Customer Reviews

Straight On 'Til Morning

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

An interesting blend of horror and fantasy, this book made me long for my childhood, those innocent days of first loves, first beers, first joints and first PB centrefolds. Christopher Golden is quite adept at capturing the mood of summer for young men growing into adolescence. His skill in capturing this mood is almost on a par with the great book Boy's Life by Robert Mccammon(I said almost! Mccammon's THE KING after all...).

In the first half of the book, we are introduced to Kevin Murphy, his brother Jessie, and their friends. They're typical carefree teengagers enjoying their summer. Kevin has a major crush on the girl next door Nikkie but he just can't bring himself to tell her. He loves the time they spend as friends and is hoping for something more. It all comes crashing down when she falls for this dark & mysterious older dude by the name of Pete Starling. Starling and his 3 buddies are troublemakers who are able to do inexplicable things(this is the part that reminds me of The Lost Boys). Starling and his thugs eventually kidnap Nikkie and bring her to "Neverland", an alternate world where few humans have ever ventured. Thus begins the second half of the book where Kevin, his brother and two friends embark on a mission to Neverland to save Nikkie. From now on, the book becomes a full-blown fantasy adventure complete with trolls, goblins, sea creatures and the like.

Straight on til' morning definitely entertains. Should you choose to read this, your eyes will be glued to the pages and you'll be turning them so quickly as to risk several papercuts(be careful!). Of course, there are some minor flaws. For one, this book seems to suffer of an identity crisis. Is it coming-of age, horror or fantasy? What is the intended audience? There came times where I felt I was reading a scholastic young-adult novel (like the author's Buffy books) and others where I felt I was reading something intended for an older audience. I also wish the author had decided to shift the story to Neverland earlier. We don't actually get there until past the midway point of the novel. But once we're there, whoa what a ride! If you're looking for good summer escapism, you'll definitely find what you're looking for through the pages of this fine novel.

Being thirteen - almost fourteen - has its own special anguish. You know more than you should, you want more than you can have, and nothing quite makes sense. Such was the life of Kevin Murphy, caught in the long summer before maturity. Falling out of love one day and back in love the next. This time with his best friend Nicole French. Nikki is older, but not particularly wiser. Compulsively drawn to high-risk boyfriends, she can care for Kevin, rely on him, but never love him in the way he wants.

What hurts Kevin the most is that Nikki has fallen for a boy that Kevin knows is extreme bad news. Peter Starling first ran into Kevin and his friends on a day in the woods. What started out as and idyllic party suddenly became a near nightmare, and Kevin will never forget Pete's menacing look. Suddenly Nikki is gone along with Peter - Kevin's last sight of her was as she flew across the sky with Peter and his cronies. Kevin's determination to save her will lead him and his close friends over a boundary that humans are not to pass, and suddenly the teenager's life is filled with horror.

Author Christopher Golden makes it clear in his author's note that this tale is a fantasy remembrance of a part of his childhood. We are left to decide which pieces are imagination and which were real, but the basic theme of love gained and then lost is universal to all possible worlds. Underneath the sometimes frightening and tragic written story is a sense of a deeper tragedy - that of decisions never made and opportunities lost. In the course of a short novel space summer ends and the cold of mid-winter suddenly begins.

Golden's writing is a combination of fact pacing and almost elegiac musings on the changing hare of a boy. I do not know of anything else he has written that has so much running just beneath the surface. Speaking non-technically, it is a moving, thought-provoking story, one that will remain in memory for a time. Technically, "Straight on 'til Morning" begins slowly. So much time is spent building the characters and setting the scene that it seems there is hardly the time to bring the story home. This is one case where I feel the book is just too short for what it attempts to do. But this is far better than being too long. This is still one of Golden's best effort, and is clearly a book he needed to write.

This is the first time I have read anything by Golden. While the book was well written, I couldn't help but feel cheated after having finished it.

The book tells the story of 13 year old Kevin Murphy, whose day to day existence is disrupted by the entrace of Peter and Doug Starling and their friends. When you first meet this quartet of bad boys, they seem like nothing more than that, a bunch of teen-agers out looking for trouble. But when Pete and Nikki, Kevin's friend and unknowningly the object of his affections, we begin to see that there might be more to Peter Starling and company than meets the eye, because around them, as Kevin comments, impossible things always seem to happen. Kevin knows that Pete and his buddies are no good, as are most of the guys that Nikki has dated in the past, and Nikki has always been closed to whatever Kevin has to say until her heart is broken. But the frustrating part for Kevin is that he wants Nikki for himself, and he feels that if he tries to expose Pete for what he really is, while at the same time confessing his own true feelings for Nikki, she might think that that was his true motive for trying to break up her and Pete.

When Kevin is finally pressured by his friends and brother, it's literally too late. Nikki has been totally won over by Pete and, as wild as she had been in the past, has decided that he will be the one she will go all the way with for the first time. Kevin's timing is perfect, as they are interrupted before Nikki has the opportunity to make the mistake of a life time. But in the process, Kevin is beaten to the point of passing out by Doug and friends. As he awakens, the books leaps from reality into the realm of fantasy (it's about time), as Kevin hears "second to the right and straight on 'til morning." He sees five people flying past the moon, and one of them he knows is Nikki. Thus starts the real adventure, as Kevin persuades his brother and friends to go with him as they head off to Neverland to rescue Nikki.

