A
Genre: Romance, Young Adult
This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by Stacey. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the YA Romance category.
The summary:
Some girls say no. Some boys don’t listen.
When Grace meets Ian, she’s afraid. Afraid he’ll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses Zac, the town golden boy, of rape, everyone turns against her. Ian wouldn’t be the first to call her a slut and a liar.
Except Ian doesn’t reject her. He’s the one person who looks past the taunts and the names and the tough-girl act to see the real Grace. He’s the one who gives her the courage to fight back.
He’s also Zac’s best friend.
Here is Stacey's review:
NB: Patty Blount and I are both Members of LIRW chapter 160.
Here’s the thing. As a general rule, I love to pull interesting threads out of books when I review. It’s wonderful to be able to talk about the books I adore through the lens of the world I live in.
Some Boys is the kind of book that defeats that reviewing technique, mostly because the entire book is wonderfully crafted around an issue. You can’t just take one quote, or two, or three, because then you’d have to take all of it.
It’s written in a way that’s uncomfortable, that forces it’s reader to follow the thought processes of characters who slowly come to their own realizations about events that happened before the book began. And then the two main characters find the solace they deserve at the end of their harrowing and painful journeys.
The circumstances are unreliable, the characters traumatized, and the story forces us to challenge our own assumptions about events that have been splashed all over the headlines.
In short, Patty Blount managed to pull my heart out of my chest. And made me enjoy it.
Telling you about it won’t be enough. It’s a book you have to read yourself. I hope it changes you as much as it changed me.
As to whether or not I think this book will win a RITA? I’ve said it in public to friends and various publishing professionals alike: if this book doesn’t give Patty Blount a RITA, I will eat my socks.
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This isn’t really a review. I shy away big time from these “message” books. Am I the only one who finds the proliferation of YA to be a quagmire of tedium?
This is one I want to read before the RITAs. Ah–one month left! I’ve read her book Send.
@Rkswan, that doesn’t mean there aren’t pearls to be found in the mud, or mundane. Clearly Stacey found a lot to move her in this one as did the other reviewer. I’ve recommended it to both my goddaughter and niece based on their reviews.
I think YA lit suffers from the same affliction that most genre fiction–or perhaps most popular entertainment–a proliferation of copy cats. Every bad Twilight or Hunger Games clone can be matched with an equally bad Da Vinci Code or Fifty Shades take off. And lit fic? Holy meh, Batman!
While I don’t know whether I have the guts to read this book, I will say that I’m glad I picked it up for my library based on these reviews. As for the RITA, that’s a crap shoot. Since I started following the RITAs in the past few years, I have been stunned by the books that were passed over and aggravated by a number of the winners. So I guess it’s all about à chacun son goût.
@Rkswan. Another guest reviewer – Erica? – wrote a detailed, thoughtful post about this book on June 7th. Worth scrolling back to if you missed it.
I just finished this book today. Would recommend highly to others.
It is very, VERY satisfying to see some justice done. Harrowing to see the things people go through to get there. No deus ex machinas here, no pulled punches.
The author also expertly captures high school. Sent me back to my own time there, when I was trying to figure out, “How do I people? I am right, why will no one listen to me?”