Becoming Review

Becoming by Glenn Rolfe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Becoming is the third title I’ve read by Glenn Rolfe, and as I’ve come to expect, it’s very good. One thing I love about Rolfe is that it seems the entire genre is his comfort zone. Although I’m sure that it isn’t easy, Rolfe is certainly making it appear simple for him to write in all the different horror sub genres.

In Becoming, Rolfe tries his hand at small town invasion horror. He plays this hand well and walks away with a win. Set in the small town of Avalon, Maine, there’s something in the water. Literally. People are going missing, and eventually return...different.

The lakeside setting of Avalon works very well for this book. It’s easy to picture this small town quickly becoming overrun by whats plaguing the lake. It reminds me a lot of Salem’s Lot in that respect. Rolfe writes his characters well in this book. I’m a sucker for horror centered on children and coming of age tales, so I did enjoy following Michelle’s POV throughout the book. Clint Truman has a good character arc, and one of the worst father son relationships I’ve read in a long time. There was some truly disturbing stuff going on with the elder Truman.

My only complaint about the book is the resolution, I wasn’t a big fan of the ending, I thought it came on a bit abrupt and wrapped things up too cleanly, but that doesn’t detract from absolutely loving the rest of this book.

If you’re looking for some good old fashioned throwback horror you should definitely pick this one up. It goes without saying I’m becoming a huge Glenn Rolfe fan, and this is another hit for him.