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The Whipping Boy
The demons of guilt. Of unnatural love. Of rage. The long years of bottled-up passions and darkening fears have done their work...And Timmy Lowell, so bright, so beautiful- so sick- is slowly becoming a killer.
His father, locked in his own terrifying world, will not help him, cannot see the evil seed growing.
Only Timmy's mother, frail Evie Lowell, can save him...or become his next victim...sessed by demons... His parents demons.....
His father, locked in his own terrifying world, will not help him, cannot see the evil seed growing.
Only Timmy's mother, frail Evie Lowell, can save him...or become his next victim...sessed by demons... His parents demons.....
458 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1978
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100 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 3, 2016
This book must have been shocking when it came out back in 1978. It was written by actress Fay Baker. She used the pen name "Beth Holmes" to shield her family from being compared with fictional characters in the novel. I can't say I blame her.
This novel was haunting. Timmy is one sick boy and his mother knows it. She is trying to save him. They are all bound somehow by the deep dark secrets of the father and they are insidious. The secrets are shocking, especially for the time, I am not so sure they would be so much now. But they are slowly revealed, building tension throughout, until you get the full twisted picture.
This is a novel about child abuse. You have been warned.
A harrowing 5 stars.
This novel was haunting. Timmy is one sick boy and his mother knows it. She is trying to save him. They are all bound somehow by the deep dark secrets of the father and they are insidious. The secrets are shocking, especially for the time, I am not so sure they would be so much now. But they are slowly revealed, building tension throughout, until you get the full twisted picture.
This is a novel about child abuse. You have been warned.
A harrowing 5 stars.
August 18, 2022
It's weird to write a thoughtful review that you expect no one to read.
I read The Whipping Boy by Beth Holmes when it came out in paperback in the 1970's, back in the pre-Internet days, back when any book in my library usually got re-read three or five times at least, because I didn't have nearly enough books to tame my constant desire to read.
It was such a different time, a time people born in the 90's can not even imagine. Psychology and psychiatry were exotic, few people went to therapists (and those who did didn't advertise it in any way), and there was no LBGTQ label or community. (It was only in 1973 that the DSM depathologized homosexuality.)
So it's not all that surprising that the author, born in 1917, despite writing a fascinating, in-depth psychological accounting of one very troubled twelve year old named Timmy and his mother's desperate search to find him treatment, might perceive homosexual tendencies as an offshoot of mental illness, in some ways conflating a lack of discipline with gay-grooming.
Okay, that last sentence sounds crazy even to me, and I know what I mean.
It helps to know that Beth Holmes was really Fay Baker, an actress married to a successful television writer who (allegedly) went through something similar to what Evie, Timmy's mother in The Whipping Boy, goes through as she searches the country to place her potentially murderous child in the right school/institution. She fictionalizes her story and, because this wasn't a huge best-seller and it wasn't written in the internet age, we don't know much; I only learned this backstory fairly recently thanks to dancing a bit with a few search engines.
I gotta tell you, though, The Whipping Boy really is gripping for those of us who love a deep-dive into psychological trauma. When Timmy tries to kill an adult on a class field trip, the school, not surprisingly, expels him. His mother Evie has retreated into her own world for various reasons that we learn in the novel, and Dan, her "perfect" architect husband, never disciplines Timmy because Timmy is a genius and must be treated as the brilliant man he is.
That sounds relatively normal, but nothing about Dan nor his treatment of Timmy is normative. He takes Timmy to restaurants and lets him drink and smoke cigars and cigarettes, nude wrestles with him regularly, and eventually gives him office space and carte blanche to handle the family's stocks and bonds. Dan has a secret romantic partnership with a man named Leslie and an entire secret life, including his past, with a mother who dresses and treats him as a girl and a crazy father who can't decide if he's a Cardinal (Catholic, not a bird) or J.P. Rockefeller.
It is left to the passive, disengaged Evie to get in the game, because her husband discourages any kind of psychological help for Timmy, who becomes more out of touch with reality every day he is not in school. And this is where we really have to go back in time, because unlike today, when there are numerous institutions for possible child psychopaths (though not enough of them), back then, in the United States, there were four. (That's not a misprint.) Evie is based in California, but the big four are two public institutions in St. Louis and New York, and private ones in Colorado and Alabama.
Meanwhile, poor Timmy can't decide if he wants to be a crossdresser or have sex with his pretty mommy. Sounds lurid, but the book really isn't (except for Dan Lowell, whose background is creepy as fuck). It's really the story of an odyssey of a mother and son, both of whom are quite damaged, determined to find a place for healing, no matter how harrowing the journey.
