The Body by Stephen King is a wonderful tale about the rise and fall of the friendship between a group of boys over the course of one morbid adventure and the aftermath of that event.

If you don’t already know, this tale is about a group of four boys that walk the train tracks to go see a dead body that they heard about. They are determined to find the body and report it to the police and newspaper so they can have their fifteen minutes of fame.

However, things don’t go exactly as planned.

I think that this tale is just so wonderful. While it only covers the course of a few days, it was so interesting to see how much the boys grew up in that short amount time.

During their adventure, the boys were faced with various intense situations including a near-death experience, being chased by a vicious dog, dealing with ignorant adults, getting covered in leeches, passing out/helping a friend that had suddenly passed out, seeing a dead body, and
firing a gun to protect one another.

Each of these situations played a role in boosting the boys emotional maturity. And while it deepened their friendships, it also made it impossible for them to ever be the same…

It was a little sad to see how they all slowly realized that their friendships would never be the same after this. But at least they had one last hurrah!

One of my favorite elements of this book was that Chris was such a good friend for Gordie. The scene while they’re walking and Chris levels with Gordie, telling him to pursue his skills for writing was so wonderful:

“I wish to fuck I was your father!” he said angrily. “You wouldn’t go around talking about taking those stupid shop courses if I was! It’s like God gave you something, all those stories you can make up, and He said: This is what we got for you, kid. Try not to lose it. But kids lose everything unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks are too fucked up to do it then maybe I ought to.”

My Favorite Passages:
We knew exactly who you were and exactly where we were going. It was grand.

The last thought broke the paralysis and I shot to my feet. I probably would have looked like a jack-in-the-box to anyone watching, but to myself I felt like a boy in underwater slow motion, shooting up through five feet of air or rather up through five hundred feet of water, moving slowly, moving with a dreadful languidness as the water parted grudgingly.
But at last I did break the surface.
I screamed: “TRAIN!”

My Final Thoughts:
I cannot believe it took me so long to read this book! Especially because I adore the film based on this book, Stand By Me. Now I need to go re-watch that!

I really enjoyed this book! Some of it is a bit outdated, especially with the language used. But it’s a perfect time capsule that captures the friendship between young boys at that time.