Review: Some Boys – Patty Blount

Some Boys Published: August 5th 2014
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Some boys go too far. Some boys will break your heart. But one boy can make you whole.

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 the town golden boy of rape, everyone turns against Grace. They call her a slut and a liar. But...Ian doesn't. He's funny and kind with secrets of his own.

But how do you trust the best friend of the boy who raped you? How do you believe in love?

A gut-wrenching, powerful love story told from alternating points of view by the acclaimed author of Send.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Wow! Wow do I have feelings on this book.

First off I’m going to say off the bat that this book was definitely not for me. I have major, major issues with it. So much in fact that I feel like the message at the end was completely lost because of all the other things that flat out offended me through the 352 pages I endured. I just personally couldn’t see past the over the top clichés and the statements that were made to actually get to the point. I was angry and frustrated and annoyed and disappointed with every turn of the page and in the end I didn’t even care what the message was.

Some Boys is the story of Grace, a girl that accuses the town golden boy of rape, and bullied and tormented by just about everyone. No one wants to hear her side, listen to what she says happened because Zac, the most popular boy, would never do something like that. They all just want Grace to stay quiet but no matter how much the push Grace will not stand down. Especially when she finds herself working next to Ian, Zac’s best friend and the guy that found her that night. But as they work together their relationship grows complicated and things don’t seem so black and white. At least not to Ian anymore.

Part of my problem with this book was that it wasn’t focused 100% on the fact that a girl was raped and no one believed her. I mean that is huge and it seemed almost like a side story. There were so many other things going on that the rape part didn’t seem to be the focus. I don’t know if it was because of the two POVs or because it wasn’t supposed to be about that, or what. All I know if that I didn’t need to hear about Ian worrying about small things happening in his life like being grounded. And I didn’t need to hear about Grace’s annoyance over her step-mother. The problem to me was that this teenage girl was raped and the whole town didn’t believe her. She was being bullied at school by the students and the TEACHERS and no one did anything. How does something like that even happen in 2014?? Bullying is not allowed in schools and certainly not allowed by adults, so that really angered me.

And then we get to the real heart of my problem with Some Boys; the cliché, sexist, borderline offensive marks made throughout the story. Like I said, there is definitely a message in this book, a good one, but for me I just couldn’t get over everything that lead up to that message being brought to light. I felt like most of the book dealt with blaming Grace for being raped because she was a female. Statements were made by Ian saying he expected “chick food” like vegetables and alfalfa sprouts in a sandwich instead of roast beef with cheddar and mayo were the beginning and it just got worse for me after that. Honestly though there were two statements made that after reading them there was no getting behind this story for me.

“Why do girls not get that there’s a fine line between looking good and asking for it”

And a little further down on the page:

“It’s like the people who leave their doors unlocked and then cry when they’re robbed. Why are girls not smart about this?”

After reading those two statements I was done. I wanted to scream at the book and ask it why is this the girls fault? What isn’t this character asking why guys can’t control how they behave? Why no doesn’t always mean no. Basically it enraged me to a place that there was no way I could ever give this book a positive review whether it had a message or not. And it furthered the fact that this book was 100% not for me.

I mean I know what the author was trying to do. She was in no ways saying she supports this behavior as is evident in the end. And I know that people out there do think that rape is the fault of the woman. She made it all very clear in the end. But my point is that it bugs me that people still think this is okay, and I had to read the whole book to get to that point. No one ever said that Grace should dress the way she wants to, that it wasn’t her fault, that he should have listened to no. I had to read the whole book before getting to that and it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

But as I say about all books I’m not in love with, just because it wasn’t for me doesn’t mean it won’t have the opposite effect on you. Always make up your own mind and don’t just listen to someone elses.

 

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