The Window by Glenn Rolfe REVIEWED

2018 has been an overwhelmingly good and especially prolific year for Horror. So, let me start by saying I am going to hold off on my "best of" list until I've gotten through a few last books of the year, so keep an eye out for that in mid-January.

That being said, there are many strong contenders for that list and here is yet another.

Glenn Rolfe is an author who I have watched and followed from very early in his career, from his first novel, The Haunted Halls. I read him religiously, because he has never let me down. Rolfe's writing embodies the aura of classic horror fiction perfectly. Even better, his writing gets more focused and refined with each book.

To see a guy start humbly with a single title, to now a fairly vast library and fanbase, even starting his own publishing line, Alien Agenda, this year, is a really cool thing to watch.

And so, it goes without saying, if you haven't checked out Glenn and his work, you absolutely should. He's amongst the most versatile new horror authors I can think of, with something for everyone in his bibliography.

The Window is a great place to start. It meshes the skills that Rolfe has sharpened over time in a perfect way. It's got the more subdued moments of Abram's Bridge while keeping the blood and sex quotient of The Haunted Halls or Becoming. It's almost like a greatest hits sampler of all the things he can do well.

A coming-of-age story with sex demon doppelgangers, it harkens to the day of Leisure titles (Brian Keene's Ghoul comes to mind) and classics like Stephen King's It. That's a bold statement, I know, but I really mean it.

Focusing mostly on a 13 year old boy named James, and his now-divorced parents, mom has a new beau, and he is forced to live away from his friends. He's got one last summer to spend with his dad, Richie, and his neighborhood lifelong pals, as well as dad's new girlfriend, Alison before he leaves for a new school.

He falls into his first love, fights off some bullies and encounters the most nasty demons this side of The Exorcist taking possession of his Dad.

Rolfe knocks it out of the park, for the most part with my only criticism being the pacing is a bit uneven with the last act of the book being to the brim with action, just a bit slower earlier on. It remains engaging throughout, it just would be nice for the action to be more dispersed.

The Window gets a solid 4/5 from me.
Check it out.

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