The author's stated intention is to stress how important it is that children receive appropriate discipline, and, despite the unsophisticated understanding of mental illness and homosexuality that the author can't help but have based on her age and the time in which she wrote The Whipping Boy, I think the permissiveness movement has proven to be a huge bust. I know as a teacher how important it is to set limits for learning to even be possible, I know as a substitute teacher that too many parents don't require their children to behave appropriately in a classroom, expecting teachers to fulfill the role of parent and rule giver. I've experienced it too often to pretend it doesn't exist. Additionally, I know that children need limits to feel safe. As they grow older, you can expand the limits in age-appropriate ways, always remembering the balance between having a child feel safe and also safe to explore the outer world.
This is why this review is way too long. Because I could go on about this until the end of time.
The author was a product of her time, and spoke with horror about homosexuality, and the horror is that being gay was criminalized, something to be kept secret, and I guarantee that caused untold trauma of its own. But it has nothing to do with disciplining your child, and the author conflates the two in ways that are so problematic, reading this book now makes it difficult to value anything in it.
Reading this book in 2022 is revelatory in so many ways, though. What a different time. You can see that this woman/author/mother as not just a victim of her husband and upbringing (in which her emasculated father begged her never to be a ballbuster), but also in light of the time period before the feminist movement. She's a privileged, educated, wealthy White woman who stays in bed for fear of doing the wrong thing, a prisoner who only allows herself to cast off her chains when she sees her child in trouble.
Reading the very little there is about Fay Baker (who was actually in several movies, including a Hitchcock flick) and her family, her son died of a drug overdose. I would love to know more about the real life family drama, because The Whipping Boy is a very compelling story, even in 2022.
I read The Whipping Boy by Beth Holmes when it came out in paperback in the 1970's, back in the pre-Internet days, back when any book in my library usually got re-read three or five times at least, because I didn't have nearly enough books to tame my constant desire to read.
It was such a different time, a time people born in the 90's can not even imagine. Psychology and psychiatry were exotic, few people went to therapists (and those who did didn't advertise it in any way), and there was no LBGTQ label or community. (It was only in 1973 that the DSM depathologized homosexuality.)
So it's not all that surprising that the author, born in 1917, despite writing a fascinating, in-depth psychological accounting of one very troubled twelve year old named Timmy and his mother's desperate search to find him treatment, might perceive homosexual tendencies as an offshoot of mental illness, in some ways conflating a lack of discipline with gay-grooming.
Okay, that last sentence sounds crazy even to me, and I know what I mean.
It helps to know that Beth Holmes was really Fay Baker, an actress married to a successful television writer who (allegedly) went through something similar to what Evie, Timmy's mother in The Whipping Boy, goes through as she searches the country to place her potentially murderous child in the right school/institution. She fictionalizes her story and, because this wasn't a huge best-seller and it wasn't written in the internet age, we don't know much; I only learned this backstory fairly recently thanks to dancing a bit with a few search engines.
I gotta tell you, though, The Whipping Boy really is gripping for those of us who love a deep-dive into psychological trauma. When Timmy tries to kill an adult on a class field trip, the school, not surprisingly, expels him. His mother Evie has retreated into her own world for various reasons that we learn in the novel, and Dan, her "perfect" architect husband, never disciplines Timmy because Timmy is a genius and must be treated as the brilliant man he is.
That sounds relatively normal, but nothing about Dan nor his treatment of Timmy is normative. He takes Timmy to restaurants and lets him drink and smoke cigars and cigarettes, nude wrestles with him regularly, and eventually gives him office space and carte blanche to handle the family's stocks and bonds. Dan has a secret romantic partnership with a man named Leslie and an entire secret life, including his past, with a mother who dresses and treats him as a girl and a crazy father who can't decide if he's a Cardinal (Catholic, not a bird) or J.P. Rockefeller.
It is left to the passive, disengaged Evie to get in the game, because her husband discourages any kind of psychological help for Timmy, who becomes more out of touch with reality every day he is not in school. And this is where we really have to go back in time, because unlike today, when there are numerous institutions for possible child psychopaths (though not enough of them), back then, in the United States, there were four. (That's not a misprint.) Evie is based in California, but the big four are two public institutions in St. Louis and New York, and private ones in Colorado and Alabama.
Meanwhile, poor Timmy can't decide if he wants to be a crossdresser or have sex with his pretty mommy. Sounds lurid, but the book really isn't (except for Dan Lowell, whose background is creepy as fuck). It's really the story of an odyssey of a mother and son, both of whom are quite damaged, determined to find a place for healing, no matter how harrowing the journey.
