BOOK REVIEW: The Kings of Colorado

It is usual for me to keep a copy of the book that I am reviewing next to me as I type in order to remember the character names. Will, Coop, Mickey, and Benny, the KINGS OF COLORADO, will stay in my mind for a long time to come. I did not need reminders. Author David E. Hilton has developed a group of young boys who will tear at your heart in KINGS OF COLORADO. I do not know when I have read such a poignant, beautiful story.

Thirteen –year-old William Shepard and his mother fear the drunken rages of his violent father until one night as his father is savagely beating his mother, Will stabs him with a pocketknife. In all of his thirteen years Will has never been beyond the streets surrounding his apartment in Chicago. Now, after a lonely bus trip, he finds himself facing two years at Swope Ranch, a reformatory for boys hidden away in the mountains of Colorado.

The ranch is financed by breaking and selling horses; it seems to make its fun by breaking young boys. The horrors that are inflicted on the boys come not only from the staff at Swope, but from the other boys as well. As a form of self-preservation, Will, Coop, Mickey, and Benny band together in a friendship that will last a life time.

Over time we learn what has caused each of the main characters to end up at Swope. Some of these stories will break your heart, some will appall you. The truly sad thing was learning from the author’s notes that the most horrific story was based on an actual crime committed by a juvenile. Good and bad, or maybe a bit of each, all of the characters will live with you after you close the final chapter.

I loved how the horses were used as a metaphor. The book opens with Will, as an old man, witnessing an accident on a street in Chicago involving a white mare. The sight of that injured mare causes him to write the story of his time on the ranch, making the book a journal of sorts. The fact that he lives to write the story helped get me through some of the more difficult scenes in the book. It also helped to introduce Reaper, the white mare that played such a large part in the lives of the boys.

KINGS OF COLORADO is reminiscent of Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men. It is probably the fact that the latter is on my Top Five Favorite list that helped to make KINGS OF COLORADO so special.  The friendships, especially between Will and Benny, affected me the most. Granted the violent scenes are worthy of comparison to Lord of the Flies, but there is something more optimistic about this book. Again, this comes back to the friendship shared by these four boys. This is Hilton’s debut novel and it is hoped that he is not a one-book-wonder. So much heartfelt power has been poured into Will’s story that I wonder how the author could have anything left.

This is a book that I highly recommend. It brought me to tears at times. Some tears were for the loss of innocence of young boys, yet others were for joy when good things happened. The Bellefonte Centre County Library Book Group will be discussing KINGS OF COLORADO this month. I cannot wait to hear what will be said.