How they get there and what happens there I will not reveal. As already mentioned, the book is well written, but I feel it took too long to get to the meat of the matter. You are half-way through the book before you get to Neverland, and the action that takes place there is over way too quickly. The book is full of believable characters, even in Neverland, where everything is magical, and there's even an unexpected surprise -- keep an eye on April as the book progresses. For me, the book would have been better if the trip to Neverland had come sooner, and the action that takes place there had lasted longer. It may not have been Golden's intention, but this concept could very easily have been drawn out to a number of books, a possible trilogy, almost a "Kevin's Adventures in Wonderland."

Christopher Golden's STRAIGHT ON TIL MORNING is a great blend of fantasy, horror, suspense while also being a coming-of-age tale. Here, you have a group of kids with big dreams and high hopes who, during one very strange summer, will be faced with the oddest and most terrifying things.

Kevin has been in love with the very same girl forever. But just as he's about to confess his love to her, she meets a guy named Peter. Pete is five years older than she is and, from the get-go, Kevin doesn't like the guy. Strange things happen everytime Pete and his friends are around. Things none of them can explain. Things so strange and fantastic that they cannot be real.

But real they are. And soon enough, Pete and his friends kidnap Nikky. It is up to Kevin, his brother Jesse and two of their friends to go save her in a world very far from this one.

The novel starts as a very straight forward coming-of-age tale. But halfway through the book, the story becomes horror/fantasy, when Kevin and his group have to enter a Neverland-like world in order to save Nikky.

Golden takes the Peter Pan story and toys with it to fit his needs. And the result is quite impressive. This is one of the most imaginative novel I've read in years. Unfortunately, the book does get a little out of hand in its last fifty pages, where the climax becomes a little too cahotic to really makes sense. But that aside, STRAIGHT ON TIL MORNING is a wonderful mix of fantasy and horror and should please fans of both genres. Golden is one of the most original voice in horror fiction, and this book should not be missed.

I loved this book so much. The characters reminded me quite a bit of most of my friends as a teenager. Christopher Golden really captures those long ago summers hanging out with your friends, getting in fights with the older kids and the infatuation of your first real love. It goes from this to an odyssey into another land halfway through the book. The atmosphere is perfect especially when they follow the directions overheard when one of the characters was kidnapped. As they journey into this strange yet dangerous world, you find yourself in a frightening sort of fairy land that is at war.

Its a new spin on the Peter Pan tale but with a dark side. The fierce battles that take place and the way the book unfolds is fascinating. I found myself unable to put it down. To me, it never disappointed. It kept me hooked to the very end and I was sad when it was over.

To those fascinated by fairy stories and dark fantasy, this is the book for you. Its pure magic from beginning to end. Absolutely wonderful!

I loved this book and read most of it in one sitting. I loved the "Stand By Me" characterizations and the blending of Celtic mythology was fantastic! If there is one thing negative I have to say, it was that Mr. Golden should have left the ending open for a sequel. I wasn't quite as happy with the way things turned out when the children grew up and what happened to them, but that's how real life is anyway, isn't it? I still say that there should definitely be a sequel. There is so much more material in the Neverland world of the Tuatha Da Dannen.

Most of the reviews here already provide a good summary of the storyline for this book. What amazes me is that there seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it relationship to this novel.

Count me in on the "love it" side. Golden creates some very likeable, some not so likeable, and some amazingly creepy characters. I really liked Kevin, and I found his devotion to Nikki to be touching and genuine. Who hasn't had that overwhelming first love experience as a teen? This novel definitely takes on a dream-like quality in the last quarter, but Golden's writing is believable--I could picture these sequences in my head.

Yes, these teens seem to have much more freedom than I did at that age in the 80s. Yes, some of the other worldly creatures are a bit difficult to imagine at first. But somehow all these elements come together quite well. There are some elements of the story that didn't quite click for me, but the good aspects of this story make it well worth the reading time.

Chris Golden spellbounds you once again. His characters are really life-like, and nails what teenagers and teen love are like. It's a great book about friendship and sacrifices.

I have to say, the battle scenes in which Golden writes are amazing. Never has anyone describe the brutatlity of them in a way he employs in this novel. The writing alone is fantastic throughout the whole book.

I highly recommend reading this novel if you're a horror-buff, and his previous novel, "Strangewood". And I am definitely looking forward to reading his upcoming novel, "The Ferryman".

Thirteen years old Kevin, like most males his age, runs wild with raging hormones. He has a crush on an older woman, fifteen years old Nikki who spends lots of time alone with Kevin, but sees him as a friend, not a boyfriend. At a local teen hangout, Peter Starling accompanied by his brother Doug and two friends confront Kevin and his closest friends, but though punches are thrown, no one is hurt.

Just when he finds the courage to confess to Nikki he loves her, she informs him that she is involved with Peter. Kevin tries to become friendly with Peter so he remain near his beloved, but begins observing behavior impossible for humans to perform. However, when he sees Peter, his cohorts and Nikki fly to the "second star to the right and straight on until morning", Kevin and company follows though he cannot believe that he is about to begin a fantastic adventure in Neverland.

The mortal characters are young, but possess the courage of a hardened warrior and the wisdom of an Ancient One. Christopher Golden has written a horror novel with appeal to young adults, though older reader will enjoy it too. This urban fantasy is a clever twist on Peter Pan that hooks the audience from STRAIGHT ON TIL MORNING.

Harriet Klausner

This book is the horror version of Peter Pan and makes you think twice about wanting to go to neverland. This book is great if you like the darker side of kid stories!