Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Random House Books for Young Readers (2014), 208 pages
Description
Juvenile Fiction. Juvenile Literature. Mythology. HTML:Fans of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee and Louis Sachar's Holes will enjoy this story about a boy and the ancient secrets that hide deep in the heart of the Florida everglades near a place called Muck City. When Charlie moves to the small town of Taper, Florida, he discovers a different world. Pinned between the everglades and the swampy banks of Lake Okeechobee, the small town produces sugar cane . . . and the fastest runners in the country. Kids chase muck rabbits in the fields while the cane is being burned and harvested. Dodging flames and blades and breathing smoke, they run down the rabbits for three dollars a skin. And when they can do that, running a football is easy. But there are things in the swamp, roaming the cane at night, that cannot be explained, and they seem connected to sprawling mounds older than the swamps. Together with his step-second cousin "Cotton" Mack, the fastest boy on the muck, Charlie hunts secrets in the glades...… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Arconna
Admittedly, I don't get a lot of opportunities to review literature for kids. The occasional YA novel? Sure. Most of what I read for review, however, falls firmly within the "not marketed to kids" category (since "adult" means something else here). This review may expose some of my weaknesses when
Boys of Blur takes place in my state of residence: Florida. Specifically, it is set in the fictional town of Taper (near "Muck City," a.k.a. Belle Glade), deep in the everglades, where nature is often stranger than the people that live there. That's certainly true of this novel. When Charlie and his family visit Taper for a funeral, his stepfather, Mack, is offered the head coaching job at the local high school, which at one time was known for its fair share of decent players. But Taper is a place of worry and concern for Natalie, Charlie's mother, who left Taper after divorcing Charlie's abusive father, Bobby; it also holds worry for Charlie, too: after befriending his cousin, Cotton, Charlie discovers something wicked living and growing in the swamps. Something evil. Something that wants to take Taper for itself. And it might just be up to Charlie to stop it before "it" and Taper's residents tear themselves apart.
Astute readers will recognize some clear parallels to Beowulf here (or, perhaps, its amusing Norse-style adaptation, The 13th Warrior (1999))[1]. Much of the novel's supernatural elements are of the form commonly associated with the classic epic, which are less direct and more boiled down to a template: monster threatens town, boy seeks out monster, and boy defeats monster (I'm leaving out a few details to avoid spoiling things). In fact, one of the things I loved about Boys of Blur was the way it courted the supernatural in order to provide a semi-bildungsroman with Beowulf as its center. Indeed, from the almost zombie-like creatures that terrorize Charlie and Cotton to the deterioration of Taper as a community to the interesting commentaries on the nature of life and death, Boys of Blur seems like a perfect gateway for young readers who might be curious about the classic epics.
I must also admit that I personally enjoy renditions of this story type that opt for a darker vision. Wilson certainly has an eye for the creep-factor. Though some younger readers may find the novel a little terrifying, many will surely be gripped by the macabre nature of the novel's horror. When the novel is focused on its supernatural elements, it is at its strongest. Wilson doesn't always offer the level of explanation I would want, but he does thrust his young protagonist into a bizarre and often confusing world of things that shouldn't exist. Even the "good guys" are sometimes as creepy as the bad ones, which gives the supernatural a distinctly discomforting feel -- there is no cutesy here.
Wilson also does a fine job of presenting a narrative arc for Charlie that leads to modest, but largely positive changes. Charlie's family thrusts the reader into an awkward situation (albeit, more so for younger readers than adults): his mother has remarried a supportive man who Charlie seems to accept, but doesn't fully embrace at the start (a stepfather subplot bonus). They are a mended family rather than a traditional nuclear one. This gives the novel an endearing quality, as it tries to court both its fantastic major plot and its family-oriented subplots in different forms: the former directly and the latter in a more nuanced, deliberately withdrawn sense. Charlie, after all, is twelve, and so what he understands of adult relationships is less pronounced than his understanding of good and evil.
Even Wilson's handling of sports culture in small-town-America adds depth to the narrative -- this coming from a reader who is bored stiff by sports-heavy sf. I half expected this book to be reduced to its major plot, discarding any complicated and sometimes difficult material entirely. But Wilson doesn't do so. Much like Holes by Louis Sachar, which the cover blurb uses as a comparison, this is a novel with a deep underbelly that offers food for thought, even if Wilson does pull his punches in places. The epilogue, thus, serves as a positive conclusion to much of the novel's subplots and gave me a sense that Charlie had not simply survived something horrifying, but had also come out of it with a renewed vigor. This is, I suspect, fairly normal in books for young people.
