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Boys of Blur
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.
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.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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April 13, 2014
I like a kid’s book with ambition. It’s all well and good to write one about magic candy shops or goofy uncles or simpering unicorns or what have you. The world is big and there’s room for every possible conceivable type of book for our children you can imagine. But then you have the children’s book authors that aim higher. Let’s say one wants to write about zombies. Well, that’s easy enough. Zombies battling kids is pretty straightforward stuff. But imagine the chutzpah it would take to take that seemingly innocuous little element and then to add in, oh I dunno, BEOWULF. N.D. Wilson is one of those guys I’ve been watching for a very long time. The kind of guy who started off his career by combining a contemporary tale of underground survival with The Odyssey (Leepike Ridge). In his latest novel, Boys of Blur Wilson steps everything up a notch. You’ve got your aforementioned zombies as well as a paean to small town football, an economy based on sugar cane harvesting, spousal abuse, and rabbit runs. It sounds like a dare, honestly. “I dare you to combine these seemingly disparate elements into a contemporary classic”. The end result is a book that shoots high, misses on occasion, but ultimately comes across as a smart and action packed tale of redemption.
There is muck, then sugarcane, then swamps, then Taper. The town of Taper, to be precise, where 12-year-old Charlie Reynolds has come with his mother, stepfather, and little sister to witness the burial of the local high school football coach. It’s a town filled with secrets and relatives he never knew he had, like homeschooled Sugar, his distant cousin, with whom he shares an instant bond. Together, the two discover a wild man of the swamps accompanied by two panthers and a sword. The reason for the sword becomes infinitely clear when Charlie becomes aware of The Gren. A zombie-like hoard bent on the town’s obliteration (and then THE WORLD!), it’s up to one young boy to seek out the source of the corruption and take her (yes, her) down.
I had to actually look up my Beowulf after reading this. The reason? The opening. Wilson doesn’t go in for the old rules that state that you should begin your book with some kind of gripping slam-bang action scene. His first page? It reads like an ode. Like a minstrel has stepped out of the wings to give praise to the gods and to set the scene for you. Only in this case it’s just the narrator telling you what’s what. “When the sugarcane’s burning and the rabbits are running, look for the boys who are quicker than flame.” Read that line aloud for a second. Just taste and savor what it’s saying. It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Like you’ve read it somewhere else before (particularly that “look for the” part). Then there’s that last line. “Out here in the flats, when the sugarcane’s burning and the rabbits are running, there can be only quick. There’s quick, and there’s dead.” So I looked up the beginning of Beowulf just to see if, by any chance, Wilson had cribbed some of this from his source material. Not as such. The original text is a bit more concerned with great tribal kings past, and all that jazz. That doesn’t make Wilson’s book any less compelling, though. There’s a rhythm to the opening that sucks you in immediately. It’s not afraid to be beautiful. It begs to be heard from a tongue.
And while I’m on the topic of beautiful language, Wilson sure knows how to turn a phrase. If he has any ultimately defining characteristic as a writer it is his complete and utter lack of fear regarding descriptions. He delves into them. Swims deep into them. Can you blame him? Though a resident of Idaho, here he evokes a Florida that puts Carl Hiaasen to shame. Examples of some of his particularly good lines:
“As for the church bell, it crashed through the floorboards and settled into the soft ground below. It’s still down there, under the patched floor, ringing silence in the muck.”
“Charlie looked at the sky, held up by nothing more than the column of smoke he’d noticed during the service.”
“Charlie stopped at the end, beside a boy with a baby face on a body the size and shape of someone’s front door.”
And I’m particularly fond of this line about new siblings: “When Molly had come, she had turned Charlie into a brother, adding deep loves and loyalties to who he was without asking his permission first.”
The book moves at a rapid clip, but not at the expense of the characters. For one thing, it’s nice not to have to read about a passive hero. From early in the book, we know certain things about Charlie that are to serve him well in the future. As the story says, thanks to experiences with his abusive father, “he could bottle fear. He’d been doing it his whole life.” This gives Wilson’s hero a learned skill that will aid him in the rest of the story. And when there are choices to be made, he makes them. He isn’t some child being taken from place to place. He decides what he should and should not do in any given moment and acts. Sometimes it's the right choice and sometimes it's wrong, but it is at least HIS choice each time.
The sugarcane fields themselves are explained a bit late in the narrative. On page 64 or so we finally get an explanation about why the boys are running through burning fields to catch rabbits. For a moment I was reminded of Cynthia Kadohata’s attempts to explain threshing in her otherwise scintillating book The Thing About Luck. Wilson has the advantage of having an outsider in his tale, so it’s perfectly all right for Charlie to ask why the only way to successfully harvest cane is to burn it, “Fastest way to strip the leaves . . . Stalks is so wet, they don’t burn.” Mind you, this could have worked a little earlier in the story, since much of the book requires us to take on faith why the rabbit runs occur.
It’s also an unapologetically masculine story as well. All about swords and fighting and football and dangerous runs into burning sugarcane fields. The football is particularly fascinating. In an age when concussions are becoming big news and people are beginning to turn against the nation’s most violent sport, it’s unique, to say the least, to read a middle grade book where small town football is a way of life. Small town football almost NEVER makes it into books for kids, partly because baseball makes for a better narrative by its very definition. Football’s more difficult to explain. Its terms and turns of phrase haven’t made it into the language of the cultural zeitgeist to the same extent. For an author to not only acknowledge its existence but also give it a thumbs up is almost unheard of. Yet Boys of Blur could not exist without football. Charlie’s father went pro, as did his stepfather. The book begins by burying a coach, and there are long seated animosities in the town behind old high school football rivals. For many small towns, life without football would be untenable. And Boys of Blur acknowledges that to a certain extent.
The women that do appear are few and far between, but they are there. One should take care to note that it’s Wilson’s source material that lacking in the ladies (except for the big bad, of course). And he did go out of his way to add a couple additional females to the line-up. It’s not as if Charlie himself doesn’t notice the lack of ladies as well anyway. At one point he ponders the Gren and wonders why there aren’t any girls. The possible explanation he’s given is that much as a selfish man is envious of his sons, so would a selfish woman find her own daughters to be competition. Take that as you may. We veer close to Caliban country here, but Wilson already has one classic text to draw from. Shakespeare can wait.
Charlie’s mother would be one other example of a woman introduced to this story that gets a fair amount of page time. On paper you’d assume she was just a victim, a woman who continues to fear her ex-husband. But in reality, Wilson gives her much more credit. She’s the woman who dared to get out of an untenable situation for the sake of her child. A woman who managed to find another husband who wasn’t a carbon copy of the first and who has done everything in her power to protect her children in the wake of her ex-husband’s threats. And most interesting, Wilson will keep cutting back to her in the narrative. He doesn’t have to. There’s a reason most children’s fantasy novels star orphans. Include the parents and there’s a lot of emotional baggage to attend to. But Wilson’s never liked the notion of orphans much, so when his story cuts back to Natalie Mack and what she’s up to it’s a choice you go along with. In Wilson’s books parents aren’t enemies but allies. It goes against the grain of the usual narratives, wakes you up, and makes for better books.
