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The Godless Boys
A story of god, love and violence If you were forced to live with faith, or without, which would you choose? England. 1986. The Church controls the country, and all members of the Secular Movement have been expelled to the Island. On the Island, religion is outlawed. A gang of boys patrols the community, searching for signs of faith, and punishing any believers. When an English girl arrives intent on finding her mother who disappeared, mysteriously, ten years ago she is swept up in the dangerous games of the gang. But while one boy falls in love with her, the other wants revenge for the wrongs of the past, and, as the violence escalates, the English girl becomes their pawn. The Godless Boys is a book about faith, and life without faith; about love, and its absence. But above all, it's about power, and how dangerous it can be to stand out from the crowd. Both violent and tender, it's a remarkable debut, and clearly marks Naomi Wood as a name to note.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2011
8 people are currently reading
411 people want to read
About the author
Naomi Wood
30 books219 followersNaomi Wood was born in 1983 and lives in London. She studied at Cambridge and at UEA for her MA in Creative Writing. Originally from York, she has gone on to live in Hong Kong, Paris and Washington DC. She is the author of The Godless Boys, Mrs. Hemingway and The Hiding Game. This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things is her first short story collection, and is coming out in April 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
September 1, 2011
This dystopian novel is from debut author Naomi Wood.
Highly recommended. Unsettling. Imagine England in the 1980s. The Church has expelled non-believers to an island. Nathaniel was born on the island. He is bored. He is angry. He is a gang leader who defends atheism. He punishes the religious. Then he falls in love with Sarah, a stowaway from England, looking for her terrorist mother. And everything changes.
Don't read this book if you want to smile. It's laced with sadness and despair. But love always brings hope...
P.S. For everyone who asks
'2. dystopia - a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror
fiction - a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact' http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dyst...
Highly recommended. Unsettling. Imagine England in the 1980s. The Church has expelled non-believers to an island. Nathaniel was born on the island. He is bored. He is angry. He is a gang leader who defends atheism. He punishes the religious. Then he falls in love with Sarah, a stowaway from England, looking for her terrorist mother. And everything changes.
Don't read this book if you want to smile. It's laced with sadness and despair. But love always brings hope...
P.S. For everyone who asks
'2. dystopia - a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror
fiction - a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact' http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dyst...
May 5, 2015
What really annoyed me about this was the fact it had SO much potential and Ms. Wood simply didn't live up to it. The plot is excellent, I was gripped. I enjoy the story for the most part and felt Ms. Wood have a fairly decent portrayal of how lonely life can be without community, stuck in the middle of nowhere. How perceived freedoms can be just the opposite. There were a lot of threads put into this novel and I just didn't feel Ms. Wood managed to make a knot out of them.
Do. Not. Get me started on the ending. I detest endings like that. We only really got a bit of Jake's side towards the very end so it was all a bit of a shock and a bit silly for me!
Do. Not. Get me started on the ending. I detest endings like that. We only really got a bit of Jake's side towards the very end so it was all a bit of a shock and a bit silly for me!
October 6, 2025
I absolutely devoured this: such rich and economic world-building through electric and distinctive characters. Truly one of the most original things I’ve read in ages. The world created was tangibly real and I couldn’t guess the outcomes until the final pages: gripping from the first sentence to the last.
March 9, 2014
A very good debut novel although the subject matter seemed a trifle unbelievable. The human relationships on the island to which all the non-believers are banished was done with a simplicity and a gentle touch which leaves the reader aching for more. The personal growth is astounding and the ending, although expected, bittersweet. I look forward to reading more of Naomi Wood's work.
December 3, 2017
For our December read, our book club chose this book. For the most part, it was not as gloomy as I expected it to be since it's my dystopia novel ever. What I liked about it was that it was an easy read, enough to let my hair down a bit after a long working day. The ending was what I didn't like even though I anticipated it from the moment Jacob Lawrence broke into Nathaniel's ma's bedroom. The author nearly steered me in another direction when describing the anger in Jake towards Eliza, Nathaniel, and even Arthur the fishmonger could have been among his victims. Wood left readers wondering what's gonna happen to Sarah, would she be rescued and find her way back to England?
