Every so often, a book comes along that blows you away.
I was gifted an ARC of UNTIL SUMMER COMES AROUND, the first of Glenn Rolfe’s novels to be released through Flame Tree Press way back at the start of the year.
And just like that, I was in love.
In a nutshell, it is a coming-of-age tell, set in Maine in the 1980’s. Oh and a couple of the main characters just happen to be vampires. The book has been likened to, because of the subject matter and time-line, The Lost Boys and ‘Salem’s Lot. To be honest, that was enough for me to fall in love with the synopsis alone. And it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as these classic tales of fanged monsters. Rolfe, in my opinion, never fails to deliver and this is my 2nd favourite of his full-length novels, only slightly pipped to the post by the werewolves in Blood and Rain.
If you have any worries that a teen romance involving a boy (Rocky) and a vampire (November – amazing name by the way) is going to end up all Twilight then rest assured, Rolfe does NOT follow in that vein (geddit?) and this is not aimed at that kind of market. Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows how popular the 80’s are at the moment. But, I don’t think that USCA was just jumping on the nostalgia band-wagon. The story works so well because of the era, and it will appeal to anyone growing up in that decade along with younger souls. There is plenty of gore and violence for the more hardcore vamp fans out there, whilst not being so graphic as to put people off that prefer chills rather then blood splatter in their dark fiction.
Glenn has easily become one of my most favourite authors and I consider him a friend and mentor. I can say without any doubt that he is one of the best dark fiction writers out there right now. His love of Stephen King comes through as an homage in his work, which will resonate with any other fan of the King of Horror. That being said, Glenn is MY king of horror.
There is a reason I gave this book 11/10. It is simply, AMAZING.
Janine Pipe is a Horror lover and writer who was first introduced to the genre as a child reading ‘Salem’s Lot – and she hasn’t looked back since. Citing Glenn Rolfe and Hunter Shea as her favourite current writers, she likes to shock with her writing. There is usually a lot of gore and plenty of swearing … She is very thankful to her biggest cheerleaders, her husband and daughter and her mentor, Graeme Reynolds. She chews the fat with fellow authors on her blog – Janine’s Ghost Stories and reviews for Scream Magazine and is a friend of Nightworms.
You can find her work at Tales to Terrify and several of her short stories have been published, including an all female anthology with Kandisha Press and the charity anthology, Diabolica Britannica. She is currently writing a splatterpunk novella about a teenage vampire hunter and has a horror podcast with fellow Brit and indie author, Lou Yardley called Cryptids, Crypts and Coffee.
Check her blog here – www.janinesghoststories.
Follow her on Twitter – www.twitter.com/disneynine
Join her Patreon gang – www.patreon.comJanines_