The author's stated intention is to stress how important it is that children receive appropriate discipline, and, despite the unsophisticated understanding of mental illness and homosexuality that the author can't help but have based on her age and the time in which she wrote The Whipping Boy, I think the permissiveness movement has proven to be a huge bust. I know as a teacher how important it is to set limits for learning to even be possible, I know as a substitute teacher that too many parents don't require their children to behave appropriately in a classroom, expecting teachers to fulfill the role of parent and rule giver. I've experienced it too often to pretend it doesn't exist. Additionally, I know that children need limits to feel safe. As they grow older, you can expand the limits in age-appropriate ways, always remembering the balance between having a child feel safe and also safe to explore the outer world.
This is why this review is way too long. Because I could go on about this until the end of time.
The author was a product of her time, and spoke with horror about homosexuality, and the horror is that being gay was criminalized, something to be kept secret, and I guarantee that caused untold trauma of its own. But it has nothing to do with disciplining your child, and the author conflates the two in ways that are so problematic, reading this book now makes it difficult to value anything in it.
Reading this book in 2022 is revelatory in so many ways, though. What a different time. You can see that this woman/author/mother as not just a victim of her husband and upbringing (in which her emasculated father begged her never to be a ballbuster), but also in light of the time period before the feminist movement. She's a privileged, educated, wealthy White woman who stays in bed for fear of doing the wrong thing, a prisoner who only allows herself to cast off her chains when she sees her child in trouble.
Reading the very little there is about Fay Baker (who was actually in several movies, including a Hitchcock flick) and her family, her son died of a drug overdose. I would love to know more about the real life family drama, because The Whipping Boy is a very compelling story, even in 2022.
October 19, 2016
This one is terribly dated, tinged with period-appropriate homophobia, and also a fun ride most of the time. Brett would hate everything about the weak, blubbering, insecure mother character. Also the child character because (child). Basically Brett should not read this book. End review.
November 22, 2021
I read this book way back in 78 or 79. It floored me then!
I have forgotten about it until recently but I couldn't remember the title. I saw a YA book on my bookshelf in my class (where everyone stores all their stuff) and it had the same name. It was then that the bulb went off and I realized the title that I had stored away so long ago. Now I want to read it again! What a book...what a story! I can use it in my Psych classes.
I have forgotten about it until recently but I couldn't remember the title. I saw a YA book on my bookshelf in my class (where everyone stores all their stuff) and it had the same name. It was then that the bulb went off and I realized the title that I had stored away so long ago. Now I want to read it again! What a book...what a story! I can use it in my Psych classes.
September 4, 2012
So absolutely awful that it must be read to be believed. To think that the author might actually be on the level is extremely disconcerting. But a great wtf book nonetheless.
December 31, 2013
What an underrated and amazing book. I read this, as a young woman, when it came out in the late 70's. I remember liking it and recommending it to others. As years went by, I forgot all about it until recently. I'm so glad I re-read it! I don't understand why this was not a best-seller or why it was never made into a movie.
The novel is about a severely dysfunctional family: the Dad who is the force behind the son; Timmy, the twelve year old boy who is very sick, and the his mother who tries desperately to save him. It is set in the late 50's or early 60's, so things are a bit different than they would be today. A sad, but amazing story.
Beth Holmes, is a fictitious pen name for a famous actress, Fay Baker from the same era. She used the pen name "Beth Holmes" to shield her family from being compared with fictional characters in the novel.
The novel is about a severely dysfunctional family: the Dad who is the force behind the son; Timmy, the twelve year old boy who is very sick, and the his mother who tries desperately to save him. It is set in the late 50's or early 60's, so things are a bit different than they would be today. A sad, but amazing story.
Beth Holmes, is a fictitious pen name for a famous actress, Fay Baker from the same era. She used the pen name "Beth Holmes" to shield her family from being compared with fictional characters in the novel.
February 20, 2015
What a horrifically shocking book, but yet a real page turner. Is dysfunctional a strong enough word to describe the family that is the center of this novel? Twelve-year-old Timmy is the focal point - he has all kinds of issues, not the least of which is his psychosis. You've got to read it to believe it.
August 22, 2012
this is an amazing book!!!!
very revolutionary for its time. worth reading if you are in the counseling field, especially school counseling
very revolutionary for its time. worth reading if you are in the counseling field, especially school counseling
January 1, 2015
It was a bizarre book. Couldn't figure out if I felt sorry for the kid or not.
