Review: Cemetery Street by John Zunski

Cemetery Street

Author: John Zunski

Publication Date: May 16th, 2011

Publisher: Smashwords

Genre: YA/Contemporary/

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Synopsis:

In a world where dreams are possible and nightmares come true, can you romance a memory? James Morrison thinks so. In a snowy cemetery, James reenacts a childhood ritual, unleashing an avalanche of memories. Laugh, cry, and blush with James as he recounts a late twentieth century American life.

My Thoughts: This isn't a YA book, and there isn't anything fantasy or paranormal about it. Yet, it was a really great read that I would absolutely recommend.

Cemetery street is a story about so many things. Mainly, it is the story of James Morrison's life. It is told so beautifully, and with such detail and explicit emotion that it is not even slightly boring. This books gives us such a spectacular view on the commonplace complexities we face constantly in life. Zunksi breathes life into everyday occurrences and shows them to us in a brand new light. While reading this, you will get a startling insight on life, love, loss, hate, anger, joy, family, friends, growing up, and most importantly, death. Death is a major theme in this book, making the name of the book and street James grows up on pretty relevant. Death is something we all have to deal with way more often than we would prefer. Sometimes, hearing about others' experiences helps us with our own. You may find this story does just that for you. I would say love is the next most important theme is this book. James has grown up with his best friend, love of  his life, Shannie, living next door. They literally do everything together, they are as close as two people can possibly be without being together. But oh how James wishes they could be. Shannie will forever be the yardstick that everyone else is measured against for James, but I doubt anyone will ever come close to measuring up.

This book definitely has it's mature moments, there is a little sprinkling of sex here and there. But, the intimate scenes in this book were not placed merely for sex's sake. Each scene is a major plot/character developing moment and is very tastefully written. The sex scenes play a very important role in the unfolding of this story and they are not in any way vulgar or over the top. I found them to be wonderfully placed and detailed perfectly.

If you have ever seen the movie Stand By Me, which happens to be one of my all time favorite movies, you will understand what I mean when I say that this book has an atmosphere much the same as that movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. It's based of a short story called The Body by Stephen King. This book and that movie just do such an amazing job of capturing the essence that is life and growing up and dealing with life's blows one by one. This was a really great read and you should probably read it ;).