January 4, 2025
Intrigued by the blurb. Life on the secular island felt dark and bleak, with little hope. In comparison to England - where hopefulness and opportunity were implied.
Ironic that the people who wanted religious freedom and moved across to the island had less freedom now, without the confines of the church. They were no longer controlled by the church but a brutish gang who made sure that anyone practicing religion or thought to be practicing religion were punished.
Ironic that the people who wanted religious freedom and moved across to the island had less freedom now, without the confines of the church. They were no longer controlled by the church but a brutish gang who made sure that anyone practicing religion or thought to be practicing religion were punished.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2017
Well described book about life on a 'Godless' island after all non-believers banished there in the the 50's and 70's. The whole scenario was un-believable in that (even in a parallel universe) the British would never believe or not believe enough to be bombing churches and killing vicars!!! Having said that the build up of tension was very well done.
May 17, 2018
Clunky prose and plot points were too tidy. I would have liked more information about the rockets, as that's why I read speculative fiction. Was very disappointed, as based on the subject matter I assumed I was going to love it.
December 31, 2018
Dystopian debut novel
A book about faith, power, love. Filled with sadness and despair. If you like this sort thing then it’s a good read.
A book about faith, power, love. Filled with sadness and despair. If you like this sort thing then it’s a good read.
November 10, 2021
Enjoyable depiction of the life of a community in exile on an island somewhere in the North Sea and the way in which past wrongs are transmitted and magnified by the next generation.
September 19, 2022
Different
October 2, 2022
This was fine. Had potential of character and story development that just fizzled out to nothing. It almost felt like her deadline to publish had come up and she had to wrap everything up in a hurry
March 18, 2023
Overall a good book, but I would have preferred more back story and world building.
April 30, 2024
3.5/5
October 7, 2024
It was an original idea for a dystopia, that I hadn't seen before, and I really cared about the characters. Recommended.
October 16, 2024
An unsettling premise explored with Wood's amazing prose. The funeral scene is standout and I imagine there will be a film at some point. There should be.
May 24, 2011
[Continued from my review of Chris Beckett's The Holy Machine.]
A search with a more concrete objective provides the impetus for Naomi Wood’s first novel, The Godless Boys. The Church gained political power over its alternate England in 1950, and a series of riots led to members of the Secular Movement being sent to ‘the Island’, where they and their children now live in isolation. The Malades, a gang of boys born and bred on the Island, have taken it upon themselves to root out any English spies or believers; they’ll attack the houses and persons of anyone they suspect.
In the last week of November 1986, a girl named Sarah Wicks stows away on the last boat of the year bringing supplies from England; she intends to find her mother Laura, who was involved in a church-burning ten years previously, and may have been deported to the Island. Sarah is discovered by Nathaniel Malraux, one of the Malades, who falls in love with her, and tries to keep her existence a secret from his fellow gang-members; inevitably, though, he can’t do so forever.
Wood creates a wonderful sense of place in her novel. Cut off from the technological advances of England, the Island feels like a community out of time, one that’s almost hermetic (an impression reinforced by the fact that we don’t actually see life on the mainland, nor even hear mention of the other countries in our British Isles). It’s a community where the glorious optimism of independence has been replaced by inertia (‘Now the Islanders were free to do what they wanted, and they did very little,’ p. 189). Wood evokes the drabness of this place through the detail in her prose; and her careful use of dialect words (all the Islanders speak a north-eastern dialect; as a rebellion that would have been at least as much political as religious, the Secular Movement appears to have been a largely regional phenomenon) also goes a long way towards constructing the novel’s atmosphere, in a nicely subtle way.
The issue of religious faith itself impinges on The Godless Boys in a different way than on The Holy Machine; we see much of Wood’s novel through the eyes of characters who don’t truly understand what religion is, but they do know that their parents were against it; for those young people, it’s as much a political issue as anything, or even a matter of tradition. Nathaniel emphasises to the Malades the importance of knowing their history (‘You have to go [to the Island’s museum] often…so you can ken your past…You’ve got to go so you can understand who you are,’ p. 17); but one of his fellow young Islanders, Eliza Michalka, finds the letters INRI in the Island’s ruined church, and doesn’t know what they signify.
