Becoming the Boogeyman

The author kindly provided me an ARC to review. Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar, sequel to 2021's Chasing the Boogeyman, is an excellent meta-fiction horror follow-up. Again taking the format of a true crime novel, this book blends elements of Chizmar's real life with a thrilling narrative following the author-as-character's life years after the events of the first book. The Boogeyman might have been caught in the prior installment, but when similar murders start up again Richard Chizmar finds himself asking who and how once again. If you enjoyed the first book I think you'll find a lot to love in this one too. In the author's note, Chizmar acknowledges that he originally intended for Chasing the Boogeyman to stand alone, and honestly my feelings about this sequel are similar to my thoughts on Stephen Graham Jones' Don't Fear the Reaper: we don't really need it, but I'm glad we have it. In both instances we get to see the protagonist years after the initial story, and they basically do more of the same things but with a different prospective. Becoming the Boogeyman has loads of creepy and tense moments, it made me Google what a window well was (iykyk), and I certainly didn't see many events of the plot coming. Chizmar got even more ambitious in weaving this story together across multiple formats or “sources”, and I think he was largely successful. I had a lot of fun reading this one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