Until Summer Comes Around by Glenn Rolfe

Synopsis:

Praise for Until Summer Comes Around:

“Rolfe is the real deal, folks, and anything he writes is well worth checking out.” – Gord Rollo, author of The Jigsaw Man and The Crucifixion Experiments

When fifteen year old Rocky Zukas meets a mysterious dark-haired girl named November, his world is forever changed. The young couple falls under the spell of summer love, but not everyone approves. November’s brother, Gabriel, is the keeper of the family’s secret, and big brother is always watching, growing more sinister as his bloodlust gets the best of him. Directing his attention to Rocky’s family, Gabriel aims to make sure little sister knows who is in charge. 

Disclaimer:

I received a review copy of Until Summer Comes Around from Net Galley in return for an honest review. This does not affect my review in any way.

Edition:

E-ARC

My Thoughts:

I knew this was going to be the book for me right from the outset. I mean, like as soon as I “cracked” it (as much as one can crack open an e-book). The dedication reads:

“For all the Lost Boys out there.
Thou shalt not fall.”

Anyone who knows me even a little bit probably knows that I am a wee bit obsessed with The Lost Boys. Well, more specifically with a mulleted and extremely attractive Keifer Sutherland (who would never again be that kind of hot – unlike his extremely beautiful father – but I digress).

But lest I end up turning this into a Lost Boys appreciation post (I guess I need to actually do that now), I’m going to get back to this book. Which is fantastic!

So, Until Summer Comes Around centers around a teen boy named Rocky who is facing a summer without his best friend/cousin Axl. See, Axl is going to visit relatives in England, leaving Rocky the whole summer to wander the boardwalks of their New England tourist town all by himself. But just before Axl leaves, Rocky meets November, and instantly develops a crush on her the likes of which nobody outside of their teens would probably understand. But November’s got a secret – she’s a vampire. And her brother Gabriel is not amenable to his little sister mixing it up with humans.

I think that Rolfe did some really interesting things with vampire lore. And they aren’t gentle or sexy, which I’m 100% here for. Instead, they’re terrifying monsters – but not all of them are necessarily evil. I don’t know, there’s just a lot of really fun stuff going on here.

There was one thing about this book I wasn’t 100% on board with. It wasn’t just rice, Michael.

The Epilogue is the only thing that I didn’t love completely, and that was just because it reminded me that I had basically forgotten that Axl even existed right up until that moment, and things didn’t play out super well for him in the end. I think I felt a little guilty.

Anyway, this coming of age vampiric beachside pier-horror novel is a PERFECT SUMMER READ. If you haven’t read it, I have to insist that you fix that as soon as possible. It’ll bring you back to your summers as a child – all cotton candy, ferris wheels, and that pure, crystalline terror that seems to be unique to children on the cusp of adulthood – you know the one – like, the whole world is out to get you, there’s monsters around every corner, but you know you’re too old to run away from it, so you have to have that super rad gearing-up montage before you hop on your bmx to go confront the things that go bump in the night.

About the Author:

Glenn Rolfe is an author/singer/songwriter from the haunted woods of New England. He has studied Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University, and continues his education in the world of horror by devouring the novels of Stephen King, Ronald Malfi, Jack Ketchum, and many others. Glenn and his wife, Meghan, have three children, Ruby, Ramona, and Axl. He is grateful to be loved despite his weirdness.

He is a Splatterpunk Award nominee and the author of The Window, Becoming, Blood and Rain, The Haunted Halls, Chasing Ghosts, Abram’s Bridge, Things We Fear, Boom Town, and the collections, Slush. and Land of Bones.

Now he is hard at work on many more. Stay tuned!

Rating:

I REALLY loved this book. It gave me a chance to live out a bit of my own Lost Boys dream for a few hours, which I’m never going to complain about.

Until Summer Comes Around
By Glenn Rolfe
Flame Tree Press
ISBN: 9781787583948
Published: May 21, 2020
Hardcover, Paperback
288 Pages
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