Book Review: Chasing Ghosts by Glenn Rolfe
Title: Chasing Ghosts
Author: Glenn Rolfe
Release date: August 1st, 2016
Recently, Glenn Rolfe announced a new novella coming in the Summer of 2023 – called Are We Out of the Woods? I preordered it, because I’m a huge fan of Glenn’s work, but only after preordering it did I see that it said The Cobbs Book 2. I was perplexed. Book 2? Had I missed Book 1? Looking into it, I saw that the first was titled ‘Chasing Ghosts’ AND it had been languishing somewhere on my Kindle since early 2018 when I’d purchased it. Knowing that a sequel was arriving soon, I dove into this, expecting a brutally snappy novella and boy was it ever.
What I liked: To be frank, the characters in this are purely there to head to the woods near the Cobbs cabin and be slaughtered. I could probably just leave this section with that one sentence and people would be racing to read it. This, of course, being a Glenn Rolfe story, has more to it than that, but that is the entire basis of the novella and I suspect the sequel will follow along with the events at the ending – at least I hope so.
After a couple of kids go missing, one being Jesse, his parents world falls apart and issues arise. Tie in a band going to play in a cabin in the woods and a deranged killer wanting to slash and stab any people who disturb his area of the woods and you have a recipe for classic Splatterpunk tale. Glenn holds nothing back and no character is safe.
The ending is a culmination of residents and cops trying to survive while they continue to deal with this figure who won’t die, no matter the damage they give it. This one reads like Rolfe was having a ton of fun while writing it and it really makes me eager for the second novella.
What I didn’t like: The reality is, we don’t get that much character depth so it was hard to connect with a few of them, and when they get ripped to shreds, that does lose some of the emotional impact that otherwise would’ve been there.
Why you should buy this: Splatterpunk fans with love this short, snappy single sitting read. It rips along, we get a ton of carnage and gore and we get the stage nicely set for what’s to come. Another great read from Rolfe who goes from strength to strength with every release.
4/5