December 22, 2025
I found this book - published in 1978 and looking just as old - in a little free library and was intrigued. Psychological thriller, twisted family dynamics, mysterious pasts, and a boy who is suffering emotional abuse from at least one of his parents.
But about 3/4 of the way through the story took an awful turn, reflecting 1970s viewpoints.
The story sets up the mom as being the emotionally unstable one, with the dad seeming calm and rational. But as you read you find out that she is barely coping under tons of stress and her calm-seeming husband is the ultimate gaslighter and emotional manipulator.
The 12yo son seems to be turning into a dangerous sociopath, but we get some chapters from his point of view that show him struggling with his tendencies to harm and not wanting to be this way, as well as complicated feelings toward both of his parents due to the emotional abuse the dad inflicts on the family.
The mom truly loves her son and embarks on a journey to keep him from spiraling down his destructive path, starting with her own emotional healing, then advocating fiercely for him in the mental health system. The story was written as a way to show the brokenness of that system and how it fails children of emotional abuse, because that is not taken as seriously as physical abuse (true in the 70s, maybe still true today?)
The characters are interesting, if developed a bit simplistically. It does do a good job portraying the incredible harm of lifelong emotional abuse. However, it added in this piece as well: it is revealed that part of the son's mental illness is his - gasp - budding homosexuality! Uncertainty about his gender! Groan... I was so disappointed that this became part of the storyline. But it does reflect the mental health framework of its time, when being gay or trans was considered an aberration and a sickness. Thank God we have moved away from this!
I ended up tossing the book rather that pass it on to other readers -- we don't need any 50 year old books out there perpetuating harmful portrayals of the queer community.
But about 3/4 of the way through the story took an awful turn, reflecting 1970s viewpoints.
The story sets up the mom as being the emotionally unstable one, with the dad seeming calm and rational. But as you read you find out that she is barely coping under tons of stress and her calm-seeming husband is the ultimate gaslighter and emotional manipulator.
The 12yo son seems to be turning into a dangerous sociopath, but we get some chapters from his point of view that show him struggling with his tendencies to harm and not wanting to be this way, as well as complicated feelings toward both of his parents due to the emotional abuse the dad inflicts on the family.
The mom truly loves her son and embarks on a journey to keep him from spiraling down his destructive path, starting with her own emotional healing, then advocating fiercely for him in the mental health system. The story was written as a way to show the brokenness of that system and how it fails children of emotional abuse, because that is not taken as seriously as physical abuse (true in the 70s, maybe still true today?)
The characters are interesting, if developed a bit simplistically. It does do a good job portraying the incredible harm of lifelong emotional abuse. However, it added in this piece as well: it is revealed that part of the son's mental illness is his - gasp - budding homosexuality! Uncertainty about his gender! Groan... I was so disappointed that this became part of the storyline. But it does reflect the mental health framework of its time, when being gay or trans was considered an aberration and a sickness. Thank God we have moved away from this!
I ended up tossing the book rather that pass it on to other readers -- we don't need any 50 year old books out there perpetuating harmful portrayals of the queer community.
May 20, 2022
I should probably give it three stars or even four, because it is a well written cohesive story. It also forces you to keep turning pages. But I was so bothered by the storyline that I can’t recommend it to anyone. The end of this book left me feeling sick and there really wasn’t a great resolution even though it was wonderful writing.
Want to read
December 31, 2010This is a soft cover edition.
Currently reading
December 2, 2011Dont really know yet. Stil early on in the book. This boy tho OMG
July 17, 2008
incredible book but too dark for most...one of my absolute favs
February 11, 2010
Book Club Book
September 6, 2010
A terrible book full of antiquated theories about homosexuality.
Read
June 9, 2017this one was a recommendation/loaned to me by a friend (GE) and I was earlier advised this was a "dark book"...05.09.2017: Lord have mercy, dark indeed. How to write this review w/o giving up much, I shall try: a perceived incestuous love triangle with outside players, who may/may not be lovers which involve an "overgrown" 12-13 year old male + 2-younger twin siblings...things get complicated from the beginning with no end in sight until the very end...First one has to be attuned to the issues of child abuse before even attempting this novel; 2nd'ly, one must be willing to endure pages (and pages) of verbal abuse before anything is even remotely resolved, and then only temporarily...1978 hardback, provided via loan to me via a friend, 453 pgs. (who was not previously advised of my 400-pg. & under limited when reading bks.), with a very informative "Author's Note" at the end; 4 out of 5 stars, finished June 09, 2017/#47
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