That said, there is one main concern I had with Boys of Blur. While the narrative deals explicitly with domestic abuse from the perspective of a child, I think Wilson does so by limiting a deeper discussion of that issue. In particular, the book itself provides little in the way of a resolution for this element, almost as though Charlie should have been too young to understand what has already transpired between his father, Bobby, and his mother, Natalie. But Charlie is twelve and seems to understand what has happened in his family, even if he was too little to understand when his parents had divorced. In the end, no significant conversation is had about Bobby, who is undeniably a violent abuser who has shown no real reform, and his involvement in his son's life, despite the fact that Bobby appears to threaten Natalie in the novel. Charlie does take a stand against Bobby, and the novel try to address the issue, but this is brief and largely forgotten. If Wilson intended the concluding moments to be one of "going to bed with one's enemy to conquer a greater foe," then he needed to do so with a more deft hand; likewise, if he intended these other mentions of Bobby's past and his abusive nature to be either partially redemptive or even an attempt to nuance an abuser, I think he missed the mark entirely. Here, I think the novel does more to reinforce domestic abuse as "not a big deal" than it does to address a child's perspective on such things.[2]
Overall, I quite enjoyed Boys of Blur. Though the novel has a few problems in terms of its representation of controversial subjects, it is an easy and fairly gripping read. From its spine-tingling creepiness to its Beowulf-ian nature, this is a book that young kids will certainly enjoy.
Side note: this is the first Florida-based book I have read that really captured what Florida feels like to someone who hasn't lived there their whole life. A bonus for anyone worried the setting will alienate readers (nope).
--------------------------------
[1]: Itself an adaptation of a Michael Crichton book.
[2]: Admittedly, Bobby does come off as creepy as the supernatural creatures Charlie is forced to fight. I'm just not convinced that the novel intended this as a metaphor for the distance between father and son (due to former abuse). Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, though.
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it comes to this particular field, as N.D. Wilson's Boys of Blur is certainly embedded in a tradition about which I am not as familiar as I should be. Regardless, I will tread honestly here in hopes that I can offer some insight into this particular novel.Boys of Blur takes place in my state of residence: Florida. Specifically, it is set in the fictional town of Taper (near "Muck City," a.k.a. Belle Glade), deep in the everglades, where nature is often stranger than the people that live there. That's certainly true of this novel. When Charlie and his family visit Taper for a funeral, his stepfather, Mack, is offered the head coaching job at the local high school, which at one time was known for its fair share of decent players. But Taper is a place of worry and concern for Natalie, Charlie's mother, who left Taper after divorcing Charlie's abusive father, Bobby; it also holds worry for Charlie, too: after befriending his cousin, Cotton, Charlie discovers something wicked living and growing in the swamps. Something evil. Something that wants to take Taper for itself. And it might just be up to Charlie to stop it before "it" and Taper's residents tear themselves apart.
Astute readers will recognize some clear parallels to Beowulf here (or, perhaps, its amusing Norse-style adaptation, The 13th Warrior (1999))[1]. Much of the novel's supernatural elements are of the form commonly associated with the classic epic, which are less direct and more boiled down to a template: monster threatens town, boy seeks out monster, and boy defeats monster (I'm leaving out a few details to avoid spoiling things). In fact, one of the things I loved about Boys of Blur was the way it courted the supernatural in order to provide a semi-bildungsroman with Beowulf as its center. Indeed, from the almost zombie-like creatures that terrorize Charlie and Cotton to the deterioration of Taper as a community to the interesting commentaries on the nature of life and death, Boys of Blur seems like a perfect gateway for young readers who might be curious about the classic epics.
I must also admit that I personally enjoy renditions of this story type that opt for a darker vision. Wilson certainly has an eye for the creep-factor. Though some younger readers may find the novel a little terrifying, many will surely be gripped by the macabre nature of the novel's horror. When the novel is focused on its supernatural elements, it is at its strongest. Wilson doesn't always offer the level of explanation I would want, but he does thrust his young protagonist into a bizarre and often confusing world of things that shouldn't exist. Even the "good guys" are sometimes as creepy as the bad ones, which gives the supernatural a distinctly discomforting feel -- there is no cutesy here.
Wilson also does a fine job of presenting a narrative arc for Charlie that leads to modest, but largely positive changes. Charlie's family thrusts the reader into an awkward situation (albeit, more so for younger readers than adults): his mother has remarried a supportive man who Charlie seems to accept, but doesn't fully embrace at the start (a stepfather subplot bonus). They are a mended family rather than a traditional nuclear one. This gives the novel an endearing quality, as it tries to court both its fantastic major plot and its family-oriented subplots in different forms: the former directly and the latter in a more nuanced, deliberately withdrawn sense. Charlie, after all, is twelve, and so what he understands of adult relationships is less pronounced than his understanding of good and evil.
Even Wilson's handling of sports culture in small-town-America adds depth to the narrative -- this coming from a reader who is bored stiff by sports-heavy sf. I half expected this book to be reduced to its major plot, discarding any complicated and sometimes difficult material entirely. But Wilson doesn't do so. Much like Holes by Louis Sachar, which the cover blurb uses as a comparison, this is a novel with a deep underbelly that offers food for thought, even if Wilson does pull his punches in places. The epilogue, thus, serves as a positive conclusion to much of the novel's subplots and gave me a sense that Charlie had not simply survived something horrifying, but had also come out of it with a renewed vigor. This is, I suspect, fairly normal in books for young people.
