The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

By: Richard Holeman

Narrated by: Sam Rosenthal

Welcome to Hayfork, Iowa, a peaceful farming community nestled in the heart of a tranquil valley, a town that looks after its own. It’s a place where gossip is king, but secrets are kept from outsiders, and those who are born there live and die at the mercy of the weather, or the forgiveness of the land.

Now a strange terror roams the sky at night, a dread horror lurks among the corn, and a troubled widow gives birth to a boy who glows in the dark. Death on the streets and blood in the fields seed suspicion and division deep in the valley’s fertile soil as the town folk are terrorized season after season with the deadly visitations of a mysterious ancient hunter of human emotions.

©2022 Richard Holeman (P)2022 Richard Holeman

Excellent imaginative small town horror, but...

Before doing a breakdown I'll just say this is 100% worth the listen or the read. I really loved this book and was absorbed by its small town charm.

The Good:
A very well-crafted story in a style similar to Stephen King's small town horrors.
An excellent villain who gets under your skin with just how creepy and casual their disregard for life is.
Imaginative, disturbing, violent, No one's safe.
Hansom Greene (sorry, don't have the spelling since it's an audiobook) it's a lovingly crafted character that you immediately fall in love with for better or worse.
characters have complexity to them, you don't just get good or bad people here, you get flawed people which makes them feel human.

The Bad:
(If this section seems longer it's because even though the good outweighs the bad, the bad is more difficult to explain, but the good definitely outweighs the bad in this book)
Having such a huge cast is a big risk because you end up picking one or two trades from your characters to show and that can leave some of them feeling less than three dimensional.
There are certain deaths that work wonderfully, and others that feel like shock value, but happen to some major characters In a way that feels offhand. It kind of feels like they were built up and then didn't actually have an arc.
(SPOILERS for two minor characters)
While I don't believe LGBTQ+ characters should get a pass in the horrors of a story. This story has exactly two gay characters, who both meet horrible and in one case humiliating ends.
All of that doesn't hurt the overall story, but then we get to...

THE ONE TRULY BAD THING:
WITHOUT SAYING WHO OR HOW OR WHEN CERTAIN CHARACTERS DIE TO AVOID SPOILERS: I love a story in which no one is safe, but when the climax to thus book comes in, it sort of feels like I wasted so much time getting to know certain characters for them to get such a rushed sendoff. honest to God there is one character that gets the Shining movie Halloran treatment: long way to reach a destination only to die without doing anything.
I honestly don't know if I'm missing something; I don't know if this was on purpose, but one of the things that Stephen King gets more criticized about are his endings, and the ending of this book feels like it's trying to emulate some of King's worst endings. I wish the book had ended a couple of paragraphs earlier.

OVERALL:
LISTEN TO / READ THIS BOOK. it's so entertaining, it has such a creative eye for simplicity in evil. It can take a concept that feels very common, like you maybe so that somewhere before but can't remember where, but handled in a very imaginative way. you will not be bored for one second of this book and the buildup of tension and the way it places its pieces on the board for the climax is worthy of praise. Just be warned that some deaths feel rushed and maybe unnecessarily cruel without thought for the character, and if it had only ended a couple paragraphs earlier it would have been a spectacularly better book, but it's still a very good read.

Allow this story to take you on a riveting journey.

What an incredible journey this story was!

I’ve been focusing a lot to more well-known classics lately, but decided to spend more time on indie authors and boy, this story did not disappoint.

The small-town setting with a paranormal aura was perfect. It honestly reminded me very much of a Stephen King type of story, except in the Midwest as opposed to the East coast. I may be off base, but I was left with the impression that Mr. Holeman probably draws some inspiration from King (as do I). I have no shame in saying that this novel is just as good as most every King Novel I have read.

The character development in this novel is incredible, with very strong development of several key characters. I “thought” I knew how the story would end, but I was wrong. The ending is great, and not what I expected.

It’s obvious Mr. Holeman put a lot of effort and emotion into this story, and frankly it deserves much more recognition.

I implore readers to give this one a shot, you will not be disappointed.

Amazing!

Wow. Just wow. My first Richard Holeman book but if they are all this good and brilliantly written, then I will definitely have to fill my library with his books. The book grabbed me from the opening page and kept me till the end. Really an absolute must read.