Book Review | Odd Man Out by James Newman

Odd Man Out is a horror novella from James Newman.

The Black Mountain Camp for Boys. Summer of ’89. It is a time for splashing in the lake and exploring the wilderness, for nine teenagers to bond together and create friendships that could last the rest of their lives.

But among this group there is a young man with a secret — a secret that, in this time and place, is unthinkable to his peers.

When the others discover the truth, it will change each of them forever. They will all have blood on their hands.

This novella packs quite the emotional punch. It's a short book, but it took me a couple of weeks or so to get through it because my heart was terrified.

Odd Man Out is a great read, but I'm not going to give it a blanket recommendation to everyone. If you love horror or you've been tempted by all of the amazing reviews for Odd Man Out, I say absolutely download it and give it a read. The story is foreshadowed from the very beginning. If you find yourself terrified that something is going to happen, I think it's safe to say you'll be forewarned.

Odd Man Out is about a group of teenage boys who are spending the week at summer camp. It takes an honest look at bigotry and the fear of standing up for the odd man out. It's a brutal book and it's heartbreaking, but it's one of the best books I've read this year.

9/10: Highly Recommended

Book Review | Boy's Life by Robert McCammon

This year has been about reading a lot of really great books, but not so much about reviewing them. I’ve always had trouble reviewing McCammon, though. It’s impossible to match my words to my emotions when it comes to his work. That being said, I’m going to try to get a portion of my thoughts out about Boy’s Life bullet point style:

• First of all, thanks to Lilyn (Sci-Fi & Scary) and Clare Favara for buddy reading Boy’s Life with me. Boy’s Life is my favorite book of all time, and I absolutely loved hearing their thoughts over the course of the book. This was my third time to read Boy’s Life, but it had been at least 10 years since my last read so there was plenty for me to discover as well.

• One of the things I have loved most about Robert McCammon releasing The Listener this year has been seeing people discover McCammon for the very first time. Readers naturally flock to Boy’s Life after discovering McCammon, and it has been a joy watching people discover a new favorite author, a new favorite book, and in some cases their favorite book of all time.

• Boy’s Life is the coming of age story of 11 year old Cory Mackenson.

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....

• Boy’s Life is often labeled as a horror novel, but the supernatural elements in Boy’s Life are a fraction of a much larger book. If any label is appropriate for Boy’s Life, it’s simply “American Literature”.

• I'm not one to write in my books, but I think the next time I read Boy’s Life, I'm going to get a copy that I can start highlighting and writing in. There are so many beautiful quotes to take from this book, and each time I have read it, I have gotten something different out of it.

• I had forgotten the main character Cory was telling the story of Boy’s Life just before his fortieth birthday. I’m a little over a month away from my fortieth, and this was the perfect time in my life to be reading this book again.
  
  In me are the memories of a boy's life, spent in that realm of enchantments. I remember. These are the things I want to tell you....

• During my first two reads of Boy’s Life, I really connected to the main character Cory and his coming-of-age story. This read, however, I found myself really connecting to Cory's dad. One of the best things about Boy’s Life is Cory's parents. In most books, the parents are unavailable, uninvolved in a neglectful way, or if they are around, they are just horrible parents. That's not what the reader gets in Boy’s Life. The reader is actually treated to a realistic and loving family relationship. Cory's parents are flawed as any parents are, but they are also available and loving parents. This is unique to most of the books that I’ve read, and one of the many reasons I love Boy’s Life.
  
  “My father could throw up a fistful of dice to make a decision, but my mother had an agony for every hour. I guess they balanced, as two people who love each other should.”

• If I had to pick one favorite thing about Boy’s Life, it would be the way McCammon captured the magic of childhood.
  
  We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand.

• Everything in Boy’s Life is so well done. Even the setting of Zephyr and the vehicles have their own character arcs.

• I hope when I'm in the nursing home and nearing my final days, I'm surrounded by people who love me and know me well enough to play me the audio of Boy’s Life or to sit at my bedside and read it to me out loud. If I have to leave this world in the middle of a book, let it be Boy’s Life.
  
