This is a truly great coming of age story.

At times, the pacing might seem a bit slow, which could potentially test the patience of some readers.

However, what it lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in other aspects.

The style of narration is engaging and captivating, drawing the reader in and making them feel as if they are a part of the story.

Moreover, the overall atmosphere that the author creates is one that invokes a sense of youth and all its associated emotions and experiences.

It makes the reader remember their own youthful days, with all the joys, sorrows, and uncertainties that come with that stage of life.

Despite its few drawbacks, this story is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a good coming of age tale that can touch their hearts and make them reflect on their own journey through life.

OMG! This is truly amazing! It's an easy five-star rating.

The writing is simply sumptuous and fantastic from the very beginning to the end. It ranks among the best reads I've had so far this year, and I've read quite a few great ones.

At its core, it's a mystery intertwined with a coming-of-age drama, featuring some powerful supernatural elements. It really transports you back to your childhood and makes you reflect on what life meant to you at that age. McCammon has truly crafted a masterpiece here. I feel like a richer person for having read this, so a big thank you goes out to the author. It's an absolute Must Read for anyone.

Whether you're a fan of mysteries, coming-of-age stories, or supernatural tales, this book has something for everyone. It's a captivating and engaging read that will keep you hooked until the very last page.

Don't miss out on this wonderful literary gem. Grab a copy and embark on this unforgettable journey today!

I read this book based on the very strong recommendations from a number of people in my reading group here at GoodReads. Naturally, I had high expectations and expected to like it. However, I did not anticipate that I would fall in love with it - but that's exactly what happened.

Robert McCammon's coming-of-age story about young Cory Mackenson, who grows up in a small town in Alabama in the 60's, is truly captivating. It kept me on the edge of my seat, guessing what would happen next. It also made me laugh out loud at times and brought tears to my eyes more than once. In fact, I was so engrossed that I didn't even care that I was reading during my commute.

The injustice and cruelty depicted in the story made me angry, while the companionship, kindness, and good deeds made me glad. The suspense and magic were so intense that I even missed my bus stop. To sum it up, as Joanne in my group said: I envy anyone who gets to read this for the first time. And there are very few books about which I would say that. My only wish is that this wonderful book was longer.

This is why I read.

Books like this one. Of course, once encountered with such perfection of storytelling, how can words adequately describe the sheer joy of reading this book? Well, one can try.

This is a story about a year in a boy's life, set in the simpler times (early to mid 1960s) in a small Alabama town of Zephyr. But no, that's too bland. This is a story about the magic of childhood. Yes, that's more accurate.

This is a story about a time in your life where things are pure potential, where friends are made easily, home holds unconditional love and comfort, and every day is an adventure. It's a story about a time before the daily burdens of adulthood, a time irretrievably gone, and it overwhelms the heart with nostalgia and memories of the sheer élan and exuberance of existence.

It moved me to tears more than once, which is no small feat. It also made me happy. I normally shy away from oversized books, but this was exactly the right length, and every word of it worked perfectly to create a story so engaging, so lovely, so fun.

Of course, this book won awards. It has all you can dream of, every possible genre, from monsters to miracles to murder mysteries. It's an absolutely awesome trip of a book, pure magic. I loved it and enthusiastically recommend it.

Don't be in a hurry to grow up. Hold on to being a boy as long as you can, because once you lose that magic, you're always begging to find it again.

Wow, my first Robert McCammon book, but definitely not my last. Boy's Life just ticked all the right boxes for me. I'm actually left with a deep feeling of sadness and loss finishing this one. The writing is so immersive and nostalgic that the story and characters felt like a part of me.

Boy's Life is a coming-of-age story told by the older protagonist, Cory Mackenson, as he looks back on his childhood in his hometown of Zephyr. The narrative begins with Cory and his father discovering a dead body and then chronicles the events that follow. The endearing bond that Cory and his father form through this shared trauma dominates a lot of the narrative, and it's beautiful to see unfold.

What I personally loved about this book was the feeling that I was led on a journey full of magic, faith, loss, racial prejudice, wisdom, and growth. Every scene was so detailed, filled with emotion, suspense, and often with a poignant viewpoint on the world. Each character was so fleshed out and all served a purpose to Cory's childhood. From the bullies he encountered, the best friends he made, to the wonder and mystery of The Lady, who was thought to use voodoo powers, they all impacted and shaped Cory in various ways, as people inevitably do.

If you're looking for a book that you could write a million quotes from, if you're looking for something that shows you what it's like to be young again, to teach you how you once felt, or if you fancy something that will leave you believing in magic again, then you need to pick up Boy's Life.

I'm truly thankful to those readers who have penned such gloriously glowing reviews of this coming of age story. It has been a favorite of mine for a long time.

Equally, I'm absolutely tickled with delight to have perused so many other resplendently glowing responses from other readers. It's as if one is returning to a park where they played as a child. Now, one can see the young trees have grown to their full maturity and hear the voices of a new generation of kids playing.

The joy just keeps on going. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading this book yet, then summer is an ideal time. You can recline in a hammock, spend a day going back to 1964, and experience being 12 years old all over again.

