Recently I was thinking back to the 1980’s Disney movie based on this book, and so I downloaded it and enjoyed it now as much as I remember enjoying it as a kid.
This book takes a hard look at the innocence of kids, and examines what makes men bad or good. There is a lot of philosophy here – mainly in one character’s speech while thinking through things in the town library – but it felt sort of forced to me. There is some great setup of some spooky situations, and a couple of scenes that weren’t in the movie. Also some scenes from the movie weren’t like the book, and it pleasant to discover these points as a reward for digging deeper into the story.
The book is written in a folksy tone, maybe deliberately, but some of the old idioms and expressions caught me by surprise. There are odd generalizations (“women love gossip”, bad kids throw dead cats down neighbor’s chimneys) that maybe resonated better fifty years ago.
Overall the story is solid and was worth reading, but just felt a little outdated in some parts. I’ve read plenty of older books that didn’t feel outdated – maybe it was because they depended less on phrases and idioms popular at the time.
Next I’m reading Hooked by Michael Moss.
