geekyRoc Trade, paperback
352 pages, whatever happened to Saturday nights, and the girls you loved back then?
Currently in print
***
Straight On 'Til Morning was a used bookstore impulse buy, one of those books by an author whose works I enjoy but don't necessarily follow rabidly enough to avoid missing things. It looked interesting, I was stranded in Michigan, and hey, any port in a storm, right? The copy I picked up was filed with "fantasy." It could just as easily have been filed with "horror," or with "books for a teenager who thinks that YA is too polite, but doesn't actually want to read The Books of Blood just yet." It's one of those rare books that manages to be appropriate for anyone age about twelve and up, yet wasn't written specifically for a YA audience.
(As a quick disclaimer for any parents out there foolish enough to listen to my recommendations, please keep in mind that I would happily hand Christine to any twelve-year-old with an advanced enough vocabulary to understand it. Be sure you actually know what your kids are reading, and don't just take my word for it.)
Set during the lazy, hazy, crazy days of the 1980s, Straight On 'Til Morning shares some of the hallmarks of truly classic Stephen King, while telling a story that's pure Christopher Golden. See, there's this boy—Kevin Murphy—and there's this girl—Nicki—and he loves her. Sure, she's a year older than he is (and they're young enough for this to matter, especially when the girl's the older one), and sure, she's got horrible taste in men, but he loves her. And he's decided to tell her on his birthday, when he's finally fourteen, and finally old enough to feel like he just might have a shot.
Only before he can take that shot, a group of hoodlums rolls into town: Pete Starling and his gang. Nicki, who's never been very careful when it came to giving her heart away, is swept off her feet before she knows what's happening to her. Kevin knows there's something very, very wrong with Pete and the boys who came with him, but he can't make Nicki understand what he's trying to tell her, and before long, it's too late; Nicki is gone, stolen away by Pete and his friends to face a fate that none of them quite understand. All they can do is go after the girl that Kevin loves with all his heart, and hope the vague directions they have—second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning—will be enough to get them where they have to go...
Straight On 'Til Morning is a gripping, well-told story that kept me reading even when I knew that I was being antisocial. The "vintage Stephen King" comparison comes largely from the book's beginning, which is slow, leisurely, and very sincere, introducing you to Kevin and his friends without any real anxiety. There's time. Once the bad things start to really happen, they don't stop, and they don't give you any further opportunity to breathe. This book takes no prisoners.
I was satisfied with this story. It's not one that I'm going to be re-reading any time soon, because so much of it depends on the things that you don't know when you turn the first page, but I'm very glad to have read it; it gave me a lot to think about, and left me with the satiated, faintly breathless feeling that only comes from a story remarkably well-told. Christopher Golden knows what he's doing, and some of his revelations are paced so beautifully that they become real "of course!" moments, even though you'd never see them coming. I recommend this to fans of horror, dark fantasy, and current trends in YA lit—and if you have a teenager who's been looking for slightly grittier adventures, I can totally recommend this one.
I give Straight On 'Til Morning four out of five potentially supernatural juvenile delinquents, and a heaping plate of delicious nostalgia. I highly recommend it.
Just...keep the lights on.
May 10 2009, 22:14:36 UTC 8 years ago
/scurries off to request it from the library/
May 11 2009, 00:23:43 UTC 8 years ago