It's a wonderful opportunity to immerse oneself in the story and let the memories and emotions wash over you. So, don't miss out on this chance to embark on a journey through time and relive the magic of childhood.

My initial reaction was that I was having an extremely hard time making up my mind about this book.

I needed to sit and think on it for a while.

After some thought, here's my review.

Gather around, friends! Find a comfy seat and take off your pants.

Yes, it's time to review this pantsless-platoon buddy read. I started this book in October and finished it in January. I know I'm a slow reader, but come on! I've read Stephen King's It in less time, and that's almost double the volume.

The opening sequence was one of the best I've ever read. A naked man, strapped to a steering wheel, with a mysterious tattoo, who had been strangled and was already dead, goes flying off a cliff into a lake with a dangerous current. Our MC's father dives in to save him, not knowing he's already dead.

In the town of Zephryr, this is all the news. The townspeople are baffled. After months of searching, no one knows where this man came from. Mr. Mackenson can't sleep, tortured by dreams.

Cory Mackenson, our MC, has a vivid imagination and can spin a great story. His friends look to him for adventures. There's friendship, imagination, an evil monkey, a red-headed booger-picker, southern voodoo magic, and creatures from the Black Lake.

But there are also some issues. The story seemed to have no direction. The author added in so many random things that it got ridiculous. There was an actual dinosaur, a father who left his son with a nude man, and a zombie dog.

Maybe my problem was that I loved it so much at first, but then these asides took me out of the story. The formatting might have been better as a collection of short stories.

The writing was great, and the characters were believable and likeable. But overall, it was a bit of a mess.

I've finally decided to rate this 3 stars, but really it's a 2.5. I hate being misled, and that's what this felt like.

Thanks to my buddies for the read, even if they left me in the dust. Pantsless reading is always an adventure.

Profound, magical, wonderful!

This book, in some mysterious way, has managed to encapsulate the very essence of childhood. For those who have a deep longing to relive the wonder and innocence of their childhood days, this book is an absolute must-pick.

It took me an inordinately long time to read this book, what with the distractions of moving house and attending a stag doo in Ibiza. I usually detest taking breaks between reading books, but when a book is as outstanding as this one, it truly doesn't matter. This particular book will remain with me for a considerable period of time.

It is a masterpiece. It is extremely rare for a book to bring me to tears, but this one did. It is simply beautiful.

I will most definitely be reading this book again, probably not long after my son arrives in October! And I'll also be exploring more of the author's books. Do you have any recommendations?

An absolutely phenomenal literary achievement.
For me, a great coming of age tale is all about a sense of connection. It's the connection between the reader and the main character or characters, their growth, the overall story, and the setting.
The 1960's America is generally a great choice of setting for a typical bildungsroman story. This is because of both the social upheavals that happened in that decade and the sense of nostalgia the '60's bring for a modern reader. I feel that only Stephen King is McCammon's peer in bringing this setting to life so successfully.
This is a story that McCammon deftly connects you to Cory's world in such a way that feels vivid and authentic. I particularly loved the handling of the plotting and pacing. It felt like the author was taking his time while moving things forward quickly. And I felt the author's handling of all of the events, both big and small in Cory's story, felt real from a 12-year old's standpoint.
I've read a lot of great coming of age stories, but this may be the best of them.

Book of the month? Book of the year? Maybe even the book of my life? This is an absolute flamethrower of a coming-of-age book. I was completely swept away by it. I truly haven't seen it done better.

The lessons you learn within its pages are profound. The mistakes the characters make are relatable and teach valuable life lessons. The mysticism of imagination is beautifully explored, taking the reader on a journey beyond the ordinary. The loss of innocence is portrayed in a way that is both heart-wrenching and realistic.

I have never seen that moment in life where a young person experiences things they don't understand (and sometimes shouldn't) better than in this book. I love Uncle Stevie, but this one just hit a little harder. McCammon weaved all these elements into a sweeping tale full of life, imagination, mystery, friendship, family, good and evil, and so much more.

The small town building and all that comes with it was sensational. It added a layer of authenticity and charm to the story. This book will stick with me for a long time, leaving a lasting impression on my heart and mind.

Before I embarked on reading (listening to) this book, I perused some of the reviews penned by my friends. The majority of them were enthusiastic 5-star ratings. I commenced listening, and although it was interesting enough initially, I simply wasn't experiencing that special magic.

However, then it dawned on me - I believe it was around the time when the boys got out of school for the summer and took their bikes and dogs to the fields for that magical flight. When the flight began, I was skeptical, dubious about whether McCammon would be able to pull this off successfully, but he did. By the conclusion of the flight, I recalled with a tinge of bittersweet nostalgia the power that imagination wields over the young mind, and how effortlessly we surrendered ourselves to it as children. I remembered some of my own flights of fancy: transforming into a ghost, a princess, a fearsome monster lurking beneath a bush.