Where do heroes find their courage and resolve? In previous books Wilson had already gone underground and into deep dark places. In Boys of Blur he explores the dual worlds of cane and swamp alike. Most epic narratives of the children’s fantasy sort are long, bloated affairs. They feel like they can’t tell their tales in anything less than 300 pages, and even then they end up being the first in a series. Wilson’s slick, sleek editing puts the bloat to shame. Clocking in at a handsome 208 pages it’s not going to be understood by every child reader. It doesn’t try for that either. Really, it can only be read by the right reader. The one that’s outgrown Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. The one who isn’t scared off by The Golden Compass and who will inform the librarian that they can’t possibly impress him or her because they’ve read “everything”. This is a book to stretch the muscles in that child’s brains. To make them appreciate the language of a tale as much as the action. And yes, there are big smelly zombies that go about killing people so win-win, right? Some may say the book ends too quickly. Some will wonder why there isn’t a sequel. But many will be impressed by what Wilson’s willing to shoot for here. Like the boys in the cane, this book speeds out of the gate, quick on its feet, willing to skip and hop and jump as fast as possible to get you where you need to go. If you’ve read too much of the same old, same old, this is one children’s book that’s like no other you know out there. Gripping.
For ages 10 and up.
There is muck, then sugarcane, then swamps, then Taper. The town of Taper, to be precise, where 12-year-old Charlie Reynolds has come with his mother, stepfather, and little sister to witness the burial of the local high school football coach. It’s a town filled with secrets and relatives he never knew he had, like homeschooled Sugar, his distant cousin, with whom he shares an instant bond. Together, the two discover a wild man of the swamps accompanied by two panthers and a sword. The reason for the sword becomes infinitely clear when Charlie becomes aware of The Gren. A zombie-like hoard bent on the town’s obliteration (and then THE WORLD!), it’s up to one young boy to seek out the source of the corruption and take her (yes, her) down.
I had to actually look up my Beowulf after reading this. The reason? The opening. Wilson doesn’t go in for the old rules that state that you should begin your book with some kind of gripping slam-bang action scene. His first page? It reads like an ode. Like a minstrel has stepped out of the wings to give praise to the gods and to set the scene for you. Only in this case it’s just the narrator telling you what’s what. “When the sugarcane’s burning and the rabbits are running, look for the boys who are quicker than flame.” Read that line aloud for a second. Just taste and savor what it’s saying. It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Like you’ve read it somewhere else before (particularly that “look for the” part). Then there’s that last line. “Out here in the flats, when the sugarcane’s burning and the rabbits are running, there can be only quick. There’s quick, and there’s dead.” So I looked up the beginning of Beowulf just to see if, by any chance, Wilson had cribbed some of this from his source material. Not as such. The original text is a bit more concerned with great tribal kings past, and all that jazz. That doesn’t make Wilson’s book any less compelling, though. There’s a rhythm to the opening that sucks you in immediately. It’s not afraid to be beautiful. It begs to be heard from a tongue.
And while I’m on the topic of beautiful language, Wilson sure knows how to turn a phrase. If he has any ultimately defining characteristic as a writer it is his complete and utter lack of fear regarding descriptions. He delves into them. Swims deep into them. Can you blame him? Though a resident of Idaho, here he evokes a Florida that puts Carl Hiaasen to shame. Examples of some of his particularly good lines:
“As for the church bell, it crashed through the floorboards and settled into the soft ground below. It’s still down there, under the patched floor, ringing silence in the muck.”
“Charlie looked at the sky, held up by nothing more than the column of smoke he’d noticed during the service.”
“Charlie stopped at the end, beside a boy with a baby face on a body the size and shape of someone’s front door.”
And I’m particularly fond of this line about new siblings: “When Molly had come, she had turned Charlie into a brother, adding deep loves and loyalties to who he was without asking his permission first.”
The book moves at a rapid clip, but not at the expense of the characters. For one thing, it’s nice not to have to read about a passive hero. From early in the book, we know certain things about Charlie that are to serve him well in the future. As the story says, thanks to experiences with his abusive father, “he could bottle fear. He’d been doing it his whole life.” This gives Wilson’s hero a learned skill that will aid him in the rest of the story. And when there are choices to be made, he makes them. He isn’t some child being taken from place to place. He decides what he should and should not do in any given moment and acts. Sometimes it's the right choice and sometimes it's wrong, but it is at least HIS choice each time.
The sugarcane fields themselves are explained a bit late in the narrative. On page 64 or so we finally get an explanation about why the boys are running through burning fields to catch rabbits. For a moment I was reminded of Cynthia Kadohata’s attempts to explain threshing in her otherwise scintillating book The Thing About Luck. Wilson has the advantage of having an outsider in his tale, so it’s perfectly all right for Charlie to ask why the only way to successfully harvest cane is to burn it, “Fastest way to strip the leaves . . . Stalks is so wet, they don’t burn.” Mind you, this could have worked a little earlier in the story, since much of the book requires us to take on faith why the rabbit runs occur.
It’s also an unapologetically masculine story as well. All about swords and fighting and football and dangerous runs into burning sugarcane fields. The football is particularly fascinating. In an age when concussions are becoming big news and people are beginning to turn against the nation’s most violent sport, it’s unique, to say the least, to read a middle grade book where small town football is a way of life. Small town football almost NEVER makes it into books for kids, partly because baseball makes for a better narrative by its very definition. Football’s more difficult to explain. Its terms and turns of phrase haven’t made it into the language of the cultural zeitgeist to the same extent. For an author to not only acknowledge its existence but also give it a thumbs up is almost unheard of. Yet Boys of Blur could not exist without football. Charlie’s father went pro, as did his stepfather. The book begins by burying a coach, and there are long seated animosities in the town behind old high school football rivals. For many small towns, life without football would be untenable. And Boys of Blur acknowledges that to a certain extent.
The women that do appear are few and far between, but they are there. One should take care to note that it’s Wilson’s source material that lacking in the ladies (except for the big bad, of course). And he did go out of his way to add a couple additional females to the line-up. It’s not as if Charlie himself doesn’t notice the lack of ladies as well anyway. At one point he ponders the Gren and wonders why there aren’t any girls. The possible explanation he’s given is that much as a selfish man is envious of his sons, so would a selfish woman find her own daughters to be competition. Take that as you may. We veer close to Caliban country here, but Wilson already has one classic text to draw from. Shakespeare can wait.
Charlie’s mother would be one other example of a woman introduced to this story that gets a fair amount of page time. On paper you’d assume she was just a victim, a woman who continues to fear her ex-husband. But in reality, Wilson gives her much more credit. She’s the woman who dared to get out of an untenable situation for the sake of her child. A woman who managed to find another husband who wasn’t a carbon copy of the first and who has done everything in her power to protect her children in the wake of her ex-husband’s threats. And most interesting, Wilson will keep cutting back to her in the narrative. He doesn’t have to. There’s a reason most children’s fantasy novels star orphans. Include the parents and there’s a lot of emotional baggage to attend to. But Wilson’s never liked the notion of orphans much, so when his story cuts back to Natalie Mack and what she’s up to it’s a choice you go along with. In Wilson’s books parents aren’t enemies but allies. It goes against the grain of the usual narratives, wakes you up, and makes for better books.
Where do heroes find their courage and resolve? In previous books Wilson had already gone underground and into deep dark places. In Boys of Blur he explores the dual worlds of cane and swamp alike. Most epic narratives of the children’s fantasy sort are long, bloated affairs. They feel like they can’t tell their tales in anything less than 300 pages, and even then they end up being the first in a series. Wilson’s slick, sleek editing puts the bloat to shame. Clocking in at a handsome 208 pages it’s not going to be understood by every child reader. It doesn’t try for that either. Really, it can only be read by the right reader. The one that’s outgrown Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. The one who isn’t scared off by The Golden Compass and who will inform the librarian that they can’t possibly impress him or her because they’ve read “everything”. This is a book to stretch the muscles in that child’s brains. To make them appreciate the language of a tale as much as the action. And yes, there are big smelly zombies that go about killing people so win-win, right? Some may say the book ends too quickly. Some will wonder why there isn’t a sequel. But many will be impressed by what Wilson’s willing to shoot for here. Like the boys in the cane, this book speeds out of the gate, quick on its feet, willing to skip and hop and jump as fast as possible to get you where you need to go. If you’ve read too much of the same old, same old, this is one children’s book that’s like no other you know out there. Gripping.