That said, there is one main concern I had with Boys of Blur. While the narrative deals explicitly with domestic abuse from the perspective of a child, I think Wilson does so by limiting a deeper discussion of that issue. In particular, the book itself provides little in the way of a resolution for this element, almost as though Charlie should have been too young to understand what has already transpired between his father, Bobby, and his mother, Natalie. But Charlie is twelve and seems to understand what has happened in his family, even if he was too little to understand when his parents had divorced. In the end, no significant conversation is had about Bobby, who is undeniably a violent abuser who has shown no real reform, and his involvement in his son's life, despite the fact that Bobby appears to threaten Natalie in the novel. Charlie does take a stand against Bobby, and the novel try to address the issue, but this is brief and largely forgotten. If Wilson intended the concluding moments to be one of "going to bed with one's enemy to conquer a greater foe," then he needed to do so with a more deft hand; likewise, if he intended these other mentions of Bobby's past and his abusive nature to be either partially redemptive or even an attempt to nuance an abuser, I think he missed the mark entirely. Here, I think the novel does more to reinforce domestic abuse as "not a big deal" than it does to address a child's perspective on such things.[2]
Overall, I quite enjoyed Boys of Blur. Though the novel has a few problems in terms of its representation of controversial subjects, it is an easy and fairly gripping read. From its spine-tingling creepiness to its Beowulf-ian nature, this is a book that young kids will certainly enjoy.
Side note: this is the first Florida-based book I have read that really captured what Florida feels like to someone who hasn't lived there their whole life. A bonus for anyone worried the setting will alienate readers (nope).
--------------------------------
[1]: Itself an adaptation of a Michael Crichton book.
[2]: Admittedly, Bobby does come off as creepy as the supernatural creatures Charlie is forced to fight. I'm just not convinced that the novel intended this as a metaphor for the distance between father and son (due to former abuse). Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, though.
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LibraryThing member acargile
Boys of Blur by N. D. Wilson
This was one of the weirdest books I've ever read. It's like reading a dream. Dreams bounce from location to location with faces blurring in and out; and, upon waking, they are hard to explain. That would be this book.
Charlie's stepfather decides to be the new coach in
I found the book too weird for my liking; it's definitely more suited for middle school boys than this lady librarian! There was lots of running around, weird creatures, death, near-death, and chaos. It would make a really exciting movie with very little plot. I think many of you will love the weirdness of it, but the style may keep a few away. Let me know what y'all think!
This was one of the weirdest books I've ever read. It's like reading a dream. Dreams bounce from location to location with faces blurring in and out; and, upon waking, they are hard to explain. That would be this book.
Charlie's stepfather decides to be the new coach in
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his hometown after the much loved coach passes. There's a problem. The town of Taper is sliding into chaos. Boys have disappeared and some guy with a helmet, sword, and a panther as a pet stole the coach's body and a tree grew there over night. Weird. The town of Taper is surrounded by muck and fields and fields of sugarcane. It's out here in the wilds where everything is going crazy and the zombie type creatures plan on taking over the town. Charlie plans on saving the town even if it costs him his own life.I found the book too weird for my liking; it's definitely more suited for middle school boys than this lady librarian! There was lots of running around, weird creatures, death, near-death, and chaos. It would make a really exciting movie with very little plot. I think many of you will love the weirdness of it, but the style may keep a few away. Let me know what y'all think!
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LibraryThing member ewyatt
Charlie finds himself in the sugar cane lands where his father and step-father grew up and played football. Charlie's dad was not a good father or man, and both he and his mother have scars from that. When Charlie's cousin Cotton takes him into the cane fields running through the muck, the boys
In this action packed book, Charlie has to risk everything to save his new family and home.
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discover a man working to fight off an ancient evil. They can't quite believe what they see, but the evil seems to be getting stronger and stronger. In this action packed book, Charlie has to risk everything to save his new family and home.
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LibraryThing member MrNattania72
It started out like an 80's After School Special , until the muck and the panthers and the Dark Shadows and the giant man with a conquistador's helmet and sword. Then things hit good. It was a clever way to through in Beowulf and some other classic literature. Kinda eerie and yet it ended with a
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warm touch. Oh yea, people die. SPOILER. Show Less
LibraryThing member reader1009
This was ok, but I kept thinking I should like it more--giant panthers, ghostly apparitions, maggot-infested wounds should pretty much keep the reader hooked, but I had trouble hanging on to the characters and what they were doing. I could understand the story but couldn't make myself care, instead
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wondering about other books that I could be reading instead, and that was disappointing. Show Less
Awards
Keystone to Reading Book Award (Nominee — 2016)
Great Reads from Great Places (Idaho — 2014)
Nerdy Book Award (Middle Grade Fiction — 2014)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
208 p.; 5.75 inches
ISBN
0449816737 / 9780449816738