The only truly religious character in the novel is John Verger, one of the original exiles, who later found God whilst wandering through the remains of the very church he helped to burn down. Verger’s faith is shown to be a guiding hand and source of comfort in his life, which is elastic enough to hold, whatever the circumstances. To the Malades, in contrast, what religion really represents is the opposite of the wild freedom offered by the Island; as one of them, Jakob Lawrence, reflects:
As with The Holy Machine, there are pairs of characters who may be seen as opposites: Sarah comes to the Island in search of answers; Eliza yearns to leave it for the life that she wants. Nathaniel’s love for Sarah and fondness for John Verger (who brought his parents together) leads him to feel conflicted over the gang’s activities; Jake, on the other hand, takes a much firmer stance. All these matters come to a head in the finale of The Godless Boys, which is brilliantly tense.
Both Wood and Beckett create worlds through which their characters negotiate with some difficulty. Some find their way, others don’t; some get what they wanted, others don’t even know what that is. It all makes, though, for a pair of very interesting and compelling novels.
A search with a more concrete objective provides the impetus for Naomi Wood’s first novel, The Godless Boys. The Church gained political power over its alternate England in 1950, and a series of riots led to members of the Secular Movement being sent to ‘the Island’, where they and their children now live in isolation. The Malades, a gang of boys born and bred on the Island, have taken it upon themselves to root out any English spies or believers; they’ll attack the houses and persons of anyone they suspect.
In the last week of November 1986, a girl named Sarah Wicks stows away on the last boat of the year bringing supplies from England; she intends to find her mother Laura, who was involved in a church-burning ten years previously, and may have been deported to the Island. Sarah is discovered by Nathaniel Malraux, one of the Malades, who falls in love with her, and tries to keep her existence a secret from his fellow gang-members; inevitably, though, he can’t do so forever.
Wood creates a wonderful sense of place in her novel. Cut off from the technological advances of England, the Island feels like a community out of time, one that’s almost hermetic (an impression reinforced by the fact that we don’t actually see life on the mainland, nor even hear mention of the other countries in our British Isles). It’s a community where the glorious optimism of independence has been replaced by inertia (‘Now the Islanders were free to do what they wanted, and they did very little,’ p. 189). Wood evokes the drabness of this place through the detail in her prose; and her careful use of dialect words (all the Islanders speak a north-eastern dialect; as a rebellion that would have been at least as much political as religious, the Secular Movement appears to have been a largely regional phenomenon) also goes a long way towards constructing the novel’s atmosphere, in a nicely subtle way.
The issue of religious faith itself impinges on The Godless Boys in a different way than on The Holy Machine; we see much of Wood’s novel through the eyes of characters who don’t truly understand what religion is, but they do know that their parents were against it; for those young people, it’s as much a political issue as anything, or even a matter of tradition. Nathaniel emphasises to the Malades the importance of knowing their history (‘You have to go [to the Island’s museum] often…so you can ken your past…You’ve got to go so you can understand who you are,’ p. 17); but one of his fellow young Islanders, Eliza Michalka, finds the letters INRI in the Island’s ruined church, and doesn’t know what they signify.
The only truly religious character in the novel is John Verger, one of the original exiles, who later found God whilst wandering through the remains of the very church he helped to burn down. Verger’s faith is shown to be a guiding hand and source of comfort in his life, which is elastic enough to hold, whatever the circumstances. To the Malades, in contrast, what religion really represents is the opposite of the wild freedom offered by the Island; as one of them, Jakob Lawrence, reflects:
Jake had felt sick when he’d first seen these paintings of Christ. To be so coddled, he thought, with blurry distaste, to be so watched, was as abhorrent to him as his rare imaginings of what went on in England, with its damp and girlish God, and its feeble, pandering folk. (p. 209)
As with The Holy Machine, there are pairs of characters who may be seen as opposites: Sarah comes to the Island in search of answers; Eliza yearns to leave it for the life that she wants. Nathaniel’s love for Sarah and fondness for John Verger (who brought his parents together) leads him to feel conflicted over the gang’s activities; Jake, on the other hand, takes a much firmer stance. All these matters come to a head in the finale of The Godless Boys, which is brilliantly tense.
Both Wood and Beckett create worlds through which their characters negotiate with some difficulty. Some find their way, others don’t; some get what they wanted, others don’t even know what that is. It all makes, though, for a pair of very interesting and compelling novels.