For ages 10 and up.
September 8, 2015
This book blurs. My heart is still sprinting. N. D. Wilson’s new story of boys, brothers, swamps, stink, muck, and monsters grips from the get-go and never lets up. Ever. It is scary fast. I sat down to read it and a few hours later—done. A little dizzy, but done. Some of Nate’s best prose yet is crammed into this breathlessly exciting mystery-adventure that openly and happily shoplifts all the best stuff out of Beowulf and is (so far) definitely the easiest of his to translate into a movie: compact plot, freakishly unique setting, and super creepy villains (think prime material for M. Night Shyamalan). From start to finish, it’s a remarkably neat tale with everything (death, resurrection, happy ending) in the right spot but not the way you’re expecting and definitely not so easily that you aren’t sick to your stomach with fear that Nate will forget he’s a postmillennialist. Fists clenched, pulse hopping, I couldn’t slow down—and the only problem with that is that I was done so quickly and now the book is over. Time to reread...a little slower...
(Reread in September 2015)
(Reread in September 2015)
July 20, 2014
Boys of Blur (now there's a word) is well-written in parts, give it that, but the well-written parts cannot salvage the whole. It is, in fact, a mish-mash that some readers will be perplexed by. Is it a realistic novel? It certainly begins as one. Boy (Charlie) moves to a Florida town with Mom who has married a new man while the old one's still about. As said town (Taper) is step-dad's (Mack) hometown, he is cued up to become the new football coach, replacing the recently-passed Coach Wisdom.
OK. I'm on board with it. But then the novel veers voodoo or something. Charlie falls in with a kid named Cotton and they run through burning sugar cane and they meet some weird dude in a helmet and sword (think Ghost of DeSoto, maybe) who wears dead rabbits and keeps panthers for pets.
Still with me, Grades 3 to 7? Next we get a grave robbing, a full-size tree appearing overnight in said grave, some creature from the deep that stinks so much it's nicknamed Stanks but is really named Gren. DeSoto turns out to be a human (I think) named Lio and he's doing battle against this ancient curse (groan... not again!) and meanwhile the Sheriff and his buddy have it in for Mack because they played for a rival football team and step-dad is smoking cigarettes and glaring at the motel where Mom is staying and Charlie gets injured and some Swamp Witch (wife of the dead coach) applies maggots to his wounds and....
Confused yet? Crying, "My kingdom for a consistent genre!" yet? It's as if the book cannot make up its mind and so lurches this way and (unfortunately) that. But still, Wilson does drop some good writing in there. It's just... unable to gel in the heat and the melodrama, maybe. Genre-busting? That might be a word for it. But I sincerely doubt many of my students would stick with it. (Time will tell, though.)
OK. I'm on board with it. But then the novel veers voodoo or something. Charlie falls in with a kid named Cotton and they run through burning sugar cane and they meet some weird dude in a helmet and sword (think Ghost of DeSoto, maybe) who wears dead rabbits and keeps panthers for pets.
Still with me, Grades 3 to 7? Next we get a grave robbing, a full-size tree appearing overnight in said grave, some creature from the deep that stinks so much it's nicknamed Stanks but is really named Gren. DeSoto turns out to be a human (I think) named Lio and he's doing battle against this ancient curse (groan... not again!) and meanwhile the Sheriff and his buddy have it in for Mack because they played for a rival football team and step-dad is smoking cigarettes and glaring at the motel where Mom is staying and Charlie gets injured and some Swamp Witch (wife of the dead coach) applies maggots to his wounds and....
Confused yet? Crying, "My kingdom for a consistent genre!" yet? It's as if the book cannot make up its mind and so lurches this way and (unfortunately) that. But still, Wilson does drop some good writing in there. It's just... unable to gel in the heat and the melodrama, maybe. Genre-busting? That might be a word for it. But I sincerely doubt many of my students would stick with it. (Time will tell, though.)
April 4, 2014
So I just finished an under 200 page book filled with swamp muck, high school football, dead bodies, an abusive father, human appendages nailed to walls and an awful stench that makes you hate everyone and everything, and the only word in my head after finishing the last page was "Beautiful." Only N.D. Wilson can do that.
October 28, 2021
I’m disappointed but this is still like a 3.75-star book rounded down because rounding down is my policy. I have intentions to appreciate things more when I reread and raise my rating and stuff.
I’m disappointed, but you have to understand that in the context that this is an N. D. Wilson book. N. D. Wilson books get 5- and 4.5-rounded-down- star ratings. N. D. Wilson books are Utter Magic and Speak My Language.
This book is Utter Magic in the sense that it’s hazy with the smoke of the burning sugar-cane fields, that it’s Beowulf but with fast kids and small-town football in the Florida swamp.
The small-town football is one of my favorite things about it, but also probably the source of my greatest disappointment. I wanted the book to be...longer. That’s all. Longer. Slower. To move like the sun in the hot August sky over the muck. To linger like a midweek summer afternoon in a small Southern town. The action (the Beowulf!) was incredible, but it would all have felt more weighty to me if the book had taken some more time establishing its setting. I wasn’t bored with the antics of incorrigible homeschooled Cotton, or the football-star-with-something-mysterious-about-him presence of Sugar, or the blurry sense of boys running after rabbits in the cane, or the bond between Charlie and his stepfather (and his mother and his stepsister) or the petty irritation of the stuck-in-the-past cops or the background threat of Charlie’s dad.
I would have liked the mystery to have gone on longer, I guess.
It was still very satisfying. Still very beautifully written. In that N. D. Wilson way, strong verbs and crazy metaphors that somehow...work, instead of being ridiculous.
And I really like Sugar.
I’m disappointed, but you have to understand that in the context that this is an N. D. Wilson book. N. D. Wilson books get 5- and 4.5-rounded-down- star ratings. N. D. Wilson books are Utter Magic and Speak My Language.
This book is Utter Magic in the sense that it’s hazy with the smoke of the burning sugar-cane fields, that it’s Beowulf but with fast kids and small-town football in the Florida swamp.
The small-town football is one of my favorite things about it, but also probably the source of my greatest disappointment. I wanted the book to be...longer. That’s all. Longer. Slower. To move like the sun in the hot August sky over the muck. To linger like a midweek summer afternoon in a small Southern town. The action (the Beowulf!) was incredible, but it would all have felt more weighty to me if the book had taken some more time establishing its setting. I wasn’t bored with the antics of incorrigible homeschooled Cotton, or the football-star-with-something-mysterious-about-him presence of Sugar, or the blurry sense of boys running after rabbits in the cane, or the bond between Charlie and his stepfather (and his mother and his stepsister) or the petty irritation of the stuck-in-the-past cops or the background threat of Charlie’s dad.
I would have liked the mystery to have gone on longer, I guess.
It was still very satisfying. Still very beautifully written. In that N. D. Wilson way, strong verbs and crazy metaphors that somehow...work, instead of being ridiculous.
And I really like Sugar.
