Reviews - Becoming the Boogeyman

Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar

409 reviews for:

Thank you to Simon Audio for the ALC! “Becoming the Bogeyman” in out now.

In this highly anticipated sequel to “Chasing the Bogeyman”, Richard Chizmar is a few decades older with two grown children of his own. His novel about “the bogeyman” saw success and even was adapted into a movie. Due to DNA evidence, Joshua Gallagher has been sentenced to life in prison. But now, nearly thirty years later, more young girls go missing. At first, the crimes are connected to the first murders but they quickly become connected to Richard. His life in a stand still, Richard is forced to determine why is there a copycat killer targeting him now, after all these years?

I have no idea why I waited so long to read the first book (“Chasing the Bogeyman”), because it is obviously fantastic. The only silver lining to my waiting is that I was able to listen to the sequel immediately after I finished. Brilliantly weaving together true crime and fiction, Chizmar once again makes readers feel like they are right at the center of this town with him, expecting creepy happenings at every turn. But whereas before Chizmar was an innocent bystander, now people turn on him, accusing him of profiting off people’s pain with his book. And the ending - OMG! It’s impossible to say more than that without giving spoilers. I look forward to seeing what happens next (for both Richard and the bogeyman!)

This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

zjswetlik's review against another edition

4.75

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

dhasenkampf's review

4.25

This was a pretty fun time. I enjoyed being back in this weird, is it real or isn't it, world that Chizmar has created. The mixed media really makes the book more interesting and grabbed my attention.

I couldn't do five stars because there were a couple of inconsistencies that I think should have been caught in editing that were just too obvious for me to forgive. The book also jumped around in time too much, especially early on in the book. Each chapter is broken into sections and in one section we are discussing the present-day events, two sections later we are in June of the year before, the next section might be 18 months before that, etc. It was too chaotic and wasn't always clear to me when was being discussed.

But overall, I really liked this follow up book and hope he continues the series soon.