November 12, 2013
The Godless Boys is without a doubt one of the most intriguing novels I have read this year. The island setting for the book is as cold and bleak as it is atmospheric, the old English spoken by its inhabitants is curious and endearing, whilst the characters themselves are guarded and suspicious.
The forming of teenage gang the Malades threatens this small community, as the boys begin to police residents as they were once in England. As hormones begin to rage so does the intensity of the members’ violence and menace, becoming a time bomb waiting to explode.
The overall feel to the book is heavy, the islanders are living with the freedom they so craved yet are still trapped within the control of the church and government. A shining light amidst the gloom is Eliza and Arthur, my favourite characters by far. Their complex relationship is a glowing beacon that keeps the reader’s hopes alive for a happy ending. The climax of the book shocked me, I didn’t see it coming and I was left contemplating the outcome for a long time. Simply breathtaking.
Reviewed by Charlotte Foreman on behalf of BestChicklit.com
The forming of teenage gang the Malades threatens this small community, as the boys begin to police residents as they were once in England. As hormones begin to rage so does the intensity of the members’ violence and menace, becoming a time bomb waiting to explode.
The overall feel to the book is heavy, the islanders are living with the freedom they so craved yet are still trapped within the control of the church and government. A shining light amidst the gloom is Eliza and Arthur, my favourite characters by far. Their complex relationship is a glowing beacon that keeps the reader’s hopes alive for a happy ending. The climax of the book shocked me, I didn’t see it coming and I was left contemplating the outcome for a long time. Simply breathtaking.
Reviewed by Charlotte Foreman on behalf of BestChicklit.com
September 22, 2014
I enjoyed the premise i.e. that the Church 'won' and threw out the unbelievers but there were some holes - e.g. where did they get the fuel for roaring fires? Those kind of islands are short on trees to start with.... Why didn't they escape to Europe? Why no sheep? Why not eat sea birds and their eggs? Why no music or radios even? A weekly drop of a few boxes of supplies was woefully inadequate for the number of people living there (who were far too few for the 'troubles' described)
It was clearly stuck in the past as shown by the boys' attitudes which some readers don't like. It was obviously influenced by Clockwork Orange but logically the kids would rebel against the dull clothes and long hair of their elders.
It captured the sheer dreariness and boredom of being stuck somewhere forever with little to do and even less to look forward to.
It made a change to read a dystopian tale that didn't involve plague, nuclear fall out, zombies or war but overall was rather low key which won't appeal to all
It was clearly stuck in the past as shown by the boys' attitudes which some readers don't like. It was obviously influenced by Clockwork Orange but logically the kids would rebel against the dull clothes and long hair of their elders.
It captured the sheer dreariness and boredom of being stuck somewhere forever with little to do and even less to look forward to.
It made a change to read a dystopian tale that didn't involve plague, nuclear fall out, zombies or war but overall was rather low key which won't appeal to all
August 12, 2016
I decided to read ‘The Godless Boys’ by Naomi Wood after reading the brilliant ‘Mrs Hemingway. It is not a book that I would have chosen by the ‘blurb’.
In 1951 Britain is controlled by the Church and a Secular Group challenges the Church by setting fire to churches. The result being, those found guilty were exiled to ‘the island’. There were two expulsions, in 1951 and 1976.
The island received supplies weekly via a boat sent from Britain.
On the island a group of boys, bored and troublesome, start to intimidate the islanders.
When a girl, Sarah stows away on the weekly boat the group disintegrates when Nathaniel, the leader, falls in love with her and everything changes.
Sarah is in search of her mother who she believes was sent to the island ten years ago.
This is a very good, imaginatively written book by Ms Wood, granted not as good as Mrs Hemingway which was brilliantly written, however well worth reading.
In 1951 Britain is controlled by the Church and a Secular Group challenges the Church by setting fire to churches. The result being, those found guilty were exiled to ‘the island’. There were two expulsions, in 1951 and 1976.
The island received supplies weekly via a boat sent from Britain.
On the island a group of boys, bored and troublesome, start to intimidate the islanders.
When a girl, Sarah stows away on the weekly boat the group disintegrates when Nathaniel, the leader, falls in love with her and everything changes.
