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A review by aphonusbalonus
The Boy in the Rain by Stephanie Cowell
2.0
(ARC exchanged for an honest review via NetGalley)
“You should burn this, perhaps?”
This line, in the opening letter of the book, it was instantly drew me in. It’s so simple yet strikingly effective, In my eyes, that perfectly lays the weight of what it was like to be a queer person in the early 1900s.
Unfortunately, However engrossed I was with the beginning of this book, I found that is didn’t quite meet my hopes or expectations. I found most of the dialogue and pacing a bit lackluster. On the other hand, the setting and atmosphere of the novel was fascinating enough to motivate me to continue reading it.
However, the small areas of discontent were nothing compared to how invalidated I, as a queer man, felt reading certain portions of this book— and I’m not talking about period typical homophobia. I’m talking about the author briefly described Robbie, the main character, getting sexually assaulted by a group of older boys and, because he “instantly became hard” that was how he knew he was gay. Yeah, no. BIG no from me. But because this is an ARC, I am hoping that this can be resolved before the official release, since the rest of the paragraph about Robbie being naturally inclined towards men works perfectly well without the THAT. I won’t lie, reading that so early on in the novel ruined my taste for it as a whole.
“You should burn this, perhaps?”
This line, in the opening letter of the book, it was instantly drew me in. It’s so simple yet strikingly effective, In my eyes, that perfectly lays the weight of what it was like to be a queer person in the early 1900s.
Unfortunately, However engrossed I was with the beginning of this book, I found that is didn’t quite meet my hopes or expectations. I found most of the dialogue and pacing a bit lackluster. On the other hand, the setting and atmosphere of the novel was fascinating enough to motivate me to continue reading it.
However, the small areas of discontent were nothing compared to how invalidated I, as a queer man, felt reading certain portions of this book— and I’m not talking about period typical homophobia. I’m talking about the author briefly described Robbie, the main character, getting sexually assaulted by a group of older boys and, because he “instantly became hard” that was how he knew he was gay. Yeah, no. BIG no from me. But because this is an ARC, I am hoping that this can be resolved before the official release, since the rest of the paragraph about Robbie being naturally inclined towards men works perfectly well without the THAT. I won’t lie, reading that so early on in the novel ruined my taste for it as a whole.