shrikekali's review against another edition
4.0
I have been waiting several months for this to come out and it did not disappoint in the least! In the tradition Stephen King's "The Body", SUMMER OF NIGHT by Dan Simmons & Robert R. McCammon's BOYS LIFE, to name but a few coming of age horror stories, DECEMBER PARK deserves to stand alongside them on the shelf!
shawn_of_the_read's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sonia_reppe's review against another edition
4.0
It starts off in the fall of 1993 with grey skies, foreboding atmosphere. Angelo is 15 when kids from his town start disappearing. His dad is a cop so Angelo sneaks around and gets some inside information, which inspires him and his friends to do some searching around the woods and abandoned areas. I loved the dialogue and the exchanges between him and his four friends, it seemed real with the way guys joke around with each other. They call the abductor "the piper," as in the pied piper. The identity of the piper is revealed at the end but I was skeptical, like how could ? That left me with some questions, (also, was Angie narcoleptic?) Good 1st-person voice of a narcoleptic teen.
Spoiler
this person live/hide in that rotten place for so long?marplatense's review against another edition
3.0
First time I read a coming of age novel where I can relate with the kids from a generational standpoint (the others I remember reading: King, McCammon and Simmons were set before the 90s) and so a lot of thing to find similar between my upbringing and these american boys. Although a bit verbose sometimes, I find Mr Malfi style engaging.
The novel is grounded in a realistic police procedural (that is of course if you accept the fact that a group of teenagers can follow the leads to catch a serial killer) and so we are on the ride with the boys through countless trips to slowly search for one clue after the other. From a horror standpoint not a lot happens and gorehounds will have to wait for the narrator's nightmares to find some blood.
I didn't find the resolution specially engaging, after all Mr. Malfi's breaks some of the rules I have in high regard when it comes to mystery stories (see [b:Textos Recobrados 1931 1955|4782593|Textos Recobrados 1931 1955|Jorge Luis Borges|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379072420s/4782593.jpg|4847459]: Leyes de la narración policial) and so the solved mystery is less astounding that I invest so much time waiting).
The novel is grounded in a realistic police procedural (that is of course if you accept the fact that a group of teenagers can follow the leads to catch a serial killer) and so we are on the ride with the boys through countless trips to slowly search for one clue after the other. From a horror standpoint not a lot happens and gorehounds will have to wait for the narrator's nightmares to find some blood.
I didn't find the resolution specially engaging, after all Mr. Malfi's breaks some of the rules I have in high regard when it comes to mystery stories (see [b:Textos Recobrados 1931 1955|4782593|Textos Recobrados 1931 1955|Jorge Luis Borges|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379072420s/4782593.jpg|4847459]: Leyes de la narración policial) and so the solved mystery is less astounding that I invest so much time waiting).
space_and_sorcery's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
After my positive encounters with Ronald Malfi’s Black Mouth, Come With Me and Ghostwritten I was eager to explore more of his works and settled on December Park, which promised to mix a coming of age story with a murder mystery focused on a serial killer. Unfortunately something must have been wrong with the blender, so to speak, because this novel did not totally work its magic on me this time.
December Park is set in the early ’90s in the small town of Harting Farms, on the Eastern Coast of the USA: Angelo and his friends Peter, Michael and Scott are looking forward to the end of school and to a summer of freedom, but when children start disappearing and one girl is found dead in a local park, a shadow falls over the town. As the abductor/killer, soon nicknamed the Piper, keeps going on undisturbed and the police seems to flounder in the absence of clues as to his identity or the fate of the missing kids, Angelo and Co., together with Adrian, a boy who came to live in Harting Farms only recently, decide to hunt for clues on their own and to uncover the Piper’s identity. What begins almost as a lark becomes increasingly risky as the five boys’ search moves to dangerous grounds and turns from the initial adventure into a potentially deadly obsession.
Let’s start with what worked for me, and worked well: December Park is, first and foremost, a coming of age story, and as such it portrays very well the journey these five sixteen-years-old kids undertake on this fateful summer. Told from Angelo’s point of view (one that for several reasons makes me think there is something of the author in his characterization), it shows the mix of childish impulses and yearning for adulthood that’s typical of their age. These are basically good kids despite a few “sins” like covertly smoking or enjoying Halloween pranks: the bond of friendship between them, which later on includes newcomer Adrian who is a somewhat weird kid, is a solid one and one of the best elements of the story, made even more real by the delightful banter that peppers their exchanges. I enjoyed seeing how they, bit by bit, manage to bring Adrian out of his shell and how he responds to them: being the newcomer and a solitary soul, he might have been the perfect target for scorn or abuse, but they bring him into their orbit and after a while he even becomes the main drive behind their search for the Piper. The atmosphere of a small, quiet town that still harbors a few secrets, and a few unsavory characters - like the older boy who loves to bully younger kids - is also rendered very well.
It’s intriguing to observe how the dread that falls over Harting Farms manages to keep young people and their parents apart: there is a certain sense of resignation, for want of a better word, in the way the adult population reacts to the disappearances; even Angelo’s father, who is a detective and therefore active in the investigation, looks more dejected than anything else. For their part the young people, or at least the five the story focuses on, appear instead obsessed with uncovering the identity of the Piper, to the point that they put their lives on the line more than once to solve the mystery. This divide is, however, one of the elements that did not work for me, because if on one side it helped in establishing the pall of dread over the town, on the other it did not feel realistic, particularly considering the impending danger: what the five accomplish, the risks they take more than once, all happen while the adults are virtually absent and unknowing, and I find it highly improbable that a community would be so deaf and blind to the antics of a group of teenagers, given the underlying circumstances.
