I read this book as a teenager, and again as an adult...and both times, it affected me.

On the surface, Boy's Life may see like another fluffy, cross-genre book--is it a crime novel? Is it horror? Is it fantasy? Is it a coming-of-age story?--but that would be selling it short. There's a kind of magic in here, the same sort of magic McCammon refers to himself in the first few pages.

It contains the nostalgic magic of childhood, sure (which we've all experienced, whether we grew up as boys in the 1960s or not). Anyone who remembers being a kid can relate to Cory's trials and triumphs, even if they didn't experience the exact same things themselves. Imagination ruled the day, summers seemed endless, and possibility equally so.

There's also the more in-your-face type of magic, in the more fantastic (yet somehow *completely believable* in context) elements of the story. You're never quite sure whether it's just the way Cory remembers things, or if that's how it really happened, and that's what makes it fun--you accept it at face value.

But, there's more, and this is what really struck me both times I read it: the magic underlying everything is that of creation, of weaving worlds for yourself and others, of leaving your mark. This novel made me think about writing, in general, more than any book on the subject could. McCammon's way with words made me think about it, from a technical standpoint, and Cory's own aspirations made me think about the compulsion and duty to tell stories that I used to feel, and that is coming back to me again.

Boy's Life taps into something very universal, I think...so I'd recommend it to anyone, no matter what genre they usually prefer.