The Boy I Am by K.L Kettle
Morning BookWyrms,
Here I am again with another review as part of a Kaleidoscopic Tours event. This time its for The Boy I Am by K.L.Kettle. I'd like to thank Kaleidoscopic Tours, Little Tiger Books and K.L for allowing me to read and review this, quite frankly amazing, novel.
As always here is the cover, which is stunning and vibrant, and the blurb:
They say we’re dangerous. But we’re not that different.
Jude is running out of time. Once a year, lucky young men in the House of Boys are auctioned to the female elite. But if Jude fails to be selected before he turns seventeen, a future deep underground in the mines awaits.
Yet ever since the death of his best friend at the hands of the all-powerful Chancellor, Jude has been desperate to escape the path set out for him. Finding himself entangled in a plot to assassinate the Chancellor, he finally has a chance to avenge his friend and win his freedom. But at what price?
*****
The Boy I Am will still, without any doubt, be in my top 5 by the end of the year. I can't remember the last time I read a book that left me speechless, moved, uncomfortable, upset and also hopeful.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading but honestly this story blew me away. Told from Jude's POV across two timelines - past and present - The Boy I Am is a powerful, thought provoking and brilliant piece of work.
Jude might be an unreliable narrator, which we learn as we go through the recollection of his memories, but he is still a likeable character and one you root for. I think, especially as a woman reading the book, you understand Jude, you feel the pain he feels and the frustrations. But as much as I like Jude my real favourite was Walker! Walker is the embodiment of every over 40's women trying to stay relevant in a world that devalues you after your late 20's. Walker is a subtle masterpiece of a character and I would personally like to petition K.L for a prequel novel all about Walker - please and thank you!
Breaking with convention K.L has chosen to invert gender norms and thrown us into a world where women have all the power, following a war that is hinted at but never fully explored. As we are learning about this world from Jude's POV I think the lack of clear information about the past and what is beyond High House is intentional, it is a reminder that our narrator is the lower class, the weaker sex and would not be privy to this information or at least not be privy to a true account of what happened and what is continuing to happen.
The contrast of the women being the powerful leaders of this dystopian world while the men are the weaker, lesser sex was jarring but so powerful. One of really clever, and my favourite, things about The Boy I Am is how Kettle peppers those little everyday nuances, traditionally said to women, throughout the novel. Because she has inverted the constraints of gender the use of them here really drives home how horrific and harmful the imbalance in equality is. Nuances like "it's girls being girls" and "you don't ask a man his age" - tiny little phrases that we as women have grown up hearing (albeit in reverse) that slowly chip away at you and shape you and turn you into exactly what the patriarchal society wants. To remain downtrodden and at a disadvantage. To keep that scale tipped just enough. Kettle has put this under a microscope and a magnifying glass in this book and explores it to it's fullest - which I adore.
Kettle has crafted the women of this book expertly as well, lending them all the worst and most misogynistic qualities, to once again remind the reader that any society where one group of people has more advantage than the other is a corrupt one.
I thoroughly loved reading this violently unapologetic satire. Truly, this book should be essential and required reading. I found it to be smart, confronting, shocking, provocative and brilliantly written. I thought the plot held up under the weight of the message behind it. I finished this book on the 11th January and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.
There is just so much truth in this story that I wish I could say was simply exaggerated, magnified and intensified for the sake of fantasy, but the topics in this story happen! And that is why I think this book sticks. I actually struggled to write this blog post because I found it difficult to put down into words how this book made me feel and how much I loved it.
Thanks again to K.L, Kaleidoscopic Tours and Little Tiger Books for the opportunity.
Here are the links to purchase:
Here are K.L's socials:
Until next time, keep on reading,
Lottie
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