Boy’s Life – Robert R McCammon

“Boy’s Life” is told from the point of view of Cory Mackenson, a young boy who wants to be a writer when he is older. He describes his life in a small town called Zephyr beginning with a traumatic incident when he is out with his Dad and they see a car go off the road into the local lake, which is notoriously deep. He watches as his Dad tries, unsuccessfully, to save the driver who, it appears, has been attacked prior to being put in the car and sent off into the lake. This incident clearly stays with Cory and is in the background of the whole of the book.

Lisey’s Story – Stephen King

When Lisey first fell for Scott Landon she knew she was the light to his darkness. Now, after Scott’s death, she needs his darkness to survive.

I read this as part of a read along on bookstagram. It’s one of King’s books that I didn’t know a lot about and haven’t exactly been desperate to get to but I haven’t done a read along before and decided to give this one a try.

I’m not going to lie, it was a bit of a slow starter for me. The first 50-100 pages I wasn’t sure I was going to like it but I stuck with it and all of a sudden the story King was weaving had hooked me in and I was totally gripped.

I love that it’s set near Castle Rock so we get a couple of characters we’ve already met in Sherriff Norris Ridgewick and Deputy Andy Clutterbuck.

I wish we had a little more of Lisey’s back story. We get to see a lot about what made Scott the man Lisey fell in love with but we don’t see an awful lot of how Lisey grew up. There are hints at difficult relationships with her sisters and the fact most of her sisters have slightly odd names could be explored further I think.

Some of the language takes a little getting used to but once you have it’s fine, especially the sort of “secret” language that Scott and Lisey use. I guess most of us have a sort of language short hand in our close relationships.

I loved the relationship between Scott and Lisey and I loved the way King wove the flashbacks to earlier times in their relationship in to the story. I don’t want to give any spoilers, obviously, but the story of Scott’s childhood was heartbreaking.

I loved the supernatural element to the story but wish we could have maybe spent a little bit more time in Boo’ya Moon and learned a more about it. Although “Lisey’s Story” is quite a long book it just wasn’t long enough for me, I could have read so much more.

I’m not the most romantic person in the world and it takes a lot to really get to me but Scott and Lisey definitely did it. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes a thrilling tale with love and a supernatural side.