Boy's Life - A Miraculous Novel of Youth and Danger
Wow. This novel touched me.
It is reminiscent of reading Stephen King and Ray Bradbury in regards to coming-of-age nostalgia. It is wonderfully, magically, and beautifully presented. It is adventurous, fun, terrifying, and so heartfelt. The dark mystery that is the nexus of this story is shrouded in the wondrous light of adolescence. It kept me spellbound and I was thrilled with the eventful ending. I am sad to be done this book, but so happy I own it and can revisit the town of Zephyr whenever the ache grips me.
There were two parts in this book that had me genuinely sobbing. Like, ugly cry, loud noises, snot-bubble sobbing. Either I'm getting older and more sentimental, or this is just written that well. I choose to believe it's the latter. A line from the book said by the character of the Lady sums it right up, "You just give folks a key, and they can rightly open their own locks." I opened my own lock to my childhood through the eyes of our main character, the boy Cory Mackenson, and it was surreal and extraordinary to visit.
A second noteworthy quote that squeezed my heart was, "So the Branlins had done something even worse than beating us up: they'd stolen part of Johnny Wilson's summer away from him, and he would never again be twelve years old in June." What a thought. How funny that adults only really think things like that (a window into Robert McCammon through the internal monologue of Cory Mackenson), because when you're young you aren't looking at your time as valuable and limited. You are just living until impending adulthood takes over and you look back and realize what a treasure childhood magic is, which moments were truly special, and what moments were stolen from you for whatever reason.
I recommend this book to everyone. It is for everyone's inner boy/girl. It will build you up, break your heart, and mend it again the best it can be mended after trauma. It's phenomenal.
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