The Boys Are Back in Town [Paperback]

Christopher Golden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2004

From a master of horror, dark fantasy, and suspense comes a compelling and uniquely original work of paranormal suspense in which one man finds himself trapped in a web of ever-shifting reality which threatens to remake the whole of the world—unless he can find a way to stop it.

For Will James, facing his tenth high school reunion is far from his finest hour—especially since his life has not gone exactly as he planned. Dumped at the altar by his high school sweetheart and with his dreams of being a prize-winning reporter dashed by his job at a Boston tabloid, he is not sure he is ready to face his former peers.

But what he does find at the reunion is far more than he bargained for. He soon learns that one of his buddies had died several years back—even though Will had received an e-mail from him only a few days before. It is not long before other people Will was convinced were alive are turning out to be dead as well—or married to other people, or childless where they used to have children. And new memories are swarming in to replace what Will is convinced was his old life, until he no longer knows what is real and what is not. The only thing he does know for certain is that he has to figure out why he alone remembers snatches of another life before everything dissolves into this new, darker reality.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest well-crafted horror novel, Stoker-winner Golden (The Ferryman) presents a nostalgic, unsentimental portrait of adolescence. A young reporter, Will James, whose career has stalled due to his obsession with debunking the supernatural, returns home for his 10th high school reunion to discover that his memories of the events of his senior year are not only news to his classmates but are actually changing into recollections of much darker events. Youthful experiments with the black arts have set in motion ripples that are altering his present reality in unsettling ways. Will travels back in time to the period immediately before his prom to set things straight, only to realize that someone is actively working to destroy him and his friends-and that person is using more powerful magic than his own. Golden addresses the issue of how one's identity is intimately bound to the memory of one's experiences: change the memory and the personality is changed. More sensitive younger readers will pick up on the book's moral lessons, while adult fans will overlook the didactic element and appreciate the suspenseful plot and strong atmosphere.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Will James reluctantly decides to attend his tenth high-school reunion. He's perplexed when his friend Mike doesn't show, but when he asks his friend Danny about Mike, Danny tells him Mike died during their senior year. Will is horrified to actually feel his memories changing. He can remember an e-mail he exchanged with Mike just a week ago, but he does also recall Mike being killed when a drunk driver hit him 10 years back. What's more, suddenly, before Will's eyes, Ashleigh--his best friend in childhood--changes from a happy young mother of two to a woman still scarred by the rape and subsequent abortion that robbed her of the capability to have children. Kyle, the teenager living in Will's old house, turns out to hold the key to all this weirdness. When he brings Will a book of Dark Magick, memories Will has blocked for 10 years come flooding back, and he realizes the root of his problems may indeed lie in his own actions in the past. Golden takes a truly creepy fantastic premise and delivers in spades; this gripping story is not to be missed. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553382071
• ISBN-13: 978-0553382075
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,342,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the award-winning, bestselling author of such novels as The Myth Hunters, Wildwood Road, The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, Of Saints and Shadows, and (with Tim Lebbon) The Map of Moments. He has also written books for teens and young adults, including Poison Ink, Soulless, and the thriller series Body of Evidence, honored by the New York Public Library and chosen as one of YALSA's Best Books for Young Readers. Upcoming teen novels include a new series of hardcover YA fantasy novels co-authored with Tim Lebbon and entitled The Secret Journeys of Jack London.

A lifelong fan of the "team-up," Golden frequently collaborates with other writers on books, comics, and scripts. In addition to his recent work with Tim Lebbon, he co-wrote the lavishly illustrated novel Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire with Mike Mignola. With Thomas E. Sniegoski, he is the co-author of the book series OutCast and The Menagerie, as well as comic book miniseries such as Talent, currently in development as a feature film. With Amber Benson, Golden co-created the online animated series Ghosts of Albion and co-wrote the book series of the same name.
As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies The New Dead and British Invasion, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson) and a network television pilot.

The author is also known for his many media tie-in works, including novels, comics, and video games, in the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, Angel, and X-Men, among others.

Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not Golden's best..., February 7, 2004

By 

Sebastien Pharand (Orléans, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boys Are Back in Town (Paperback)

Christopher Golden's novels have blown me away. Although he writes in the horror genre, his writing is done with so much emotion and skill that you can easily lose yourself in the narrative. The Ferryman and Straight on Til Morning are two of the best horror novels published in the past decade.

That said, it comes with great disappointemnt to say that The Boys Are Back in Town is a step back for Golden. Although the very things that have made his previous books such successes (great characters, a very imaginative plot, beautiful writing) are present, the book nonetheless feels like something Golden would have written in the early parts of his career.

Will is getting ready to go to his high school reunion. Once there, he rekindles his friendship with all of his high school friends. But just as things start to fall into place, Will's memories of the past start to change. Mike, one of Will's friend, now seems to be dead while Will remembers e-mailing him just a few days before the reunion. More of his memories disappear, replaced by darker, more violent ones.

Why? Well, everything is related to the past. Seems like Will and his best friend Brian were deep into magic as teens. Now someone seems to be putting a spell on Will, one that changes his memories to make his present life a living hell. Will feels he has no choice but to cast a spell on himself to bring him back in time - to his senior year of high school - in order to stop whoever is murdering or torturing his friends.

The plot does sound like some bad 80s b-movie. And at times, the plot points feel just a bit too ludicrous and over-the-top to be truly enjoyable. And that's too bad, because Golden was able to create some very emotional moments in this book. Who wouldn't like to go back in time to change the way things were? Who wouldn't want to go back in time to meet his younger self and try to stop him from making the mistakes you've done? If Golden had played with this aspect more, the book would have been much stronger.

And the narrative isn't helped by the Carrie rip-off ending that never suits the book. That said, there is still a lot to love about this book. The nostalgic plot will often leave you feeling quite sad, while the characters feel so real and are so well written that it feels as though they were your own friends back in high school. Golden was always able to write vivid and realistic characters, and this one is no exception.

If this book did one thing for me, it made me wonder what Golden could do with a straight-on, non-genre narrative. The Boys are Back in Town is a novel full of emotions and plot twists that never ad up to what they should. And although this one is still better than half the horror books out there, I still couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed in the end.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Golden Found A New Fan, October 11, 2009

By 

Jeffrey Bunting "Jeff" (Shoreline, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boys Are Back in Town (Mass Market Paperback)

I have to say this was some the best dark modern fantasy I've read in quiet some time. I will be reading more from this author for some time.

Highly recommended.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars VG for its genre, but there are better time travel novels, September 28, 2004

By 

Traveler (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Boys Are Back in Town (Paperback)

As a time travel novel "The Boys Are Back in Town" is a good fast read. The characters are, for the most part, likeable, the author effectively deals with time travel paradoxes, and the plot is a page turner.

For a genre piece this book is a four star effort. For general quality, it's a three.

First off, the primary villain is not really believable. The character is so inherently evil and cruel that it's not believable that they are motivated by the events in the book. Because this is genre fiction the author sped the plot along and glossed over these details. In a better book we would have known and understood more about what led to the villain's mindset.

The book also suffers from far too many characters who are almost undistinguishable from each other. True, any book about a high school reunion is likely to include many people. But here we just get surface descriptions. Obviously, the author would have slowed the plot down with this information.

One reviewer on the cover refers to this book as something Rod Serling would love. When you read the last paragraph you'll understand the remark. It's a good ending (can't say that about many books!) and it fits the tone of the story.

In the end, "The Boys Are Back in Town" is a highly enjoyable read that will likely be quickly forgotten. If you're looking for a more memorable time travel novel I'd recommend "Replay" by Ken Grimwood.