  “They may look grown-up,” she continued, “but it’s a disguise. It’s just the clay of time.”

10/10: Awesome Read

Book Review | Fender Lizards by Joe R. Lansdale

Fender Lizards is a coming of age novel from Joe R. Lansdale.

The unmistakable accent of the Piney Woods of East Texas rolls from the pages of Fender Lizards, Joe R. Lansdale’s tale of the life and love and work of one Dot Sherman, who delivers on her promise that her story is “the real thing from beginning to end.”

Dot waitresses on roller skates at the Dairy Bob, doesn’t care for smoking at least partly on account of her dad having never returned from a cigarette run, and carries on the family tradition of philosophizing. Life hasn’t done her any favors in her seventeen years so far. But if there was ever a heroine built for turning things upside down and seeing what shakes out, it’s Dot. Determined to find out who she is and why she’s the way she is, an opportunity presents itself when her heretofore-unknown uncle suddenly moves his camper into the front yard.

As in his classic novels The Bottoms and The Magic Wagon, multiple-award-winning Lansdale instills place with character and character with place. Here is an overlooked world and a cast of real folks that prove unforgettable, all rendered in one of American fiction’s most authentic voices.

Fender Lizards is the story of how Dot came to be in the roller derby.

Reading about roller derby is like reading about quidditch in Harry Potter or stopping in the middle of Twilight for a long game of baseball. It's not an exciting time. (Is it taboo to make references to Twilight? Sorry.) Some of you will know what I mean.

I'm from Southeast Texas so Lansdale automatically puts me at home. I can hear and feel East Texas in his writing. This is a big plus for me.

I loved the characters in Fender Lizards. Dot was definitely the heart of the story. Fender Lizards was much more about Dot and her family than it was about her joining the roller derby, but that aspect bored me so I'm harping on it.

Overall, Fender Lizards was a decent read. I didn't love it. I felt like I wanted more to be happening. It was easy to put down, and it took longer than it should have for me to finish it. I didn't dislike it, either, though. It reinforced the fact that I need to be reading a lot more Lansdale outside of my Hap and Leonard binges.

5/10: Decent Read

Shelf Control | Midnight Rain by James Newman

I had the worst book hangover after reading A Nearer Moon last week. In an attempt to head off the book funk, I went deep into the unread horror books and pulled out Charles L. Grant's The Hour of the Oxrun Dead. It was the best cure, and I really need to start working my way through all of the unread gems I've been hoarding on my shelves (and in boxes).

It's easy to keep passing up the old for the hyped up new. I'd love to keep some of my older books in the forefront and finally read them. I have so many books that I needed to buy immediately, and yet somehow they still haven't been read.

It's a booklover's problem, and it's not a bad one. I'm sure most of us will never run out of things to read. I could live in my closet for the rest of my days and be a well read woman. Thankfully we can face this plight together.

Bookshelf Fantasies has started a new feature this week called Shelf Control. (Great name, Lisa!) Shelf Control is an opportunity to feature those must read books that never got read. Some of my books go through my head each and every year. Will this be the year I finally read XYZ? Those books need to be discussed.

My first selection for Shelf Control is Midnight Rain by James Newman.

Like most twelve-year-old boys, Kyle Mackey has a secret place where he goes to be alone. In Kyle's case it's a run-down shack deep in the woods outside his small town of Midnight, North Carolina. But Kyle's private spot will never seem the same to him again. Not after tonight. Not after he looks in through one fo the shack's dusty windows and sees a naked girl lying there... broken and bleeding.

The girl has been brutally beaten, but she's still clinging to life. What Kyle sees next, though, is the worst part, the part that will haunt him the rest of his life. Soon he will be the only witness to an unspeakable murder. There's no one he can trust, no one he can turn to to see that justice is done. But the murderer isn't finished, and the only hope of stopping him is in the hands of a small, frightened boy....

