Becoming by Glenn Rolfe

 

Something ancient has wormed its way up from the earth.... A change has come today. After Michele Cote's best friend disappears, no one believes her story about the thing responsible for his abduction. Forced to figure out the mystery for herself, Michele encounters terror she has never known, and witnesses the impossible. When other members of the community begin to change or vanish, Sheriff Shane Davis must look beyond reason in order to stop the evil seeping into this small town. With help from an unlikely source, Sheriff Davis will come face-to-face with the truth. You can't destroy what you don't understand. For the small town of Avalon, Maine, the future is about change...for better or worse. Becoming is the next horrifying novel from author, Glenn Rolfe.

"In all my years lived never have I witnessed such evil. The devil in the waters . . . "

Creature feature, small town horror. The lady of the lake will arise from the depths of Jade Lake to claim all the souls of the town of Avalon, ME. She is ancient and demands reverence. She has chosen one to begin the changes so they all may become. The residents now have mesmerizing, glowing green eyes and serpentine appendages, and it seems there is no hope for survival. 

Not only is there a looming dread as the story unfolds, but there is also an uncomfortableness beneath the surface. A dreadful relationship between father and son and a broken relationship between mother and daughter. There is also loss and grief as the characters meet their demise. 

*There is a bonus novella included, "Boom Town".

3.5 Stars

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Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling

 

THERE’S A DARK TRUTH BURIED AMONG THE ROOTS AND BONES.

About fifteen miles west of Stauford, Kentucky lies Devil’s Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices―a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god.

In 1983, the church burned to the ground following a mass suicide. Among the survivors were Jacob’s six children and their grandparents, who banded together to defy their former minister. Dubbed the “Stauford Six,” these children grew up amid scrutiny and ridicule, but their infamy has faded over the last thirty years.

Now their ordeal is all but forgotten, and Jacob Masters is nothing more than a scary story told around campfires.

For Jack Tremly, one of the Six, memories of that fateful night have fueled a successful art career―and a lifetime of nightmares. When his grandmother Imogene dies, Jack returns to Stauford to settle her estate. What he finds waiting for him are secrets Imogene kept in his youth, secrets about his father and the church. Secrets that can no longer stay buried.

The roots of Jacob’s buried god run deep, and within the heart of Devil’s Creek, something is beginning to stir…

"Your will and the old ways are one."

Religious/Occult horror is one of my favorites, so going into this, I was expecting it to be dark and foreboding. But this was much darker than anything I have ever read, and I have read many dark books in my day. It is disturbing at its very core and more chilling than my mind could ever possibly conjure up in my imagination. 

The story depicts how evil can be such a huge influence on someone with a disturbed mind and how people will follow the masses, looking for something to believe in. The mistakes made by overlooking the atrocities that are occurring and eventually realizing how evil the occurrences happening really are. The suffering lingers for a lifetime. 

The evil that lies below is a cosmic evil entity that whispers, "Suffer for me", making promises of a life of deplorable freedoms to do as one pleases. Sexual desires, drugs, etc. This added an even more disturbing aspect to the story that gave me an unpleasant feeling deep within. Especially when it came to the children!

I appreciate a thick book with deep storytelling that keeps me engaged, waiting to see what the ending will be. The ending here was not disappointing hoping that good over evil will win.

5 Stars

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