March 11, 2014
I burned through this book--reading it the day it arrived. I've enjoyed every book Nate Wilson has written, so I knew I was in for treat. Boys of Blur exceeded my high expectations. A fantastic story with brilliant writing.
June 15, 2014
Back in the early '90s, Eugene H. Peterson was my pastor for about five minutes. (I was in the last group of folks to join Christ Our King Presbyterian Church before he left. I don't think correlation indicates causation...) Gene's son once told him, "You only have one sermon"—an observation that Gene didn't take as a compliment. Sometime later, the son moved away to another state and started looking for a new church there. After visiting one congregation for a while, he switched to another. Why? As he told his dad, "That guy hadn't found his sermon."
Nate Wilson has found his, and preaches it yet again in Boys of Blur. And here, perhaps more clearly than in his other books so far, we see that it's also his father's sermon and his grandfather's sermon, which is appropriate for a book with a strong father-and-son theme.
It's a good sermon.
My favorite bit was where Cotton tells Charlie to read a certain edition of Beowulf . Since I worked on that edition, it's almost sorta kinda like I'm a little bit in the book. ;^)
(None of which is likely to be remotely helpful to anyone who wants to know about the book, but I never did claim to be a good book review writer.)
Nate Wilson has found his, and preaches it yet again in Boys of Blur. And here, perhaps more clearly than in his other books so far, we see that it's also his father's sermon and his grandfather's sermon, which is appropriate for a book with a strong father-and-son theme.
It's a good sermon.
My favorite bit was where Cotton tells Charlie to read a certain edition of Beowulf . Since I worked on that edition, it's almost sorta kinda like I'm a little bit in the book. ;^)
(None of which is likely to be remotely helpful to anyone who wants to know about the book, but I never did claim to be a good book review writer.)
February 18, 2018
Another good one
Wilson always delivers and this was no exception. I'm always amazed by the vivid imagination and fantastical worlds he creates. So enjoyable.
Wilson always delivers and this was no exception. I'm always amazed by the vivid imagination and fantastical worlds he creates. So enjoyable.
August 16, 2014
So a few weeks ago, I made this comment: "I just don't like middle grade books."
I think someone Up There heard me and put this book in my path. Because BOYS OF BLUR is one of the best books I've read this year and quite possibly the best MG book I've read ever.
I make the comment all the time that there is a class of YA Fiction that I call "sophisticated". Sure, there are plenty of fluffy and fun YA books, but there seems to be this class of books that is expertly crafted, gorgeous, and un-put-downable. It's these books that add to my conviction that the best writers around are writing YA. Look at Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races, Kristin Cashore's Bitterblue, anything by Melina Marchetta, just to name a few (as soon as I hit 'post' I will regret not adding 20 others).
So here's this thing: I think I had an epiphany. BOYS OF BLUR was every bit as "sophisticated"-- inventive, lyrical, supreme, unforgettable--as these YA books I love so much. But it went one step further:
It's only 200 pages long.
And this, my reading friends, BLEW MY MIND. That you can take the character development, the perfected storyline, the tight editing, and the FEELINGS of a fabulous YA novel and pare it down to 200 pages--- it's like magic. It IS magic. It requires the reader to suspend their belief even more, which requires the writer to make it work. And in books like BOYS OF BLUR, it does work. And I don't think the best of the best of the best adult books can even come close to the sophistication of a book like this. And I don't think the most prolific literature academics could wrap their head around a book like this. I think it takes the uninhibited, unrestricted, and ingenious mind of a child to comprehend it fully--or maybe I should say it takes that mind to know you don't HAVE to comprehend it fully. (I don't have a clue about what to call the type of author that can write a book that speaks to that child mind.)
I am ashamed to admit my previous feelings about MG books. Granted, I always lauded their benefits; I just never personally enjoyed them. Now, I feel a whole new world has opened up to me, and I can't wait to dive in to this "ultra sophisticated" class of MG fiction. Will I find it in other books? I think so. Though they have a mighty high standard to live up to.
I think someone Up There heard me and put this book in my path. Because BOYS OF BLUR is one of the best books I've read this year and quite possibly the best MG book I've read ever.
I make the comment all the time that there is a class of YA Fiction that I call "sophisticated". Sure, there are plenty of fluffy and fun YA books, but there seems to be this class of books that is expertly crafted, gorgeous, and un-put-downable. It's these books that add to my conviction that the best writers around are writing YA. Look at Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races, Kristin Cashore's Bitterblue, anything by Melina Marchetta, just to name a few (as soon as I hit 'post' I will regret not adding 20 others).
So here's this thing: I think I had an epiphany. BOYS OF BLUR was every bit as "sophisticated"-- inventive, lyrical, supreme, unforgettable--as these YA books I love so much. But it went one step further:
It's only 200 pages long.
And this, my reading friends, BLEW MY MIND. That you can take the character development, the perfected storyline, the tight editing, and the FEELINGS of a fabulous YA novel and pare it down to 200 pages--- it's like magic. It IS magic. It requires the reader to suspend their belief even more, which requires the writer to make it work. And in books like BOYS OF BLUR, it does work. And I don't think the best of the best of the best adult books can even come close to the sophistication of a book like this. And I don't think the most prolific literature academics could wrap their head around a book like this. I think it takes the uninhibited, unrestricted, and ingenious mind of a child to comprehend it fully--or maybe I should say it takes that mind to know you don't HAVE to comprehend it fully. (I don't have a clue about what to call the type of author that can write a book that speaks to that child mind.)
I am ashamed to admit my previous feelings about MG books. Granted, I always lauded their benefits; I just never personally enjoyed them. Now, I feel a whole new world has opened up to me, and I can't wait to dive in to this "ultra sophisticated" class of MG fiction. Will I find it in other books? I think so. Though they have a mighty high standard to live up to.
July 20, 2014
By rights I should love this. Smart, complex middle grade fiction that defies genre classification! And yet: football.
I've always disliked football. I didn't realize how much that bled over into, say, fiction about football until I read Boys of Blur. It's not so much the football itself - well, it kind of is; the way football is used as a barometer for adulthood, or success, or being a good person. It rubs me the wrong way. It's an accurate reflection of life, but that's probably why it bothers me so much.
Actually, it's not just the football I disliked. I certainly can't call that a flaw; it's a personal bias. The defies-genre part, though - that was mostly vague and confusing. It was simply there, in the middle of an otherwise gritty contemporary work, and it seemed out of place and at odds with the tone of the rest of the story. It wasn't until the end that I realized the novel was based on Beowulf (at which point I noticed how obvious that should've been), and I can't say I'm a fan of the parallel. It made the fantasy elements feel shoehorned in, and all the more so because they weren't grounded in anything. Because it felt like the fantasy elements were just a chapter in the boys' lives, experienced and learned from and then no longer a part of their world, and that highlighted how awkward they were.
Despite that, though, there's a lot of very good stuff in this book. Fabulous, fabulous family stuff. Great adult presence and relationships. Friendship and courage and loyalty, and how the decisions you make affect the person you become. What it means to grow up and be an adult.
I still say football isn't a barometer of that, though.
I've always disliked football. I didn't realize how much that bled over into, say, fiction about football until I read Boys of Blur. It's not so much the football itself - well, it kind of is; the way football is used as a barometer for adulthood, or success, or being a good person. It rubs me the wrong way. It's an accurate reflection of life, but that's probably why it bothers me so much.
