This tale is reminiscent of Stephen King's It and The Body. It involves a group of children dealing with strange events occurring in their town (Elm Haven, IL) in the summer of 1960. The story starts off with the last day of school and the last day for this building. Old Central is going to be closed down and probably demolished. As the children impatiently await the bell that will release them to freedom, one child (Tubby Cooke) disappears.

In the course of the next week the group of young boys (occasionally joined by Cordie Cooke, the sister of Tubby), begin to experience very strange events. Several see the figure of a WWI doughboy who follows them and seem to be haunting the grandmother of one of them. One of the group is almost run over by the Rendering Truck driven by the former school janitor. Other strange events take place and it ultimately piques the group's curiosity and causes them to investigate some of the weird happenings. Interspersed with these supernatural events are the typical things an 11 or 12 year old experiences - bullies, searching for buried treasure, noticing girls for the first time and enjoying an outdoor movie on a summer night.

As the book goes on things take a more deadly turn and the boys start to become truly afraid. What is haunting the school? What is the doughboy after? What is causing the odd tunnels under various structures? As the boys draw closer to the core of the mystery, people who can answer their questions about the town's history begin getting killed or disappearing. As the story draws to its eerie finale, the reader is never sure who will make it to the end.

This book is a good read but has some inconsistencies that distracted me. Memo, Mike O'Rourke's ill grandmother, is initially described as his maternal grandmother but later in the story possesses family photos and artifacts that would make her seem to be his father's mother. Some of the characters are not fully fleshed out. Jim Harlen and Kevin Grumbacher seemed so incidental to the story that they might not have existed at all. The fact that no one but this children notices the goings on calls for a bit of a suspension of disbelief. I also didn't feel that the reason behind all of this was explained. Why were the WWI soldier and the dead teacher the only two brought back from the dead? How did the teachers find the evil in the school? Why did nothing happen before? I wish some of these areas had been given more detail. Despite that, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of King's It. ( )

I'm sold. I'll be reading all the sequels. The best summer reading ever. The best terror. Like Stephen King crossed with Ray Bradbury. And WHY hasn't this been made into a movie? Hollywood is truly dead on its feet. Someone pull the plug and give it to this guy.

A delicious summertime tale of spinetingling adventures and terror. CREEPY! and delightful. All at once. How does he do it?! It's the first Dan Simmons book I've ever read, and I'm very pleased so far. The story centers around a group of young boys and the gigantic gothic Old Central school building that looms over their Illinois town. Ghostly and grisly happenings and the magic elements of summer vacation mix together and produce startling results (so far). Perfect summer reading. ( )

Really great horror book... the camaraderie of the boys reminded me of 'Stand by Me' (Stephen King). There's just something about a group of kids in the 60's who come together to defeat evil... Love it! ( )

I ran across two of Dan Simmon's books at the same time, this one and its sequel. This one was very Stephen-King-ish in the sense of town history. Simmons tells you alot about Elm Haven and its surrounding area. It reminded me a lot of King's book & movie of "Stand By Me" because the group of boys about the same age as in that story. You live in the life of the kids, adults are in the periphery. Yet this is a good, scary ghost/horror story as well. Simmons has some great descriptions and you really feel like you can see the town and the kids and all the places they hang out. Very visual. And a good spook-fest as well.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s a 8.

similar to Stephen King's IT in plot (children battle evil) but still a GREAT read ( )