I remember needing this book. I ordered a signed copy from Shocklines, and when it came in, I hugged it tight and put it on the shelf without reading it.

I skipped over it again last week when I was looking for the cure to my book hangover. I think I'm terrified of reading it.

MIDNIGHT RAIN is a dark coming-of-age novel in the vein of Robert McCammon's BOY'S LIFE and Stephen King's THE BODY (STAND BY ME). It is a tale of growing up in the South, a reflection of boyhood and all its wonders, and the story of how one boy deals with a terrible secret that threatens to tear apart both his family and hometown.

No book could live up to that. OR COULD IT? I have serious reader issues. I can't handle books that sound that good. At some point I will have to get brave enough to pull it off the shelf.

Have you ever read Midnight Rain? What "must read" books are still sitting on your shelf unread? What books are you too afraid to read?

If you ever want to buddy read a book I've mentioned on Shelf Control, please let me know!

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This post is being shared as part of Bookshelf Fantasies's Shelf Control?

Book Review | Earthly Things by Julian Vaughn

Earthly Things is a supernatural mystery from Julian Vaughn.

Book Description

Sensitive fourteen-year-old Dexter Bestwick is at the park with his girlfriend Jamie when his father murders him for stealing something from his locked room. Still around after his death to witness the ensuing damages, he aches to protect his first, young love from being a victim. Yet he’s afraid the eternal light will grow brighter and claim him, and that Jamie will soon suffer the same fate...

Earthly Things is a touching and fast-paced supernatural mystery that will appeal to fans of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Julian Vaughn is a pseudonym of author Lee Thompson. I'm a huge Lee Thompson fan, and although he is becoming a master of many genres, his young adult/coming of age stories are where I find him at his best. Books like Before Leonora Wakes, Within This Garden Weeping, and now Earthly Things are among my favorites.

Earthly Things begins with the (almost) coming of age story of Dexter. We find out early on that Dexter is going to die young. The first half of Earthly Things gives us a glimpse into the often heartbreaking and at times endearing life of Dexter.

Dexter does meet an untimely death (this is not really a spoiler, guys), but the first person narrative continues on in the same vein as The Lovely Bones. I loved this point of view. This is not the first time Thompson has tackled a complicated point of view. It is apparently one of his many talents.

Earthly Things is a brutal book at times. It's heartwrenching, but it's also a great mystery and just a really great read. Even though I couldn't relate to the characters because their reality was so far from my own, I still felt connected to them and emotionally invested in them which I attribute to some really great writing.

9/10: Highly Recommended

Joyland by Stephen King | Book Review

I was planning to read Joyland right after NOS4A2, but NOS4A2 felt so much like a Stephen King book, I decided to read a couple of unrelated books first. I couldn't hold off any longer than that, though, because I do love me some Stephen King.

Book Description

"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts," says Stephen King, who has combined these elements into a wonderful new story. Joyland is a whodunit noir crime novel and a haunting ghost story set in the world of an amusement park.

It tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a 'carny' in small-town North Carolina and has to confront the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the way both will change his life forever. It is also a wonderful coming-of-age novel about friendship, loss, and your first heartbreak. Who dares enter the funhouse of fear?

Review

Devin Jones is the main character and narrator of Joyland. He is now in his 60s, and he's looking back on the end of his first love and the summer he spent working for the Joyland amusement park in North Carolina. That is also the summer he encountered the ghost of a young girl and helped solve her murder. I loved the beach-side setting and the relationships between the characters. Stephen King excels at nostalgia. I love how he can evoke that feeling of longing. He also enjoys breaking my heart. I'm not always a fan of that, but I am a fan of Joyland.

The cover is a bit misleading with the "Who Dares Enter the Funhouse of Fear?". Joyland has a suspenseful climax, but there's not a whole lot of fear going on in Joyland. If you've been too afraid to pick up a Stephen King novel, this is a great one to try especially if you like mysteries or coming of age stories.