Actually, it's not just the football I disliked. I certainly can't call that a flaw; it's a personal bias. The defies-genre part, though - that was mostly vague and confusing. It was simply there, in the middle of an otherwise gritty contemporary work, and it seemed out of place and at odds with the tone of the rest of the story. It wasn't until the end that I realized the novel was based on Beowulf (at which point I noticed how obvious that should've been), and I can't say I'm a fan of the parallel. It made the fantasy elements feel shoehorned in, and all the more so because they weren't grounded in anything. Because it felt like the fantasy elements were just a chapter in the boys' lives, experienced and learned from and then no longer a part of their world, and that highlighted how awkward they were.
Despite that, though, there's a lot of very good stuff in this book. Fabulous, fabulous family stuff. Great adult presence and relationships. Friendship and courage and loyalty, and how the decisions you make affect the person you become. What it means to grow up and be an adult.
I still say football isn't a barometer of that, though.
August 7, 2020
A retelling of BEOWULF set in "Friday Night Lights" country, and with a healthy dose of zombie lore . . . unusual, to say the least! Charlie is moving to the town where his stepfather, famous retired football player Prester Mack, grew up. But it's also the town where his own abusive biological father grew up . . . and still lives. But that's only the start of Charlie's problems.
I really loved the family dynamics in this: the fathers and stepfathers, mothers and foster mothers. I loved that Mack was such a good dad to Charlie, and such an all-around good guy. I wish that more of this could have been explored, and more of the story itself. I know that BEOWULF is an epic poem, but it's at least as long as the average fairy tale, if not longer, and so I wish that this book hadn't whipped through it all so fast! I felt like I didn't have time to breathe, and the characters certainly didn't! But it's got a lot going for it, and it's nice to see a book about zombies (and BEOWULF!) that's suitable for tweens!
I really loved the family dynamics in this: the fathers and stepfathers, mothers and foster mothers. I loved that Mack was such a good dad to Charlie, and such an all-around good guy. I wish that more of this could have been explored, and more of the story itself. I know that BEOWULF is an epic poem, but it's at least as long as the average fairy tale, if not longer, and so I wish that this book hadn't whipped through it all so fast! I felt like I didn't have time to breathe, and the characters certainly didn't! But it's got a lot going for it, and it's nice to see a book about zombies (and BEOWULF!) that's suitable for tweens!
January 22, 2018
Glad I don’t live next to a Florida swamp.
(Also, wish I could write in italics, because that’s the only way speed should ever be said again.)
(Also, wish I could write in italics, because that’s the only way speed should ever be said again.)
May 7, 2025
3.5. I enjoyed the read. It was a little weird and kind of hard to follow sometimes. But I loved how realistic the boys emotions felt and the ending with the dad made me cry so points for that.
October 16, 2017
This book was a blur.
Emotions. Relationships. Really weird things happening that no one seemed to notice. (Seriously though, minor underreaction to the church thing.) Also football. Somehow that made it in there.
This book tricked me into feeling things I didn't want to feel. Anger. Envy. Condescension. Then is slapped me in the face with reality: those feelings lead to a logical conclusion. Sometimes it's brawling in the stands, sometimes it's Las Vegas (prayers for all affected), but those feelings don't ever end well. This book knows that.
It's classic good versus evil, love versus hate. It's fresh, and touching, and real.
It's worth a read.
(Also, on a less deep note, Nate has to have played some football to describe what it feels like to drop a pass that well. Spoilers, I'm sorry.)
Emotions. Relationships. Really weird things happening that no one seemed to notice. (Seriously though, minor underreaction to the church thing.) Also football. Somehow that made it in there.
This book tricked me into feeling things I didn't want to feel. Anger. Envy. Condescension. Then is slapped me in the face with reality: those feelings lead to a logical conclusion. Sometimes it's brawling in the stands, sometimes it's Las Vegas (prayers for all affected), but those feelings don't ever end well. This book knows that.
It's classic good versus evil, love versus hate. It's fresh, and touching, and real.
It's worth a read.
(Also, on a less deep note, Nate has to have played some football to describe what it feels like to drop a pass that well. Spoilers, I'm sorry.)
August 21, 2014
Charlie Reynolds comes to the little town of Taper, Florida for a funeral--his stepfather's old football coach. That's where he meets his step-cousin Cotton Mack. That's where he runs through mud and sugarcane for the first time. That's where he first meets the old man with the rusty sword, and smells the stink of envy at midnight in the churchyard during a grave robbery...
That's where he meets the Gren, made of shadows and decay, muck-covered and stronger than steel. And the Gren want Taper...
Maybe my favourite of anything NDW's done yet.
Full review on my blog, Vintage Novels.
That's where he meets the Gren, made of shadows and decay, muck-covered and stronger than steel. And the Gren want Taper...
Maybe my favourite of anything NDW's done yet.
Full review on my blog, Vintage Novels.
October 29, 2021
2021:
Having read Beowulf more recently and having heard Wilson talk about the inspirations and goals behind this story in his podcast, this book really hit the spot. It's full of depth. I can't wait to give it to my kids, to discuss the power of love and of hate, to talk about giving our lives for others.
I love this story. Really truly.
First read:
Wow.
What?
I don't know. But I liked it. There was conflict and weirdness and sadness and forgiveness and anger and hate and love and friendship and family and basically all the necessary ingredients for a great story.
You should read it. It's weird. But it's great.
Having read Beowulf more recently and having heard Wilson talk about the inspirations and goals behind this story in his podcast, this book really hit the spot. It's full of depth. I can't wait to give it to my kids, to discuss the power of love and of hate, to talk about giving our lives for others.
I love this story. Really truly.
First read:
Wow.
What?
I don't know. But I liked it. There was conflict and weirdness and sadness and forgiveness and anger and hate and love and friendship and family and basically all the necessary ingredients for a great story.
You should read it. It's weird. But it's great.
August 16, 2020
Second read update: I adore this book.
April 1, 2014
Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.
have been a huge fan of N.D. Wilson's book since I read his first, Leepike Ridge. I pre-order his books as soon as I can and devour them all. I was so excited when I discovered he had a new stand alone, the first since Leepike Ridge, coming out this year. Then everyone else (who doesn't read their ARCs in order of publication date, or at least doesn't get as behind as I sometimes do) started singing its praises and my excitement and expectations increased. Basically, I had astronomical expectations for this book going into it and it managed to surpass them.
This is a review of an ARC from the publisher.
Boys of Blur is a story of brotherhood, rivalry, football, family, and Beowulf. Yes, Beowulf.
Charlie has a past that haunts him and also fills him with hope and purpose. His mother left his dangerously violent father when he was only five. Charlie remembers the fear and what it was like to be running from him. He has a step-dad now though who is everything that is wonderful and encouraging and an adorable little sister. As the story opens, Charlie's past and present are colliding. Back in the town where both his father and step-father grew up, and where both men currently are working, Charlie is facing a present that is both haunting and hopeful too. This story is about him finding the courage to face the things that frighten him, let go of the things eating at his soul, and learning to run with the best of them-not away from things but toward them. He is a character who pulls at the reader and draws them into the story. His step-second-cousin, Cotton, who claims him as just a cousin, welcomes him to his new home and teaches him a bit about the town and the running. The two boys bond like most boys do: running and getting into trouble together. I really liked this aspect. The cast of other characters are wide and varied. This is a short book, less than 200 pages, and yet the entire town comes to life. Each character has a distinct voice and that includes all of the adults. I particularly liked Mack, Charlie's ex-football star step-father. I also appreciated how the storyline with Charlie's real father was handled.
