Some Boys

by Patty Blount

August 5, 2014 · Sourcebooks Fire

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This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by Erica. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the YA Romance category.

Here is Erica's review:

NB: Trigger warnings for rape, rape culture, and bullying in this review. 

When I signed up to review Some Boys, I was nervous. Unlike my usual method of picking books to review, I actually read the description for this one. My immediate reaction was, “Oh, damn. Yeah. That needs to be talked about.” But I can’t demand that shit be talked about and not step up to the plate myself, so I signed up. And I have been dreading this book ever since. Dreading. It.

Well, I finally read it. It’s a really well-written book. It’s a really important book. But it is HARD. It is a HARD book to read. I sobbed for at least half of the book. I wanted to throw up for about 20% of it, and wanted to beat the shit out of someone for another 20%. It is HARD, but it IS important. Whenever I hear anyone from now on saying that rape culture is something us hysterical misandrists made up, I’m going to beat them up with this book.

So, trigger warnings. While there are no actual scenes really depicting the rape, there’s enough discussion and bullying going on, and yeah. Trigger warnings.

Spoiler warnings too. I mean, I hope I don’t get too spoilery, but there’s a chance because I am really emotional right now, so everything’s just kind of raw and pouring out, so, yeah. Proceed with caution.

The book opens a month after The Incident. Grace has accused school stud and lacrosse team golden boy of raping her, and no one believes her. NO ONE. Her best friends have turned on her; her father’s a douche. One teacher asks her to talk at a church about the dangers of drinking, a what not to do type of thing. Other teachers blatantly allow the bullying to happen in front of them without comment, but when Grace stands up for herself, Grace is in trouble. It is the worst sorts of injustice and god, I hated it so much. Her mom is there for her, thank goodness, but her mom is hurting in her own way, and she really wants Grace to get away and let everything die down.

Our hero is Ian, who is Zac’s best friend. He has received a concussion and is sidelined from playing lacrosse and when he flips out about it, he’s ordered to clean lockers during Spring Break. With Grace.

Ian had a crush on Grace before The Incident. In fact, he was the one who rescued her from the woods and took her to the hospital, but now she’s accusing his buddy of rape and ruining his life, and blahblahblah. He feels bad for how obviously terrified she is now, but he keeps making excuses for Zac and keeps spouting all this rape culture bullshit, she was asking for it, look how she dresses and so on and so forth. Then there was a video posted that makes it appear like she was enjoying the act, and so everyone thinks she’s a slut who’s trying to get back at Zac for not wanting to be with her in a relationship.

Zac is pure evil. Well, okay, he’s not. We’re not supposed to think that. He’s supposedly a good friend to Ian. But he’s a complete and utter douche and a control freak and a man whore and god I want him dead. Sorry. Did I mention that this is a hard book to read?

And EVERYONE is on his side.

Except for Ian’s dad. God bless Ian’s dad. That’s all I’m going to really say, but I was not liking this dude, and all of sudden, I’m like, dude, someone give this man a damned medal. He is the best. THE BEST.

THIS. IS. A. HARD. BOOK.

I have to give Blount so much credit though. Man, she really captured the reality of rape culture and the problems and struggles that rape victims have to deal with. It’s horrific. HORRIFIC. But it’s real. We know it’s real because we see this shit being talked about on the news all the damn time. And it’s awful.

Grace is the feminist bad ass hero that anyone could wish for. And yet, she’s not perfect. She’s not above some slut-shaming of her own, and she makes one really colossally awkward cultural faux pas. God, that was painful. But her heart is usually in the right place, and bless her, she does not back down. As scared as she is, and she is terrified, she never lets them beat her. She stands there and keeps fighting back. It is hard, but she battles. But of course, I’m over weeping because I don’t want her to have to battle. I want to hold her and protect her from all of this bullshit. But I can’t. And that’s hard too.

It’s hard to root for Ian as a hero. Really hard. You will hate him sometimes. And he does a lot of damn waffling. But, I feel like that’s probably realistic for someone who’s suddenly realizing that he’s been a bit of a douche his whole life, that he’s hurt women too. He has to completely change his whole way of thinking, his whole world, and he doesn’t want to. He’s a douche sometimes and sometimes I hate him so much, but he is a good kid, and you do root for him to stop being an idiot.

I realize I haven’t said a lot about the romance between Grace and Ian. But it is there. It’s just so tied up in the rape and their reactions to it, that even with all the chemistry and affection in the world, they aredn’t going to make it unil Ian changes his attitude. And he does. In fact, I really liked the ending, and how Ian wanted to save Grace. He wanted to be the hero, but he realizes that she doesn’t need a hero. She’s her own hero. And despite wanting to be her hero, Ian does good things because he needs to change who he is, because who he was was making him sick and ashamed of himself. It’s really excellent.

This book, despite everything, is an A+ all the way. It’s intense and brutal and REAL and so very, very, very hard. And then it ends.

But regardless, it didn’t really ring true for Grace’s character, so on the basis of that, I’m lowering the grade to an A.

But stock up on the tissues before you give it a read.

Now, I want to share this bit from the Author’s Note because I think it’s important:

“Visit project-unbreakable.org for more information about Grace Brown and to view the compelling work she’s doing. Her photographs made me understand how victims of rape aren’t just victims of rape. They’re victims of bullying and shaming and even the justice system.”

So, check out the site, check out the book, and let’s keep talking about rape culture and challenging people to change, challenging the culture to change, and hopefully make a world where rape victims don’t have to be victims over and over again.