Sarah is in search of her mother who she believes was sent to the island ten years ago.
This is a very good, imaginatively written book by Ms Wood, granted not as good as Mrs Hemingway which was brilliantly written, however well worth reading.
January 24, 2015
I thought about giving this two stars so I am in a generous mood. It takes 100 pages for this story to become interesting and that's way way too long. The characters aren't particularly interesting and it's unclear what the stakes are which does make it drag. More frustratingly for a dystopian book, it is wholly unrealistic and sheds no light on our society today. It is no warning or observation, which is kind of the point of dystopian books.
The book is of an England where secularists have been banished to the Isle of Wight by a hyper-Christian state. I mean, not even remotely possible. Surely more of a commentary if the religious have been banished.
Anyway once you let go of the fact that it says nothing about society, and you get past the first 100 pages, it is a well plotted story about a myriad of characters trying to find purpose and meaning to their lives.
The book is of an England where secularists have been banished to the Isle of Wight by a hyper-Christian state. I mean, not even remotely possible. Surely more of a commentary if the religious have been banished.
Anyway once you let go of the fact that it says nothing about society, and you get past the first 100 pages, it is a well plotted story about a myriad of characters trying to find purpose and meaning to their lives.
March 1, 2012
This book is disturbing, filled with sadness. Wood succeeds in describing the loneliness, the poverty and the deprivation of the people unable to leave the island. She follows through with details in her storyline, using slang and problems like the unfounded fear of anaemia, because there is no meat on the island. The character developments are also good, but the story left me wondering why there was such antipathy towards religion, why churches were bombed, I missed the context. Overall the book left me unsettled: a haunting tale and a love story, but Wood could have dug in deeper.
June 14, 2014
I read this because I'd read Mrs Hemingway and adored it. The Godless Boys, however, isn't beautifully written and the characters and plot line isn't very credible - the complete opposite of Mrs Hemingway! It reads very much like a book where a young writer is finding her feet, which I suppose it is. Sad to think, though, that if I'd read this first I wouldn't have bothered with Mrs H. The Northern language is cringeworthy and the Malades gang-speak a weak rip-off of A Clockwork Orange. My advice would be give this a miss and read Mrs Hemingway instead.
June 7, 2015
A book that meanders along quite nicely. The premise is that the godless and the god fearing parted ways after a bit of discrimination and a bit of terrorism and the godless ended up on the island with not a lot. The characters felt genuine and everyday. For a touch a dystopia this was quite believable and the book took you into that world with fair description and background. ( I either speed read the ending or it rushed along a bit too fast..?)
February 14, 2016
2.5 Intriguing premise, but somewhat fails in the execution. Set in an England where its a crime to be a non believer, involving the story of an island full of secular deportees, a young girl smuggles herself to the island to try and find her mother she believes was deported 10 years before, for burning a church. She runs into the Godless boys a gang of discontented skinhead youths intent on rooting out any English God fearing spies, she is not in good company.
February 24, 2016
I was a little disappointed in this book. It set the scene of a dystopian future very well, the back story of how the world came to be as it was subtly introduced. I liked the characters and the psychological insight into how people would react and behave was very believable but I didn't think that the author really used the setting she created as well as she could have done. The best book in this dystopian genre is Never Let Me Go and unfortunately this doesn't match it.
November 15, 2012
A fascinating glimpse into a dystopian world where the Church rules England and non-believers have been banished to a small island...I thought this was well written with an engaging style. Disturbing, yet not without hope, the characters are complex and the plot keeps you reading until the end. I wasn't keen on how the book ended though.
February 15, 2013
2.5 stars. This had the potential to be great. Unique plot line, interesting premise. It just bored me to tears and I have no idea why. I feel it would have been better as a short story, or a collection of short stories rather than a full length novel. Not to mention, the boys' treatment of Sarah made me cringe.
It wasn't awful, but I wouldn't recommend it.
It wasn't awful, but I wouldn't recommend it.
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August 6, 2014Overtly preachy in parts, but maintains enough elements of dystopia to keep it a sufficiently interesting read for William Golding fans. Although no 'Lord of The Flies' by any stretch of imagination, it's a valiant first effort for a new author, and one looks forward to the next work from Ms. Woods.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews