Someone is killing boys in a small town. The murder weapon is a truck, and the only protection is a curfew enacted to keep kids off the streets. But it’s summer—and that alone is worth the risk of staying out late for James, Willie, and Reggie who are soon forced to test their friendship and themselves on the cusp of adulthood.
Overall, this was a rather impressive story if only falling flat on its genre qualities. The main gist of the book focuses on the relationship that develops between the three boys, who are shown at various stages trying to deal with the forces at play around them. The present-day struggle to establish a bond that was severed back when they were kids several years ago through the course of the summer that they all encounter the series of savage child hit-and-runs that run rampant through the town continues quite nicely, giving this a solid overall setup that starts this rather nicely.
This creates an intriguing dynamic between them as Willie is a survivor of the incidents but left with disfiguring physical wounds that leave him feeling like a third wheel to the other two who are not bothered by the physical limitations he has. As James and Reggie try to downplay what's going on around them, they just want to have fun as kids. Their desire, especially Reggie's, to utilize the summer for everything they could muster is handled quite well here and helps to draw the reader in.
This is all matched nicely by the smooth, vibrant storytelling here, moving the story along at a rather intriguing pace full of intriguing setpieces and conversations. From the kids planning their nocturnal rendezvous in the comfort of their house over the indignation of having a curfew in place during the summer season, their exploits when dealing with the strange pick-up truck killer that haunts their nights, or the attempt to uncover the connection between the bully that torments their existence and a savage monster said to be at the heart of their ruined summer. These are handled incredibly well, with vibrant passages and a knack for handling things the way a teenager would which helps the book tremendously.
Where this one might have a slight issue is with the natural exploits of falling into the genre hole, relying far more on the relationship between the kids and how they drift apart than what evil force is out maliciously hunting them down. The killer pick-up truck is only a brief figurehead in the first stages of the book, complete with only one real incident described more as aftermath than anything else so it never remains as much of a focus in the story as it should be. The few brief bits about the curfew or the aftereffects of an earlier encounter aren’t nearly enough of a factor to keep this one in line with the genre until it starts to get to the final half where it has a bit more impact.
4.5/5