In 1960, Gordie and his three friends − Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio − learn that a gang of hooligans led by John "Ace" Merrill have accidentally discovered the dead body of a missing boy named Ray Brower, who was hit by a train. He's reminiscing about the summer of 1960 when along with three close friends, all on the cusp of becoming teenagers, set out to find the body of missing Ray Brower, who is their age and rumored to have been hit by a train. The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried; they are clues that could guide your enemies to a prize they would love to steal.

His crime thrillers featuring Holly Gibney include Mr Mercedes , winner of the Edgar Award for best novel, and The Outsider , both of which were adapted into successful TV series, as well as Finders Keepers , End of Watch and the title story from If It Bleeds .

The blue-collar childhood in a small Maine town in 1960 is not a place of magic and wonder - these boys are no strangers to abandonment and abuse and prejudice. King's novel eminates the life of small-town kids out of the 90s and evokes the compelling nature of those among us who were forced outside to play and make up our own fun - usually in the form of questionable adventure. Gordie has had a rough family life for about a year since his older brother Dennis ("Denny") was killed in a vehicle accident in the Army. Gordie Lachance is both the presumptive protagonist and the ‘author’ of this story, a flashback piece penned when he was much older. Part of this is that the novella feels a lot like a precursor to IT, and Gordon in particular feels like he's just a slight variation of Big Bill.

During the course of their journey, the boys, who all come from abusive or dysfunctional families, come to grips with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that does not seem to offer them much of a future. It” terrified me so bad as a child that I still can’t pass by a sewer drain without being reminded of it. It solidifies the truth about the friendships of our childhood being the one's we remember the most fondly. It’s about going on an adventure, and saying swear words when out of your parents’ earshot, and trying a cigarette just so you can say you did, and standing up to bullies, and most of all it’s about friendship.The Body is definitely more Coming-of-Age than Horror, and the adventure these four boys take on along with their individual family circumstances, blend together into a worthy read/listen. Chris was marked up every two weeks or so, bruises on his cheeks and neck or one eye swelled up and as colorful as a sunset, and once he came to school with a big clumsy bandage on the back of his head. In “The Body,” four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. About the Author: STEPHEN KING is the author of more than seventy books, all of them worldwide bestsellers.

Subsequently, one of the gang members reports the body as an anonymous tip, and the gang members severely beat all four boys.It's Stephen King so know its gonna be a darker read but despite that morbid premise The Body is a story of friendships. So, obviously after reading Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and realizing that it was just as good as the movie, I was pretty excited for The Body as well.