SuitabookThe Boy I Love
William Hussey
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside the young person rather than previewing every difficult scene.
- Themes
- Love under prohibition: Stephen develops feelings for Danny while both face social and military hostility towards gay men. The relationship is presented as tender, meaningful and worth protecting, while the surrounding prejudice is shown as harmful.
- War’s human cost: Stephen returns to the trenches after surviving a year at the front, while the approaching Somme battle brings further danger and loss. War is portrayed as physically and psychologically destructive, including wounds, deaths and pressure to continue despite suffering.
- Friendship and vulnerability: Stephen and Danny’s relationship develops alongside soldierly friendship and the characters’ efforts to live with painful experiences. The book presents this favourably.
- Worth knowing
- Give particular thought to whether the reader would welcome a novel containing battlefield deaths, wounds, sniper fire, bereavement, rejection, historical anti-gay prejudice and emotionally intense scenes. The ending’s precise tone is unclear.