This sounds like fairly typical MG contemporary realistic fiction at this point, but it isn't. Because there is something not quite alive but not quite dead wreaking havoc in the flats. Old rivalries are tearing the town apart. The little jealousies, bitter musings, and grudges people have cradled in their hearts are taking over their whole souls. Everyone is turning on everyone else. Charlie and Cotton discover it is due to an ancient evil trapped beneath the muck and swamp lands waiting for her time to take over the halls and bodies of men. Soon the boys find themselves having to face this evil and decide what to do about it. They are brave and foolish. Just as 12 year old boys are. And it all works together so well. The plot is a reworking of Beowulf, the evil being the mother who is birthing man devouring monsters. She wants to burn the world. It is up to Charlie to stop it. I really appreciated how he had so much assistance though. This is one thing Wilson always does well in his books. In a world of MG and YA novels where adult supervision and assistance are glaringly, sometimes ridiculously, absent, Wilson never abandons his young protagonists to fight their monsters alone. There are always strong, capable, and loving adults there to help.
The themes explored in this novel are sweeping in scope. For such a short, quick read, the book is brimming with symbolism and thematic greatness. What makes a family, what holding on to the negative aspects of life does to a person, when to stand up for right, having courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and knowing what it is you are living for (so you can know what it is you are willing to die for) are all pulled into Charlie's story. Themes Wilson explores in most of his books, but they all are worth exploring repeatedly and he does it so darn well. There is also a great deal of diversity in the book, a thing we need more of and is always nice to see. Charlie is white, his step-dad is black. I loved how this wasn't a big deal, it just was. They make some jokes about it, but they're jokes that clearly come from a place of comfort and familiarity with each other. A knowledge that they are family no matter.
The imagery and descriptiveness of the book are pretty much perfect. As I read, I felt like I was right there with the boys. I could feel the stifling heat, the burning, the pain. And the words just flow together so well:
The bicycle pegs swayed beneath Charlie's feet. He felt strange moving so quickly while standing so still, like a man on a chariot. Gravel crunched beneath the tires and Cotton's shoulders rocked under his hands. Moonglow loomed on the horizon. or maybe it was the sky-kiss of distant lights. Charlie's skin prickled as night air parted around him. Every bit of him was hungry to feel and to remember.
Florida darkness washed over him, and Charlie Reynolds filled his lungs with it. Maybe he didn't belong in this place, but he belonged in this moment. It smelled like rich earth and hidden water. It smelled like fire.
And if all of this weren't extraordinary enough, Wilson managed to write a small town story that is not over flowing with quirkiness. THANK HEAVENS.
This line is probably my favorite though because it pretty much sums up the south: Football and church don't cancel for nobody.
Boys of Blur is a book that will be an easy sell for any reader, reluctant or book devourer. Football, monsters, boys who are heroes, the fast pace of the writing, and overall shortness are going to make it a hot commodity. If you know a child buy it for them. If you work with children buy more than one to have on hand. My students love Wilson's books and this is going to send some of the boys into a state of pure bliss. I may get trampled when I book talk it.
I read an ARC provided by the publisher, Random House Books for Young Readers, at ALA Midwinter. Boys of Blur is available for purchase on April 8th.
have been a huge fan of N.D. Wilson's book since I read his first, Leepike Ridge. I pre-order his books as soon as I can and devour them all. I was so excited when I discovered he had a new stand alone, the first since Leepike Ridge, coming out this year. Then everyone else (who doesn't read their ARCs in order of publication date, or at least doesn't get as behind as I sometimes do) started singing its praises and my excitement and expectations increased. Basically, I had astronomical expectations for this book going into it and it managed to surpass them.
This is a review of an ARC from the publisher.
Boys of Blur is a story of brotherhood, rivalry, football, family, and Beowulf. Yes, Beowulf.
Charlie has a past that haunts him and also fills him with hope and purpose. His mother left his dangerously violent father when he was only five. Charlie remembers the fear and what it was like to be running from him. He has a step-dad now though who is everything that is wonderful and encouraging and an adorable little sister. As the story opens, Charlie's past and present are colliding. Back in the town where both his father and step-father grew up, and where both men currently are working, Charlie is facing a present that is both haunting and hopeful too. This story is about him finding the courage to face the things that frighten him, let go of the things eating at his soul, and learning to run with the best of them-not away from things but toward them. He is a character who pulls at the reader and draws them into the story. His step-second-cousin, Cotton, who claims him as just a cousin, welcomes him to his new home and teaches him a bit about the town and the running. The two boys bond like most boys do: running and getting into trouble together. I really liked this aspect. The cast of other characters are wide and varied. This is a short book, less than 200 pages, and yet the entire town comes to life. Each character has a distinct voice and that includes all of the adults. I particularly liked Mack, Charlie's ex-football star step-father. I also appreciated how the storyline with Charlie's real father was handled.
This sounds like fairly typical MG contemporary realistic fiction at this point, but it isn't. Because there is something not quite alive but not quite dead wreaking havoc in the flats. Old rivalries are tearing the town apart. The little jealousies, bitter musings, and grudges people have cradled in their hearts are taking over their whole souls. Everyone is turning on everyone else. Charlie and Cotton discover it is due to an ancient evil trapped beneath the muck and swamp lands waiting for her time to take over the halls and bodies of men. Soon the boys find themselves having to face this evil and decide what to do about it. They are brave and foolish. Just as 12 year old boys are. And it all works together so well. The plot is a reworking of Beowulf, the evil being the mother who is birthing man devouring monsters. She wants to burn the world. It is up to Charlie to stop it. I really appreciated how he had so much assistance though. This is one thing Wilson always does well in his books. In a world of MG and YA novels where adult supervision and assistance are glaringly, sometimes ridiculously, absent, Wilson never abandons his young protagonists to fight their monsters alone. There are always strong, capable, and loving adults there to help.
The themes explored in this novel are sweeping in scope. For such a short, quick read, the book is brimming with symbolism and thematic greatness. What makes a family, what holding on to the negative aspects of life does to a person, when to stand up for right, having courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and knowing what it is you are living for (so you can know what it is you are willing to die for) are all pulled into Charlie's story. Themes Wilson explores in most of his books, but they all are worth exploring repeatedly and he does it so darn well. There is also a great deal of diversity in the book, a thing we need more of and is always nice to see. Charlie is white, his step-dad is black. I loved how this wasn't a big deal, it just was. They make some jokes about it, but they're jokes that clearly come from a place of comfort and familiarity with each other. A knowledge that they are family no matter.
The imagery and descriptiveness of the book are pretty much perfect. As I read, I felt like I was right there with the boys. I could feel the stifling heat, the burning, the pain. And the words just flow together so well:
The bicycle pegs swayed beneath Charlie's feet. He felt strange moving so quickly while standing so still, like a man on a chariot. Gravel crunched beneath the tires and Cotton's shoulders rocked under his hands. Moonglow loomed on the horizon. or maybe it was the sky-kiss of distant lights. Charlie's skin prickled as night air parted around him. Every bit of him was hungry to feel and to remember.
Florida darkness washed over him, and Charlie Reynolds filled his lungs with it. Maybe he didn't belong in this place, but he belonged in this moment. It smelled like rich earth and hidden water. It smelled like fire.
And if all of this weren't extraordinary enough, Wilson managed to write a small town story that is not over flowing with quirkiness. THANK HEAVENS.
This line is probably my favorite though because it pretty much sums up the south: Football and church don't cancel for nobody.
