The Bottoms may well be Joe R. Lansdale's best novel yet, at home on that small shelf with coming-of-age horrific classics like Stephen King's "Stand By Me" and It, Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life, or Dan Simmons's Summer of Night. Inspired by the novella "Mad Dog Summer" -- but taken in a very different direction -- this promises to be book which will be read again and again.