This wasn't a spectacular novel. I'm not clamoring to get this book into everyone's hands, but I really loved reading it. If you are a fan of Stephen King, it's a must read, but I also recommend it to anyone looking for a great summer read.

8/10: Great Read

Book Review | Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

I wanted to read Ordinary Grace for the atmosphere promised by the book description. Coming of age stories are my absolute favorite, and the vision of growing up in the early 60s with baseball and root beer and family secrets made me really want to read Ordinary Grace. I'm happy to say Ordinary Grace delivered much of what I was hoping for.

In the opening of Ordinary Grace, it was revealed that a young boy had been killed on the railroad tracks outside of town. This immediately called forth Stephen King's The Body (the story on which Stand by Me was based). For me that set a wonderful tone for the rest of Ordinary Grace which follows Frank and his brother Jake through a summer in New Bremen, Minnesota in 1961.

I loved both Frank and Jake as well as most of the people closest to them. The one exception would be their mother. At first, I loved her honesty and her individuality, but I eventually grew to hate her. The more I hated her, though, the more I grew to love their father.

If you prefer there be no religion in your fiction, this is not the book for you. Frank and Jake's father is a preacher and religion is interwoven throughout Ordinary Grace. I thought the religious aspect was handled very well and there were several moving spiritual moments in Ordinary Grace.

All in all, I enjoyed reading Ordinary Grace. Along with the wonderment that is inherent in a coming of age story, Ordinary Grace is about loss and tragedy and how a family holds itself together. It was a refreshingly well rounded story. It's been a long time since I've read something that felt as developed as Ordinary Grace.

If you enjoy historical mysteries and coming of age stories, Ordinary Grace might be a great pick for you. The mystery wasn't shocking, but the journey through the summer of 1961 was a good one.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★
4/5 stars

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review: Mystery Walk by Robert McCammon

Mystery Walk is another epic read from Robert McCammon.

Book Description

One talks to the dead. The other heals the living. Both must make the ...Mystery Walk

From deep within the empty house of a murdered family, Billy Creekmore hears his name whispered... and is drawn inside. At a revival meeting in Alabama, Wayne Falconer demonstrates his miraculous healing powers... while demons feast and grow in his soul. On separate journeys through the Deep South to Chicago, from a world of innocence to a world of evil, greed and lust, the two young men discover their manhood - and fuel a deadly rivalry. On a scorched slab of desert they will meet in fear and unite their extraordinary powers against a raging, unshackled spirit - the walking, hungry corpse of the Shape Changer. - Goodreads

I have a strong desire to read The Five again. I can't help but wonder if the shapeshifter from Mystery Walk is the same evil that is in The Five.

Mystery Walk has everything I love in a story: coming of age characters, good vs. evil, ghosts, suspense, scares... Like all of McCammon's works, Mystery Walk is a huge story I was able to lose myself in.

If you are a fan of McCammon and you haven't read Mystery Walk, you need to read it. If you aren't familiar with McCammon but enjoy books like Justin Cronin's The Passage, you would also enjoy Mystery Walk.

9/10: Highly Recommended

The Great McCammon Read

If you'd like to learn more about McCammon's books, you can find all the details of The Great McCammon Read here. This month I'll be reading and reviewing Usher's Passing if you'd like to join me!

Review: The Turtle Boy by Kealan Patrick Burke

The Turtle Boy is an excellent novella from Kealan Patrick Burke.

Book Description

School is out and summer has begun. For eleven year old Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete Marshall, the dreary town of Delaware Ohio becomes a place of magic, hidden treasure and discovery.

But on the day they encounter a strange young boy sitting on the bank of Myers Pond a pond playground rumor says may hide turtles the size of Buicks everything changes.

For it soon becomes apparent that dark secrets abound in the little community, secrets which come cupped in the hands of the dead, and in a heartbeat, Timmy and Pete's summer of wonder becomes a season of terror, betrayal and murder.

