Some Boys
by Patty Blount
In Some Boys, the protagonist is a very disturbed high school girl who has recently been through a rotten situation. She attended a party with the hopes of attracting her crush. He was grounded by his dad and couldn’t even attend the party. Instead, his friend, a football star she went out with a couple of times, started flirting with her. Her friend wanted him and got mad at the flirtation. In response, the lead drank too much and left the party to wander around outside in the woods behind the house. When the football player followed her and tried to “comfort” her, she didn’t return to the house or scream her head off to alert the other kids. She passed out, and while the boy was having sex with her, he filmed it on his phone and posted it to social media.
So, when the novel starts, she has severe anxiety and trust issues. The entire student body hates her and calls her names, and her own father wishes she didn’t dress like a 1980s punk rocker because it doesn’t make her seem like a “nice girl”. The heroine flies off the handle, interpreting his parenting tactic to mean he thinks she “asked for it”. Well, sorry to disagree and educate the young readers out there, but how a person dresses does present an image to the world. The girl herself admits later that she only dressed in leather, short black skirts, and studded combat boots as “armor” to appear tough. So, she did choose to present herself that way! Her father absolutely did not mean that she “asked for it”, but he did advise her to take care in the way she wants the world to see her – and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you walked into a job interview with ripped jeans and a stained t-shirt, it would present the image of being sloppy, irresponsible, and without ambition. That person might be the classiest, smartest candidate for the job, but he probably wouldn’t get it. And another thing: Since when is it not alright to caution your teenaged daughter against drinking to oblivion at a party?
I couldn’t stand this book. The lead was in need of massive amounts of therapy, not lessons in how to “stay tough” at school. School bullies are everywhere, and social media exploitation gets out of hand constantly. Instead of learning basic safety guidelines, maturing, and taking her mother’s advice by going to Europe for a fresh start, she stays exactly the same and tries to control everyone else’s reaction to her and her situation. Psychology 101, folks: You can’t control other people, only yourself.
Some Boys has the most saccharine-sweet, Hallmark, fantasy-dream ending I’ve ever read. It seems like Patty Blount has a theme with her books (teenage rape), but to her I recommend extensive therapy to get over whatever trauma she’s trying to get catharsis from her novels. This book is unrealistic and fills girls’ heads with dangerous messages about life and human nature. If a young girl is unfortunate enough to live through something like this, she should not look to fix her life through this novel.
So, when the novel starts, she has severe anxiety and trust issues. The entire student body hates her and calls her names, and her own father wishes she didn’t dress like a 1980s punk rocker because it doesn’t make her seem like a “nice girl”. The heroine flies off the handle, interpreting his parenting tactic to mean he thinks she “asked for it”. Well, sorry to disagree and educate the young readers out there, but how a person dresses does present an image to the world. The girl herself admits later that she only dressed in leather, short black skirts, and studded combat boots as “armor” to appear tough. So, she did choose to present herself that way! Her father absolutely did not mean that she “asked for it”, but he did advise her to take care in the way she wants the world to see her – and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you walked into a job interview with ripped jeans and a stained t-shirt, it would present the image of being sloppy, irresponsible, and without ambition. That person might be the classiest, smartest candidate for the job, but he probably wouldn’t get it. And another thing: Since when is it not alright to caution your teenaged daughter against drinking to oblivion at a party?
I couldn’t stand this book. The lead was in need of massive amounts of therapy, not lessons in how to “stay tough” at school. School bullies are everywhere, and social media exploitation gets out of hand constantly. Instead of learning basic safety guidelines, maturing, and taking her mother’s advice by going to Europe for a fresh start, she stays exactly the same and tries to control everyone else’s reaction to her and her situation. Psychology 101, folks: You can’t control other people, only yourself.
Some Boys has the most saccharine-sweet, Hallmark, fantasy-dream ending I’ve ever read. It seems like Patty Blount has a theme with her books (teenage rape), but to her I recommend extensive therapy to get over whatever trauma she’s trying to get catharsis from her novels. This book is unrealistic and fills girls’ heads with dangerous messages about life and human nature. If a young girl is unfortunate enough to live through something like this, she should not look to fix her life through this novel.