bobby, who pre-murder is a teenager with violent impulses that are nurtured by a mysterious creature who takes the form of a Girl Scout. Throughout the years, Thomas and Bobby are encouraged, tormented, cajoled, persuaded, and shaped by these strange creatures who eventually pull them into a battle between supernatural forces, the lives and souls of many, and their own sanity.
One thing that Boy From Two Worlds did well was expand the universe. Weird things didn't just happen to Thomas or Bobby. They happened all over St. Joseph. Through that we got to explore the town itself and particularly its obsession with Wild West outlaw/infamous native son, Jesse James. Exploring the daily realistic life of St. Joseph's residents builds up tension when the otherworldly action begins.
The supernatural incidents vary including bloody ritualistic murder, cattle mutilations, abductions, lost time, mass murder. If you didn't know going into the book series what happened in the first volume, you would be led to believe that anything could be responsible for the strange happenings.
Instead of expansion, Girl in The Corn focuses on intimacy. The events specifically happen to Thomas, Bobby, or someone associated with them. While we lose something in the setting, we gain something in character. It is not so much the supernatural invading an unprepared small town as it is the supernatural affecting two specific young men who happen to live in that town.
Through their separate experiences, the Reader is given contrasting characters that will end up confronting one another.
When Thomas first encounters the fairy, he is a little boy. She appears as a sweet innocent little girl, one who promises to befriend the young boy. She plays on the portrayal of old fairy tale concepts where fairies were seen as beautiful,helpful, charming, adorable, and innocent creatures.
As Thomas matures, his meetings with the fairy become more intense and less fanciful. She now appears as a troubled young woman who appeals to Thomas's good guy helpful personality and his insecurities about being average. She builds up his confidence by saying that he is destined to fight Dauor. This plays on Epic Fantasies where ordinary people are given the Chosen One narrative where they are the ones destined to fight evil for…reasons. Of course, this book is a clever subversion of that trope because it asks the question whether the figure predicting the heroism can be trusted and whether they have ulterior motives for what they do.
As with Boy From Two Worlds, Girl in the Corn builds on different genres. While Thomas's journey compared to Fairy Tales and Fantasy novels, Bobby’s story is more grounded in Occult Supernatural Horror. He comes from a religious family and has his own complicated spiritual beliefs so the fairy builds on that. It first appears as a disembodied voice that builds on Bobby’s anxieties and fears of God's judgment. Bobby begins to commit violence to silence those ever growing fears.
As Bobby ages, his spiritual encounters become angrier, more fierce, and graphic. They are reminiscent of his diminishing mental state and growing blood lust. It takes on horrific images like the body of a murdered girl to taunt and rage at Bobby until he does what it wants. If it weren't for knowing what would happen in the next book, it could be entirely possible that this fairy is in Bobby's head. But since we do know, it's a matter of seeing where it's going to go before it reaches its foreseen explosive conclusion.
Reading the series backwards, turns this book into an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. We see all of the sides and colors and are waiting for the whole image to show. “Okay we see Thomas and Bobby,” the Reader might think. “What about Jillian and Marguerite? When is Jakey conceived? What about the mass murder?” All of those questions are answered and the pieces fit in ways that make the Readers look at them differently in Boy From Two Worlds or deepen understanding in the second book if we read them in the right order.
Cleverly, Thomas and Bobby's journeys seem to be a battle of good vs. evil but once they face those final confrontations, those lines are less defined. The two young men realize that they were led to this conclusion by not only the magical influences but by their own choices. They were given great gifts to see another world, obtain intuition and knowledge, and to decide what to do with that information. In reading the two books, it becomes apparent that the trouble didn't start with a mass murder in a hospital. It started when a six year old boy met a fairy and chose to follow her.
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