Shelf Control | Midnight Rain by James Newman

I had the worst book hangover after reading A Nearer Moon last week. In an attempt to head off the book funk, I went deep into the unread horror books and pulled out Charles L. Grant's The Hour of the Oxrun Dead. It was the best cure, and I really need to start working my way through all of the unread gems I've been hoarding on my shelves (and in boxes).

It's easy to keep passing up the old for the hyped up new. I'd love to keep some of my older books in the forefront and finally read them. I have so many books that I needed to buy immediately, and yet somehow they still haven't been read.

It's a booklover's problem, and it's not a bad one. I'm sure most of us will never run out of things to read. I could live in my closet for the rest of my days and be a well read woman. Thankfully we can face this plight together.

Bookshelf Fantasies has started a new feature this week called Shelf Control. (Great name, Lisa!) Shelf Control is an opportunity to feature those must read books that never got read. Some of my books go through my head each and every year. Will this be the year I finally read XYZ? Those books need to be discussed.

My first selection for Shelf Control is Midnight Rain by James Newman.

Like most twelve-year-old boys, Kyle Mackey has a secret place where he goes to be alone. In Kyle's case it's a run-down shack deep in the woods outside his small town of Midnight, North Carolina. But Kyle's private spot will never seem the same to him again. Not after tonight. Not after he looks in through one fo the shack's dusty windows and sees a naked girl lying there... broken and bleeding.

The girl has been brutally beaten, but she's still clinging to life. What Kyle sees next, though, is the worst part, the part that will haunt him the rest of his life. Soon he will be the only witness to an unspeakable murder. There's no one he can trust, no one he can turn to to see that justice is done. But the murderer isn't finished, and the only hope of stopping him is in the hands of a small, frightened boy....

I remember needing this book. I ordered a signed copy from Shocklines, and when it came in, I hugged it tight and put it on the shelf without reading it.

I skipped over it again last week when I was looking for the cure to my book hangover. I think I'm terrified of reading it.

MIDNIGHT RAIN is a dark coming-of-age novel in the vein of Robert McCammon's BOY'S LIFE and Stephen King's THE BODY (STAND BY ME). It is a tale of growing up in the South, a reflection of boyhood and all its wonders, and the story of how one boy deals with a terrible secret that threatens to tear apart both his family and hometown.

No book could live up to that. OR COULD IT? I have serious reader issues. I can't handle books that sound that good. At some point I will have to get brave enough to pull it off the shelf.

Have you ever read Midnight Rain? What "must read" books are still sitting on your shelf unread? What books are you too afraid to read?

If you ever want to buddy read a book I've mentioned on Shelf Control, please let me know!

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This post is being shared as part of Bookshelf Fantasies's Shelf Control?