Monday, July 21, 2014

ARC REVIEW: Some Boys by Patty Blount

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.



Expected publication: August 5th 2014 
Pre-Order: Amazon l B&N


My Thoughts:

Some girls say no. Some boys don't listen.

I have wanted to read a Patty Blount book for the longest time. I simply love realistic fiction. I love that I can take what I'm reading and compare it with things I know, have seen, or heard. I can relate, even if it's just in some small way. I don't usually read reviews before I read a book, but a blogger that I like posted a non spoilery review and I knew that I had to read Some Boys immediately.

"The worst thing, the very worst thing that can ever, ever happen to a girl happened to me, but I'm still here. And I think it can't ever get worse than that, right? It just can't."
"Only it does. Every damn day it does."

Grace Collier has lived through the worst night of her life. Some Boys opens up thirty two days after the party in the woods that completely blew her world apart. The night that she was raped by the town's golden boy Zac. Zac is king of the school. He speaks and people follow. They do exactly what he wants, when he wants. He has all the girls falling at his feet. Zac doesn't need to force anyone to be with him. The word no is completely foreign to him, because nobody ever says it to him. Until Grace Collier. But who will believe her word over Zac's? 

Insults. Shoves and elbows. Whispers and giggles. Comments loud enough to hear. Slut. Liar. Bitch.

Grace is tough and strong and fierce. After the rape, she is subjected to constant taunts and bullying. They follow her everywhere, but she refuses to run and hide. She knows what happened and she vows that everyone else will know too. Even though she is vulnerable, lonely and scared, she just doesn't back down from what she knows is right. Right through the whole book, Grace showed time and again so many amazing qualities. She is a character that was impossible to empathise with.

Grace had a thing for Ian well before that night. Now paired with him during summer break to clean the schools lockers, they will be forced to face a lot more than their feelings for each other. You see, Ian is Zac's best friend. That's where his loyalties lie, because your best friend will always tell you the truth. Right?

After all that's happened to me, after all the times and creative ways I've been hurt, how can one boy get me to believe in fairy tales.

Ian had me twisted in all kinds of knots. I liked him, I loved him, then I wanted to shake him and yell at him. My head and my heart was all over the place. I'm really glad that this was told in dual points of view so that I could get a first hand look at Ian's struggles. I'm not sure that I could have liked him as much otherwise. Through Grace's eyes, we get to see the boy that she likes. The boy that she wants to date. The boy that she puts her trust in. We also see the boy that lets her down on more than one occasion. But, there is another side to that, and that's Ian's side. He really wrestles with where to put his faith, and understanding exactly what the truth is. I really admired him for listening to the little doubts in his head and fighting with himself to understand the real events of that night.

One thing that really disturbed me was the lack of support from the teachers at Grace's school. They continually allowed the constant, vicious, and cruel bullying to go on, right under their noses. Enabling is a form of bullying in itself. I desperately wanted one of them to stand up and put a stop to what Grace was enduring on a daily basis.

The romance between Grace and Ian is second to everything else in the book, but also a constant, because of the amount of time that they spend together. It's really clear that they both like each other, but there is so much holding things back from progressing between them. And because of all that, I felt that it moved with perfect pacing. As things developed it was incredibly believable. 

I can only imagine how tough it must be to write a book that contains such a difficult subject matter, because it's hard reading it. But, it's something that needs to be talked about. Rape is something that occurs in our society on a daily basis. Male, female, young, old, how you dress, reputation, drunk, sober... it makes no difference. NO MEANS NO!!! 

I'm a real f**king prize. She deserves more than me. She deserves a warrior like her.

4.5/5 Strong Grace Stars.

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