Boy's Life

Sandra reviewed Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon

Review of "Boy's Life" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I'm not so sure about this one. It kind of was all over the place. The magical realism... just no. It would have been a more powerful story if the focus was a son watching a father struggle to come to terms with a traumatizing event as he himself charts his own course through adolescence. Children grow up thinking their parents have all the answers, have life figured out. It can rock their foundations when they realize their parents can fail, can be frightened, can have a have a hard time moving forward after adversity. A young boy entering adolescence is often times conflicted about his parents anyway, let alone if something life altering befalls the family. But, no. The author chose to make it all whacky with zombie dogs and dinosaurs and steal scenes right out of a Stephen King novella. It was a southern gothic coming of age …

Christian B reviewed Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon

All of childhood in one fateful summer...

5 stars

Arguably McCammon's most popular novel (or one of them anyway), named after a popular magazine published throughout the 1900s, the book blends a variety of plot elements into a feast of adventure and mystery. The overarching story has to do with a grisly murder in a quaint southern American town in the early 1960s, but takes many side roads into other genres and subplots: the KKK and the American civil rights movement, ghost stories, baseball, monsters literal and figurative, childhood friendships, and much more. May be hard to relate to for some, but if you grew up reading adventure books like Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, My Side Of The Mountain, and on and on, it'll feel very familiar.