Moonlight Becomes You

Rating: 4/5 silver bullets

Moonlight Becomes You, the second novel in the Eidola Project series by Robert Herold, tells the story of a group of paranormal investigators who travel to Petersburg, Virginia, to determine what’s causing the brutal murders of Black people in the town. (Local law enforcement isn’t particularly interested in investigating as white people haven’t been affected much.) It is a captivating and gripping read full of suspense, action, and, of course, horror.

Moonlight Becomes You takes place in a town plagued by the KKK. The Eidola Project (the group of investigators) determines there may be a werewolf (or werewolves) terrorizing the town. (Come on; this isn’t a spoiler. There’s a werewolf on the cover of the book.) Herold creates an interesting juxtaposition between the horror and violence caused by the KKK and the horror and violence caused by the werewolf.

What’s most compelling about this book is the depth and complexity of characters. Nigel, a white man who fought for the South during the Civil War, struggles to relate to Eidola Project team member Edgar, a Black man, and Edgar struggles to deal with the racism he experiences from Nigel and society at large. This book provides readers with a creepy and compelling backstory on Nigel and his “gifts,” and we also see a lot of depth and growth from Nigel.

Herold’s phenomenal use of vivid imagery often causes a visceral reaction. He describes a werewolf transforming as including “an audible cracking of bones and cartilage.” He describes a corpse as “difficult to recognize as a person, except for the remnants of clothing and the hair still clinging to the back of a crushed skull…Nigel could see the halves of the rib cage spread wide to reveal the empty cavity of his chest.” Much of the creepiness of this book comes from Herold’s use of descriptive language that paints a gory and disturbing picture.

As noted earlier, this is the second book in a series. I’d highly recommend reading the first book, The Eidola Project, before you read this. The Eidola Project sets up how this investigative group got together and what their individual skills are. A lot of complex character development takes places in Moonlight Becomes You, but without reading the first book in the series, some of this character development may lack context.

One of the best things about this book is that, though it was episodic in terms of being about this group finding a werewolf, Herold has set up some broader themes and topics that I hope we’ll see in upcoming books. Nigel (to me at least) was a piece of crap in the first book, but now that I know how complicated and messy his backstory is, I sympathize with him, and I want to know what will happen to him in the future. The character development and powerful imagery make Moonlight Becomes You a must-read book for anyone interested in a classic monster story.

I need to warn you that though the werewolf plot is resolved at the end of the book, there’s a little bit of a cliffhanger. If you read this book, you’ll be desperate to read the next in the series. (I audibly gasped at the end of the book. I’m eagerly awaiting the next in the series!)

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ebook copy of Moonlight Becomes You from the author. All opinions are my own and independent of receiving a free copy.