Boys of Blur by N. D. Wilson (review)

Charlie Reynolds first meets his cousin Cotton at a funeral in a Florida town near Lake Okeechobee. They aren’t blood relatives—Charlie’s white and Cotton’s black—but as Cotton points out, Charlie’s stepfather is Cotton’s father’s cousin, and “cousins is cousins.” Cotton introduces twelve-year-old Charlie to some of the darker mysteries on the swampy edge of sugar cane country, and although Charlie’s intrigued, he’s also oppressed by memories of how he and his mom once fled from his father in this very region, years ago before she remarried and life settled into loving security. There are things in the swamp more horrifying than an abusive father, however, and when a helmeted, sword-wielding grave-robber is one of the good guys in the neighborhood, it’s clear that things will only be going from perilous to dire. The author crafts a tale laced with literary influences, on the order of his Leepike Ridge (BCCB 7/07), but this time the inspiration is Beowulf. The book’s zombie-like Gren do the bidding of their evil “mother,” who lives in an underwater cave in the swamp, where the hero Charlie must slay her with a magical weapon from her own collection. Wilson orchestrates the menace with a sure hand, teasing readers with the uncertainty of whether mortal or otherworldly creatures are the greater threat. Pair this with James Rumford’s age-appropriate retelling of Beowulf (BCCB 11/07) for an even more powerful experience.