Boys of Blur is a book that will be an easy sell for any reader, reluctant or book devourer. Football, monsters, boys who are heroes, the fast pace of the writing, and overall shortness are going to make it a hot commodity. If you know a child buy it for them. If you work with children buy more than one to have on hand. My students love Wilson's books and this is going to send some of the boys into a state of pure bliss. I may get trampled when I book talk it.
I read an ARC provided by the publisher, Random House Books for Young Readers, at ALA Midwinter. Boys of Blur is available for purchase on April 8th.
December 30, 2025
I absolutely love N D Wilson, so I really enjoyed this book. It wasn’t quite as good as some of his others, but nothing beats Ashtown anyway 😆
I think there could have been a bit more of a clear storyline, as it didn’t feel very climactic or like there was much at stake. The writing was really good though, Wilson’s descriptions are always great. I liked the characters too, especially Sugar and Mack.
I think there could have been a bit more of a clear storyline, as it didn’t feel very climactic or like there was much at stake. The writing was really good though, Wilson’s descriptions are always great. I liked the characters too, especially Sugar and Mack.
August 12, 2018
my one complaint is that multiple characters were underdeveloped
January 24, 2022
I read this before several years ago but just reread it to my boys ages 9, 6, and 4. They absolutely LOVED it and I also really enjoyed reading it aloud even more than I had the first time I read it. Fast paced and exciting - and also pretty dang scary - my 6 year old immediately asked if there were more in the series and everyone was disappointed when I said no.
April 16, 2014
I started and finished it in one day. Its absolutely that good. They way N.D. captures the ethos of a place while also weaving in so many literary references and sensory experiences; it boggles the mind.
I like the way Mr. Wilson sees the world and recreates the world and I love the people who live there.
Superb story. Powerful writing. Wonderful characters.
I like the way Mr. Wilson sees the world and recreates the world and I love the people who live there.
Superb story. Powerful writing. Wonderful characters.
December 28, 2020
I read this almost five years ago and my biggest memory is of constant confusion. Running through sugarcane and football and two fathers and a monster and creepy rituals... yep, it's an NDW book.
Will reread and rethink my thoughts/rating.
Will reread and rethink my thoughts/rating.
July 5, 2022
Such a fast read! I admit, I was skeptical that a guy from Idaho could write about south Florida. Great story, engaging characters and just the right amount of ND Wilson creepy.
July 9, 2021
"When the sugarcane's burning and the rabbits are running, look for the boys who are quicker than flame." -Boys of Blur
That quote right there was what drew me to N.D. Wilson's tale of the boys with feet that fly; who go on to great things in football because of their gritty determination to outrun the rabbits of the sugarcane field. Not only outrunning the rabbits- but in the case of this mythical tale, also the Grendels of the swamps surrounding the little town of Taper, Florida. This novel is spooky, extremely well-written, and probably the only border-line-zombie-story I could ever love. And I do love it; oh how I do love it!
Charlie Reynolds is the boy this story centers around; both his dad and step dad were football stars; now, Charlie's stepdad Prester Mack is returning to his hometown of Taper with his wife, daughter, and step-son, in order to become the new coach of the high school football there, after the death of beloved coach Willie Wisdom.
But... things are happening... out there in the muck and swamp-land... creatures... the Gren... their stink of envy spreading and striking insanity into the townsfolk.
It's up to Charlie Reynolds, white boy; and his cousin-by-marriage (and friend) Rene "Cotton" Mack, black boy; to stop the evil that threatens to destroy the town and it's people.
There's quick... or there's dead. -Boys of Blur
Sidenote: I adore all the extremely well-portrayed relationships in this book; whether that be messed up and dysfunctional, or warm and tight-knit, or a little of both in one. Well done, N.D. Wilson!
July 28, 2018
I keep running into the Wilsons, but I never know what to make of them. Douglas and Nancy Wilson are very hit-and-miss with their "federalist" ways. But I LOVED "Loving the Little Years" by Rachel Jankovic, who turns out to be their daughter. Recently, I stumbled across the "What Have You" podcast (which I recommend), and whadaya know -- it's Rachel AND Rebekah. And everyone and their brother is reading books by ND Wilson these days -- turns out he's their son. Anyone ELSE I should know about?
Boys of Blur unites three of my least-favorite things: football, the undead, and Florida. However, the main themes of family, bitterness, and maturity are beautifully developed and expressed. This book also made me want to read Beowulf, which I never thought I'd say. I'm not going to run out and grab another ND Wilson book, but I'm keeping him in mind for when my boys hit the middle grades.
Boys of Blur unites three of my least-favorite things: football, the undead, and Florida. However, the main themes of family, bitterness, and maturity are beautifully developed and expressed. This book also made me want to read Beowulf, which I never thought I'd say. I'm not going to run out and grab another ND Wilson book, but I'm keeping him in mind for when my boys hit the middle grades.
May 13, 2018
I was like, Oh, okay. Interesting.
Then I was like, Wait, what?
and then, What in the world. This world?
Then, hahahahahaha too much.
Unexpected.
Processing... processing...
Then, Okay, I think I get it now.
Cool.
Much wow.
Oh, who survived?
Sudden ending.
Back to "real" life.
Straaange.
Reminded me a but of Frank Peretti. Like, it's real world, but then monsters and scary and spiritual stuff, but we're still on earth. Though it's a place with crocodiles and fiery sugar cane fields, so Becky can't relate at all.
It was a pretty fun read, but not my fave Wilson. 3 feels low, but 4 feels a bit high. 3.7. haha
Then I was like, Wait, what?
and then, What in the world. This world?
Then, hahahahahaha too much.
Unexpected.
Processing... processing...
Then, Okay, I think I get it now.
Cool.
Much wow.
Oh, who survived?
Sudden ending.
Back to "real" life.
Straaange.
Reminded me a but of Frank Peretti. Like, it's real world, but then monsters and scary and spiritual stuff, but we're still on earth. Though it's a place with crocodiles and fiery sugar cane fields, so Becky can't relate at all.
It was a pretty fun read, but not my fave Wilson. 3 feels low, but 4 feels a bit high. 3.7. haha
October 21, 2022
A must read for the boys and young men of our generation.
Thus far, I have thoroughly enjoyed every Wilson novel I've read, and this one did not disappoint! He is one of the rare authors that can write an engaging middle grade novel for adults. In typical Wilsonian fashion, the story is rift with adventure, spiritual magic, quirky writing, witty characters, strong male and female leads, and lots of laughs. He also tackles deep topics our younger readers need to hear these days that will move even adults while remaining clean for the younger audience. Most importantly, he creates strong role models for boys and young men through his daring, kind, Christian, adventure-finding male characters.
If you like Wilson's books, you have to read Boys of Blur!
Thus far, I have thoroughly enjoyed every Wilson novel I've read, and this one did not disappoint! He is one of the rare authors that can write an engaging middle grade novel for adults. In typical Wilsonian fashion, the story is rift with adventure, spiritual magic, quirky writing, witty characters, strong male and female leads, and lots of laughs. He also tackles deep topics our younger readers need to hear these days that will move even adults while remaining clean for the younger audience. Most importantly, he creates strong role models for boys and young men through his daring, kind, Christian, adventure-finding male characters.
If you like Wilson's books, you have to read Boys of Blur!
October 28, 2025
"There's quick, and there's dead."
On a pernicious whim I picked this up because I wondered what N D Wilson was up to these days. And I was very surprised. This book is a wonderful short story. I loved seeing the (very cannon press-y) themes of fatherhood and family and anti-Gnosticism and life roll through this story. The writing is superb. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
The only reason it is one star short of sublime is that the supernatural forces of evil were not fleshed out very well. I would have liked to see more detail and more explanation. And why shells?
