Book Review – Boys Of Blur by N.D. Wilson - Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Boys Of Blur

Synopsis:

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 and on the muck flats where the cane grows secrets as old as the soft earth, secrets that haunted, tripped, and trapped the original native tribes, ensnared conquistadors, and buried runaway slaves. Secrets only the muck knows. (Taken from GoodReads page)

Review

As my kids are getting a little older this gives me a great excuse to pick up books in the YA section that I enjoyed reading or look interesting. I’ve been listening to N.D. Wilson’s podcast “Stories Are Soul Food” (Here’s the episode on this book) and appreciate his takes on stories that speak to the human soul and the mythology aspect we see in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

I’ve never read Beowulf before but this story borrows references and themes from it. One of the biggest enjoyments of this book is the tone and setting. The low-lying swampy areas of Florida in a small town makes a great place for an eerie setting. Mix in some high school football and real-life sugar-burning animal runs and it grounds the story in reality. Wilson’s prose can be very poetic at times which is a plus. The tone feels like the narrator would have a low, deep voice with a slight southern drawl to it. The movement feels very slow with the main character’s inner reflections which is needed with all the running characters do in the story. It’s a good juxtaposition. The action is fine but the lead in and lead out is something of a throwback to the Anglo-Saxton story is pulls from. Characters just kind of accept the world presented to them which may take some out of the reality aspect of it but it can be a good change of pace from stories that takes characters like five interactions with the weird phenomenon to get the real story going.

I really enjoyed the “family is what you make it” aspect of it and the self-sacrifice, again speaking to the human “mythology” we share in our storytelling. I wish there had been a little more exposition on the character’s backgrounds and history to really flesh them out more. For example, fighting against envy is a main point of the story but the main character seems pretty content with what could make him envious and fall into that spiral. The conclusion also moves quickly after the “hero fall heading to rise” part.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story, especially for the tone. I don’t want to sound cliche and say “I was transported” but I will say that “I felt something for the story” and isn’t that one of the reasons we do read? Not sure this would appeal to kids but if you want your kids or you to pick up Beowulf or get more into the classics this is a good gateway book.

Final Grade

A-