I want to preface this review by stating that I am not normally one to cry at books. While everyone was weeping at the tragic story of Achilles and Patroclus in The Song of Achilles, I was furious at our title character for his destructive pride. While readers dried their flowing tears during The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I was marvelling at the glitz and glamour – and shocking seediness – of the Hollywood setting.
The reason I wanted to mention this before getting into the review is to give you an idea of the book that saw the ice queen melt into a puddle on the floor, requiring a box full of tissues to wipe up the tears that just kept on coming. The offending book was Boys Don’t Cry by Fiona Scarlett, and even just thinking of it now, I feel a twinge in my tear duct.
If my endorsement of the emotions stirred by this novel isn’t enough, award-winning novelist Marian Keyes said of Boys Don’t Cry, “I can’t remember ever reading anything so moving… It’s so beautiful.”
Narrated by brothers Finn and Joe O’Reilly, aged 12 and 17 respectively, Scarlett plunges us deep into the heart of working class, gang riddled Dublin. This tender, multi-layered story includes themes of family, masculinity, illness, loss, violence, crime, and class all rolled into one. By contrasting the innocence and naivety of Finn’s narrative with the desperate tone of his older brother’s, the reader is taken on a journey of the loss of innocence as these two young boys navigate what it means to be a man.
Through the perspective of the two young brothers whose paths ultimately lead in completely different directions, we see the effects of grief and loss on a family and how hardship can simultaneously work to tear relationships apart while bringing them closer together in new and unexpected ways. As the lives of our characters spiral out of their control, we see generational mistakes and patterns repeat themselves, even when the initial intention was for good.
In the typical tradition of Irish writing, Scarlett tackles gritty and difficult issues that would often be considered taboo. What she doesn’t do is create cliché narratives that have us cringe at the lack of reality laid out before us on the page. Firmly rooted in the real world, Boys Don’t Cry is an honest and gripping debut novel and I can’t wait to see what’s to come from Scarlett in the future.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars
Disgraceful Magazine 