And since I have now opened the “book of grievances”, I have to admit that the book feels too long, too meandering: given the matter at hand I would have preferred a tighter narrative, while here there is much space given to the five’s musings (which for some time amount to nothing since they have no clues at all) and to their endless cycling through the town’s streets. Still, this is a minor problem, and I easily solved it by skipping ahead in search of more interesting sections; the major one stands in the revelation of the Piper’s identity, because it comes out of the blue and to me it makes little or no sense at all.
When reading mysteries we - not unlike Angelo & friends - tend to consider the various people the author introduces, evaluating the clues and forming an opinion that might or might not be the correct one; and when the revelation occurs we can either congratulate ourselves for the powers of our intuition, or acknowledge that we were barking up the wrong tree. But what happens when we discover that the monster is someone we never saw before? Someone who was never part of the story? I felt a little cheated, to say the truth, and even more so because there is no explanation whatsoever for the reasons behind the Piper’s actions, or at least none that I could consider valid.
I keep thinking that as a coming of age novel December Park was a beautifully written story carried by five well-crafted, realistic characters who embarked on an “adventure” that proved formative and enlightening. It’s a pity that the final resolution marred this story with such an undeserved inconsistency….
constancepsych's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book started out very slow, not bad, just slow. I almost gave up on it and I'm very happy I didn't. It very much reminded me of the movie Goonies. This group of boys really took me back to my teen years in the 1990's. Summers outside with friends, exploring, eating out, relaxing and trying to solve mysteries. I did about half way through attempt to Google spoilers with no success and I’m now grateful I didn’t find any. The last 1/4 of the book picked up and the end...... Wow! Ending was bittersweet and left me sitting in silence pondering what happened. I felt like I did as a kid growing up. If you pick this up stick with it. This is something that will stay with you especially if you great up in the 90's.
alirenreads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
aisling_rose's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
jasonpellegrinibooks's review against another edition
5.0
‘December Park’ doesn’t get talked about enough, so I’m going to take this time to talk about it. Because, wow! What a story!!
I love coming of age tales, always have. Like most people, I can relate to them. But most I have read take place in the 1950s, 1960s. Still fun to read, but as a product of the 90s, there is a small disconnect. This book takes place in the 1990s, so it drew me in a war that others could not.
The character development in this one is also on point. Malfi puts time and effort to building his characters’ identities, establishing relationships and conflicts. Everything that’s going to make you care about the people you are reading about.
All these things, combined with a twist you would never see coming, make for a story that just about anyone will love. As I said earlier, not enough people talk about this story. It’s because not enough people have read it. People need to read ‘December Park’!
DO IT!
I love coming of age tales, always have. Like most people, I can relate to them. But most I have read take place in the 1950s, 1960s. Still fun to read, but as a product of the 90s, there is a small disconnect. This book takes place in the 1990s, so it drew me in a war that others could not.
The character development in this one is also on point. Malfi puts time and effort to building his characters’ identities, establishing relationships and conflicts. Everything that’s going to make you care about the people you are reading about.
All these things, combined with a twist you would never see coming, make for a story that just about anyone will love. As I said earlier, not enough people talk about this story. It’s because not enough people have read it. People need to read ‘December Park’!
DO IT!
twerkingtobeethoven's review against another edition
5.0
Magnificent, astonishing, dazzing, beautiful, sad, melancholic, everything. Possibly, easily, the best book I read in 2022.
In case you loved Robert McCammon's [b:Boy's Life|36505403|Boy's Life|Robert McCammon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1509393911l/36505403._SY75_.jpg|16685995], Stephen King's [b:It|830502|It|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334416842l/830502._SY75_.jpg|150259] & The Body (off [b:Different Seasons|39662|Different Seasons|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329662611l/39662._SY75_.jpg|2248680]), along with Joe Lansdale's [b:Cold in July|219715|Cold in July|Joe R. Lansdale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1172804753l/219715._SY75_.jpg|3195345], December Park was written for you. This was my second Ronald Malfi's offering (the first being the novella [b:Borealis|12677814|Borealis|Ronald Malfi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1365989026l/12677814._SX50_.jpg|17793391]) and, even though it might sound a bit premature, I think the bloke's really got it. I'm talking about that peculiar and rare talent that'll keep you turning the pages even though you've got stuff to be done. You just can't help it. And then he'll leave you painfully aware of the fact that there's no way the next book you're going to read is on the same level, and it's going to take some time before you reach the same weird sort of chemical high when cracking a book open.
Five stars, of course.
In case you loved Robert McCammon's [b:Boy's Life|36505403|Boy's Life|Robert McCammon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1509393911l/36505403._SY75_.jpg|16685995], Stephen King's [b:It|830502|It|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1334416842l/830502._SY75_.jpg|150259] & The Body (off [b:Different Seasons|39662|Different Seasons|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329662611l/39662._SY75_.jpg|2248680]), along with Joe Lansdale's [b:Cold in July|219715|Cold in July|Joe R. Lansdale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1172804753l/219715._SY75_.jpg|3195345], December Park was written for you. This was my second Ronald Malfi's offering (the first being the novella [b:Borealis|12677814|Borealis|Ronald Malfi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1365989026l/12677814._SX50_.jpg|17793391]) and, even though it might sound a bit premature, I think the bloke's really got it. I'm talking about that peculiar and rare talent that'll keep you turning the pages even though you've got stuff to be done. You just can't help it. And then he'll leave you painfully aware of the fact that there's no way the next book you're going to read is on the same level, and it's going to take some time before you reach the same weird sort of chemical high when cracking a book open.
Five stars, of course.