Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson – a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake – and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father’s pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him. From an ancient mystic who can hear the dead and bewitch the living, to a violent clan of moonshiners, Cory must confront the secrets that hide in the shadows of his hometown – for his father’s sanity and his own life hang in the balance… 

This is one that’s been on my Maybe Someday Soonish TBR for quite awhile, and goddamn…it was well worth the wait. 

I’ve seen Boy’s Life mentioned in the same breath as Stephen King’s IT and Dan Simmons’s Summer of Night, two of my very favorite novels. And while Boy’s Life certainly skews much less towards horror than those two, the writing is no less spectacular…this is just a fucking gorgeous book! 

Our main character is Cory Mackenson, an eleven-year-old growing up in Zephyr, Alabama. The book takes place over one year of his life, broken into sections corresponding to the four seasons (I loved that touch). All told, Boy’s Life is rather lightly plotted. There’s a murder mystery that runs through the middle of the whole novel, and while it drives the story forward, it’s not what this book is *about*. What it’s about is just the magic of being a kid…and also the horror of recognizing the ugliness in the world, and the strengths & weaknesses of the grownups around you. It’s a coming-of-age story, but certainly laced with elements of horror & magical realism.

Growing up in an extremely racist environment is also a central theme of the book, something Cory confronts head-on. There’s some incredibly dark & disturbing moments as it relates to people’s attitudes in this time & place (the book takes place in the mid-60’s in the South), but Robert McCammon handles this with such grace. 

Zephyr is presented in such glorious detail…you’ll really feel as if you’ve visited this town after finishing the book. There’s such a lifelike quality to all the characters that come in & out of Cory’s life…a vividness given to this town that just settles over you as you read. It really is so goddamn beautiful. Boy’s Life is equal parts endearing, haunting, tragic, magical, and uplifting. Just an amazing reading experience!