I loved The Turtle Boy.  It's a fantastic mix of youth, magic, and horror.

The Turtle Boy is first novella in Kealan Patrick Burke's Timmy Quinn series.  I'm really looking forward to reading The Hides and the rest of the series.

If you haven't read The Turtle Boy yet, you can download it free from Smashwords.  Kealan says it's only for a "limited time" so don't be crazy and wait.  You will love this one.

7 Great Coming of Age Stories

Yesterday I asked if you guys were fans of coming of age stories.  I thought today I would share my favorite coming of age books.

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon

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....

Amazon | Goodreads

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel—a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

Amazon | Goodreads

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn. Little Ann had the brains, and Billy had the will to make them into the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too. Where the Red Fern Grows is an exciting tale of love and adventure you'll never forget.

Amazon | Goodreads

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Pip’s life as an ordinary country boy is destined to be unexceptional until a chain of mysterious events lead him away from his humble origins and up the social ladder. His efforts to become a London gentleman bring him into contact not just with the upper classes but also with dangerous criminals. His desire to improve himself is matched only by his longing for the icy-hearted Estella, but secrets from the past impede his progress and he has many hard lessons to learn.

Amazon | Goodreads

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy's adventures in the Mississippi Valley-a sequel to Tom Sawyer-the book grew and matured under Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck's and Jim's voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass brings the intrigue of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife to a heart-stopping end, making the final volume of His Dark Materials the most powerful of the trilogy.

Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear, come a host of new characters: the Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spymaster to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. So, too, come startling revelations: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber spyglass, and the names of who will live--and who will die--for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that--in its shocking outcome--will uncover the secret of Dust. Philip Pullman deftly brings the cliff-hangers and mysteries of His Dark Materials to an earthshattering conclusion--and confirms his fantasy trilogy as an undoubted and enduring classic.

Read my review of the His Dark Materials trilogy

Amazon | Goodreads

Before Leonora Wakes by Lee Thompson

Red Piccirilli is a runt, a dreamer, a naive boy with an imaginary friend and little else. But right before summer vacation starts he finds an albino girl trapped in a shed behind a local house. After Red frees her, the world he knew quickly unravels into something more mysterious—an unsteady reality where a man with silver teeth and buzz saw voice points him toward the true meaning of sacrifice.

Read my review of Before Leonora Wakes

Amazon | Smashwords | Goodreads

Do you agree/disagree?  Do you have a favorite coming of age story?  I'd love to hear it!

Review: Before Leonora Wakes by Lee Thompson

I absolutely loved Before Leonora Wakes.

Book Description

Red Piccirilli is a runt, a dreamer, a naive boy with an imaginary friend and little else. But right before summer vacation starts he finds an albino girl trapped in a shed behind a local house. After Red frees her, the world he knew quickly unravels into something more mysterious—an unsteady reality where a man with silver teeth and buzz saw voice points him toward the true meaning of sacrifice.

Red is an introverted boy who at the age of thirteen still has an imaginary friend.  When Red and Pig follow a creepy man in blue home after school, they make a discovery that begins tearing at the connection that binds them.

Lee Thompson is now a "must read" favorite author for me.  His writing has an imaginative quality that is so hard to find.

Before Leonora Wakes is a fantastic, dark, coming of age tale. I will be reading this one again.

Are you a coming of age fan?  I love a great coming of age story especially when there is an awesome mix of horror and suspense thrown in.

Additional topics of interest:
Review: Crooked Stick Figures by Lee Thompson

Reading: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women was one of my favorite books when I was a young girl. I'm currently revisiting this classic, and I'm finding it to be enjoyable in different ways than when I was a young girl.

I find more joy now in Marmee and the relationships built by the older girls. I related much more to the young girls growing up and remembered far more details about their youth. After this read, I know my lasting impressions will dwell more with Marmee's teachings and the homes these women are building with their own families as adults.

Book description for Little Women (Signet Classics):

In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war.

If you haven't read this classic, it's one I'd recommend you check out.