Harvest Home, a folk horror from 1973 by Thomas Tryon, was quite the ride: my review.

Tired from the hectic life in New York City, Ned Constantine, his wife Bethany ("Beth"), and their daughter Kate relocate to an isolated Connecticut rural village, Cornwall Coombe, where the villagers adhere to "the old ways", eschewing modern agricultural methods and shut out from the rest of the world. In their isolated bubble, the villagers celebrate a number of festivals that revolve around the cultivation of corn. The most important being "Harvest Home", which takes place once every seven years.

It is impossible (and would even be irresponsible) not to talk about the beginning of Harvest Home. Or rather, how it begins. Which is awfully slow.
Slow to the point that when characters were engrossed in mundane conversations or the main character focused on the minute details of someone's house, I'd skim the page or press the button to go forward entirely. I've come to understand that this slower pace was generally how horror authors wrote back then, but it's become quite a hurdle for current readers and the reason why many have given it a lower rating if they didn't drop it entirely. I considered doing that, to be honest.
Still, despite how I struggled myself, I can't help but appreciate Thomas Tryon's prose and I realise now the importance of him dragging the slow start for as long as he did. The description of the houses (the old fragrant wood, the well-used cutlery and utensils, the smell of the carpets and curtains and spices in the kitchen, the flowerpots on the sunny windowsills and of freshly tilled soil), the green trees swaying in the wind, clear water bubbling under bridges, and the vast corn fields all over Cornwall Coombe, a constant presence in the village and symbolising something even larger in the lives of the folks there. Thomas Tryon put a lot of care into bringing Cornwall Coombe and its residents to life, and he successfully paints an idyllic picture of it. Whenever Ned and his wife discuss their move there, it’s not made subtle that leaving New York City was the best decision of their lives. It's as though the village was pulled out of a fairytale and makes the new family happy. Even when I sneered and rolled my eyes at the constant mentions of tradition and “that’s how our father and their fathers did, there’s no reason to change it” that also aggravated the protagonist Ned, the community they find there that so promptly embraced and welcomed them in its midst is deeply appreciated by the Constantines.
But, as much as I appreciate the long setup Thomas Tryon made in this book, it drags for a while. So, if slow pace is not your thing, Harvest Home might not be a book for you.
I say might, though. Because in the middle of idyllic explorations in the village and its woods, and conversations with friendly folks, there is always this sensation that Ned – and you – are looking through the glass pane of a closed window. Sometimes I would get sleepy while reading, and then something in how a villager spoke with Ned or looked at him after what seemed an inoffensive remark would jump out to me and make me reread the passage to find out what went wrong. "Uhhh what?" "What does that even mean?" "Hello???" were questions I started asking out loud with increasing frequency as I progressed in this book.
And so, as if marked by a red finger somewhere in the book, the fairytale stops, cracks around the edges, and the book starts to get strange.
The people in Cornwall Coombe are friendly to the new family, but with every interaction, it becomes clear that there’s always something left unsaid. Sometimes made obvious by their refusal to entertain questions. Other times, by the odd responses they offer, and the unnerving behaviour Ned observes as he explores the place. Secrets are openly dangled in front of you and Ned, but they refuse to talk. All they say is not to worry about it. That’s just how things are done in Cornwall Coombe. And when someone finally explains what's going on in the village, Ned later finds another piece of information that contradicts what he previously learned.
So not only there is a mystery that everybody is privy to but refuses to discuss, but the ancient festivals are also rolling in. And the only option the villagers have for Ned is to comply and celebrate with them.

The "or else" is shown not much later.

Dislikes: It's very frustrating how one-dimensional some characters came across, especially the women. Another flaw was how the father and his sons, who lived isolated from the village and harboured an immense dislike for the people there that was never revealed, just up and vanished. I've read that the book was written back when women started to make big strides in demanding equal rights in the United States, and the biggest focus of this book is the contrast between the two sexes and their roles in society, so these unfortunate slides make me wish for a retelling of it through modern lenses.
Likes: Writing aside, which is beautiful and evocative, I also liked Ned, the main character. I've since read a few discussions about the book after finishing it, some from this community, and Ned is not very liked and I understand that (the way he views women and interacts with them and how that leads to him raping Tamar, his constant meddling and his need to have answers when told repeatedly to let it go, his arrogance that relies solely on how naive he is). He’s flawed and by the end of the book, got what he deserved. But I love how he moved through this story. Through him, you are pulled into the village and made part of what happens there, and I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t have tried finding answers for the increasingly bizarre and unnerving things happening in the village, too.
The finale was hypnotic. The charming picture of the village Thomas Tryon spent so long painting at the beginning of the book is what feeds the nightmare that encloses the Constantines and makes the finale so cathartic. It hit home, made me kind of sick, and I loved it.
The only question about the book that I haven’t figured out yet is why Sophie killed herself. There were clues that something was going on, but the reasons evaded me completely.

This book clearly inspired many others who came after it, Stephen King included. And while I’ve seen some people say it’s not the best nor a mandatory read from this subgenre, I think it’s a great folk horror. So yeah, I strongly recommend Harvest Home, even for those who dislike slow-paced stories!