From that moment on, I completely bought into Zephyr and its quirky, at times hilarious, at times spine-chilling residents. I discovered that the Glass sisters, the Candy-Stick Kid, the Lady, and the Moon Man were all charming, yet the darker side of the town was ever-present as well. Vernon Thaxter was an amusing, yet pitiful figure, seemingly representing many in the town. Beneath the charming manners and gentle friendliness, hidden depths lurked, reflecting sorrow and pain, and brutal truths that were difficult to confront.

The intense reaction Corey's father had to his horrifying encounter with death in Saxon Lake initially struck me as excessive, but this was elucidated towards the end of the story. I adored how the magical elements of the story were so smoothly interwoven with the realistic, seamlessly fusing the mystical with the prosaic.

In addition to enchanting and mystifying me, McCammon broke my heart on a couple of occasions, but I forgive him for this. Loss and pain are an integral part of the human condition, and they don't spare you simply because you're young or you reside in a small town. These events felt authentic to the story and as such, must be accepted and mourned.

By the end of the book, having become attached to Zephyr and its residents, I cherished the epilogue - although it wasn't entirely complete. What became of Nemo Curliss? I yearned so badly to hear that he had gone on to pitch in the majors, but there was no mention of him.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who relishes coming-of-age stories with a twist of mystery and a touch of magic. You won't regret your time spent in Zephyr!

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The question of what would come out of an unnatural town hall between Stephen King and Ray Bradbury is a tough one to answer. These two authors have such extensive and diverse bodies of work. However, if we had to assume based on unanimous agreement, it might be due to two idiosyncratic traits. King's childhood stories set in American towns and Bradbury's melancholic and nostalgic tone. Although Bradbury has created sordid terror that would make King shiver, and King has invented stories that could move Bradbury, only someone outside but with a similar context, like Robert McCammon, a son of rural Alabama, could have achieved this alchemical miracle that is "Muerte al Alba".

This is the story of Cory, a 12-year-old boy from Zephyr, Alabama, and the vicissitudes that befall him in the last summer of his childhood. Told as a memory, the adult Cory - and writer; ahem, ahem, King - relates his initiation rite. Like the dawn when he accompanied his father on his daily milk delivery in a van and witnessed a car almost hit them before falling into the town lake. His father, without hesitation, dives into the water to help. But it's in vain as the driver was already dead before the frantic chase began: naked, tied up, with signs of violence all over his body, his face disfigured by blows, and a piano wire tightened around his neck. This vision, combined with the impotence of not being able to save that mysterious driver or know who and why he was killed so horribly, torments Cory's father and plunges him into depression.

The impactful first act is just the backbone around which the main story is constructed. It's the story of Zephyr, a southern town on the verge of extinction due to inevitable progress, and of Cory, his transition to adolescence, and the birth of his vocation as a writer. Zephyr, an Alabama town, is that kind of town that comes to mind when one thinks of an American town. It's like Derry or Twin Peaks. But Zephyr is in Alabama, in what was the Confederate South, and its Civil War ghosts still walk in the form of segregation and the Ku Klux Klan. So, Zephyr has its black hamlet, Bruton, where its miserable inhabitants live in shacks protected by the immense presence of "La señora", an ancient supposed freed slave who uses her almost legendary figure and reputation as a witch to instill respect in the rest of the town. Although, in the eyes of a child, this terrible reality of racism, death, and poverty belongs to the adult world.

For a child, Zephyr is a magical place. Its geography is populated with toponyms with special sonorities where anything can happen because nothing is impossible for a child's imagination. The Saxon Lake, for example, despite being little more than a pond elevated to a submerged tomb, is home to an aquatic monster whose appetite is calmed by the meat that "La señora" throws in from time to time. The forest that surrounds the town, little more than a grove of a few square kilometers, is a meeting place for the town's delinquents, real gangsters, or the sanctuary of a first platonic love. The local fair, just a handful of booths and carousels run by itinerant fairgoers, is a showcase of wonders where one can even find prehistoric creatures reduced to attractions.
The inhabitants of Zephyr are not immune to this wonderful patina. Every town has its share of eccentric characters, but only Zephyr has a centenarian witch; an old man who in his adolescence helped Wyatt Earp and became one of the deadliest and most feared gunfighters of the distant West; a Baptist and fanatical reverend who uses a rabid spider monkey to infect his parishioners with the terrors of hell; and, of course, its ghost driver who drives his car at full speed along the town's roads, just as he did in life.
I could go on enumerating all the elements that have made this reading so endearing and emotional, but I'll only share one more, which is quite personal. "Muerte al Alba" is one of those few books that has the ability to move you with certain scenes in the same way and intensity as a great scene in a movie. It has those moments when everything comes together, when a character is revealed, when the stories converge at the exact dramatic point, and a shiver is transmitted from your spine to the tips of your fingers and your scalp. "Muerte al Alba" doesn't just have one, it has many of these moments.
If you are faithful readers of Stephen King, especially of his ensemble stories set in small towns, you will love "Muerte al Alba". Imagine a kinder King, less sordid but equally violent and tough when the situation requires it; imagine that "Cuenta conmigo" had taken place on Martian territory. If the image that comes to your mind satisfies you, or at least arouses a minimum of curiosity, don't hesitate to visit Zephyr and accompany Cory in his last summer as a child.