On a pernicious whim I picked this up because I wondered what N D Wilson was up to these days. And I was very surprised. This book is a wonderful short story. I loved seeing the (very cannon press-y) themes of fatherhood and family and anti-Gnosticism and life roll through this story. The writing is superb. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
The only reason it is one star short of sublime is that the supernatural forces of evil were not fleshed out very well. I would have liked to see more detail and more explanation. And why shells?
April 27, 2014
Review originally posted at Views from the Tesseract: http://shanshad1.wordpress.com/2014/0...
What is it that makes a person a hero? In classic literature you rarely had to guess. The heroes were set out before you to defeat the challenges and villains before them. Beowulf, Arthur . . . these ancient heroes of old and the evils they fight are still familiar, still inform our culture. And they reappear in our stories, sometimes mere glimmers but still recognizable in form and action. Even in the small town of Taper, Florida.
Charlie Mack has just moved to this town by the Everglades, where boys chase rabbits through the burning cane and the muck of the swamp runs deep and dark with history. Both his father and his stepfather have their roots in this town, and Charlie is just beginning to understand how that inheritance affect him and touches on his relationships with others in the town. But there is more than football and burning cane in Taper. There are the chalk mounds, and the strange monstrous things in the night that rise from the muck and haunt the cane fields. They are the Gren . . . and they are hungry. Heroes will be called upon to risk their lives in the battle between good and evil once again.
As a fan of Beowulf, it’s a bit of literary delight to have N. D. Wilson weave that old story into this contemporary fantasy adventure. Those familiar with the classic will swiftly recognize the references here–though a reader doesn’t have to be familiar with the Old English epic to read the book. Charlie is set to play the main protagonist in this story, to take on the age-old fight in the muck and discover its secrets. He isn’t the only hero in this story–men and boys bound by blood, history and determination will all have their parts to play before the story is done.
It’s a marvelous story that manages to combine richness and brevity. A landscape that is easy to visualize in language that invites all the senses to experience the deep muck, the burning cane. Added to the wild imagery is the more mundane: the small town politics and histories, the rivalry of football. Our characters are not far distant heroes, but boys and men who live in reality, but are willing to step beyond that reality to fight the old fights. Our characters live with flaws and troubled pasts, but we’re told that even those who’ve made many mistakes have some good in them. Then there’s the cane . . . the muck . . . the zombies. The dangerous and hungry force waiting to break free and devour the town. Somehow N.D. Wilson manages to mix it all together into a satisfying whole that reads with the swiftness of the boys running. Oh, and in case I forget, this is one more fantasy for the year with a multicultural cast–so good to see a sizable number of them this year, I can only hope it continues!
While there are some female characters here, this essentially a “boy” story–though I think any avid reader could enjoy reading it. It’s an interesting counterpoint to an earlier fantasy from this year; Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee. Both books feature a young protagonist in a new place . . . one where strange forces of evil are at work. Both books have their protagonist slated to play the role of hero against the looming evil. In each story our young heroes are seeking to protect and rescue friends and family, and ultimately to be the saviors from a dangerous evil that seeks to reach out over the unknowing modern world. While for Ophelia, it’s a story of sterile ice and snow, of clean and glamour-ridden evil, in Boys of Blur it’s the muck, the sweat and blood and death. The dirt and life within it. These two books form a sort of yin-yang, male/female expression the hero’s journey.
I will admit that when I first heard mention of zombies in connection with this book it almost made me tuck it at the bottom of my reading pile. I’m glad I didn’t. These aren’t your typical zombies and the book is seriously worth a few undead monsters. It’s delicious reading that had me going through it in gulps and sprints. The writing is strong and vibrant–and rich as the landscape itself. Mind you, it is a dark adventure tale–so those readers who tend to avoid monster stories and creepy stuff may not be fans. This is a small town horror story, a boy’s adventure tale, an epic heroic fantasy, a tale of redemption, humanity and hope. It’s a great ride and going on my book shelf to share with the next reader I can hand it to!
What is it that makes a person a hero? In classic literature you rarely had to guess. The heroes were set out before you to defeat the challenges and villains before them. Beowulf, Arthur . . . these ancient heroes of old and the evils they fight are still familiar, still inform our culture. And they reappear in our stories, sometimes mere glimmers but still recognizable in form and action. Even in the small town of Taper, Florida.
Charlie Mack has just moved to this town by the Everglades, where boys chase rabbits through the burning cane and the muck of the swamp runs deep and dark with history. Both his father and his stepfather have their roots in this town, and Charlie is just beginning to understand how that inheritance affect him and touches on his relationships with others in the town. But there is more than football and burning cane in Taper. There are the chalk mounds, and the strange monstrous things in the night that rise from the muck and haunt the cane fields. They are the Gren . . . and they are hungry. Heroes will be called upon to risk their lives in the battle between good and evil once again.
As a fan of Beowulf, it’s a bit of literary delight to have N. D. Wilson weave that old story into this contemporary fantasy adventure. Those familiar with the classic will swiftly recognize the references here–though a reader doesn’t have to be familiar with the Old English epic to read the book. Charlie is set to play the main protagonist in this story, to take on the age-old fight in the muck and discover its secrets. He isn’t the only hero in this story–men and boys bound by blood, history and determination will all have their parts to play before the story is done.
It’s a marvelous story that manages to combine richness and brevity. A landscape that is easy to visualize in language that invites all the senses to experience the deep muck, the burning cane. Added to the wild imagery is the more mundane: the small town politics and histories, the rivalry of football. Our characters are not far distant heroes, but boys and men who live in reality, but are willing to step beyond that reality to fight the old fights. Our characters live with flaws and troubled pasts, but we’re told that even those who’ve made many mistakes have some good in them. Then there’s the cane . . . the muck . . . the zombies. The dangerous and hungry force waiting to break free and devour the town. Somehow N.D. Wilson manages to mix it all together into a satisfying whole that reads with the swiftness of the boys running. Oh, and in case I forget, this is one more fantasy for the year with a multicultural cast–so good to see a sizable number of them this year, I can only hope it continues!
While there are some female characters here, this essentially a “boy” story–though I think any avid reader could enjoy reading it. It’s an interesting counterpoint to an earlier fantasy from this year; Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee. Both books feature a young protagonist in a new place . . . one where strange forces of evil are at work. Both books have their protagonist slated to play the role of hero against the looming evil. In each story our young heroes are seeking to protect and rescue friends and family, and ultimately to be the saviors from a dangerous evil that seeks to reach out over the unknowing modern world. While for Ophelia, it’s a story of sterile ice and snow, of clean and glamour-ridden evil, in Boys of Blur it’s the muck, the sweat and blood and death. The dirt and life within it. These two books form a sort of yin-yang, male/female expression the hero’s journey.
I will admit that when I first heard mention of zombies in connection with this book it almost made me tuck it at the bottom of my reading pile. I’m glad I didn’t. These aren’t your typical zombies and the book is seriously worth a few undead monsters. It’s delicious reading that had me going through it in gulps and sprints. The writing is strong and vibrant–and rich as the landscape itself. Mind you, it is a dark adventure tale–so those readers who tend to avoid monster stories and creepy stuff may not be fans. This is a small town horror story, a boy’s adventure tale, an epic heroic fantasy, a tale of redemption, humanity and hope. It’s a great ride and going on my book shelf to share with the next reader I can hand it to!
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