Ditte’s review of The Boy I Love > Likes and Comments
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My dropped open further and further as I read this.... I am shocked :O think I'll give it a miss!
Me to the author after reading this: go girl, give us nothing!
Mimi wrote: "Me to the author after reading this: go girl, give us nothing!"
Not even nothing, just all the wrong things. Nothing would've been better tbh
Oh, I feel like we both read a different story 😅. I didn’t love it as much as I liked In Memoriam, but I still liked it enough. I hope you’ll still be able to read, though 😂. Seriously, I hope you’ll love your next read!
Mollie - moll.ereads wrote: "My dropped open further and further as I read this.... I am shocked :O think I'll give it a miss!"
I honestly was purely running on rage at the end, like getting into some weird stare off and I refused to give up first lmao. But fair's fair, there were about 5 good pages in this book, though I wouldn't say that's worth reading it for 😆
I love an impassioned review. Very interesting thoughts! Sorry that you had such a rough time with it though. I hope your next read makes you feel passionate about reading again!
Sounds like you read a different book to me.
Marieke wrote: "Oh, I feel like we both read a different story 😅. I didn’t love it as much as I liked In Memoriam, but I still liked it enough. I hope you’ll still be able to read, though 😂. Seriously, I hope you’..."
Haha sounds like it. I really hope I will too. Am thinking of reading Rachel Reid's new one which I'm pretty sure I'll love
Evie wrote: "I love an impassioned review. Very interesting thoughts! Sorry that you had such a rough time with it though. I hope your next read makes you feel passionate about reading again!"
Heh, thanks. I felt so ragey reading this, I had to vent a bit because I felt like I was going insane reading it. Thanks, boo, I hope I'll find something good soon, too.
Martin wrote: "Sounds like you read a different book to me."
Lol, I mean, they did do two different ARC covers so maybe they're two completely different books. I just know this one wasn't for me, it had me incredibly frustrated.
Cody wrote: "This book wasn't for me, either. The characters/their ideals felt too modern and the romance was too quick for me to feel any connection to the characters. I wasn't sure how a YA novel in WWI was g..."
Yeah no, it really felt off in pretty much all the ways which is such a shame because the idea of it is great
Mac wrote: "Definitely a disappointment!!☹️"
Such a bummer! :(
To be honest I don't think Hussey ever made it seem like Stephen was madly in love with Michael. They were childhood friends who explored their sexuality together, and he was obviously sad that Michael was gone, but Michael was his sexual awakening and Danny was his first love. That's how I read it. I think you've invested more in Michael than was intended.
Love this review! I was intrigued but you made really good points and my wallet thanks you haha
Alyssia wrote: "To be honest I don't think Hussey ever made it seem like Stephen was madly in love with Michael. They were childhood friends who explored their sexuality together, and he was obviously sad that Mic..."
It's possible I did because I definitely didn't just read them as friends who fooled around. The blurb also says "brokenhearted from the loss of his first love" re Stephen's feelings about Michael and that's pretty much how I read their relationship too, but obviously everything is up for interpretation
Liz wrote: "Love this review! I was intrigued but you made really good points and my wallet thanks you haha"
Lol, I mean, I wouldn't personally purchase this one, but there's always the library later on if you get curious haha. There are so many amazing WWI books out there though that are so much better
Seeing this review come back up on my feed made me laugh again at the thrashing you gave it cause Jesus this sounds bad still
Evie wrote: "Seeing this review come back up on my feed made me laugh again at the thrashing you gave it cause Jesus this sounds bad still "
Lmao, I truly hated it. It's still wild to me that possibly the two worst books I've ever read have both been this year lol
well, you saved me from an insta-love story that i'd for sure hate (i DESPISE insta-love!) thank you for the review!
Mariana ✨ wrote: "well, you saved me from an insta-love story that i'd for sure hate (i DESPISE insta-love!) thank you for the review!"
Haha, yeah then this book probably isn't for you
Well, now I need to know what the OTHER terrible book was!
@Robin lol, A Darker Mischief. It was batshit insane and not in a good way haha
But I do feel this was misbilled as a romance, it’s a pretty intense character study of a young man affected by war. The first love who dies was a friend who he briefly kissed once and Danny isn’t a great love, their attraction is more a catalyst for Stephen to begin unlocking and processing trauma from his first time in the trenches. It works as a study of queerness in the England in the early 20th c . I think there’s infatuation at first sight and trauma bonding, and a desire to protect in Stephen’s but not love…
Yeah so you've missed the point of most of the story by a solid country mile. At least I know not to trust your reviews going forward.
James wrote: "But I do feel this was misbilled as a romance, it’s a pretty intense character study of a young man affected by war. The first love who dies was a friend who he briefly kissed once and Danny isn’t ..."
I felt the book centered their romance, and I (clearly lol) didn't much care for it nor would I look to it as a study of queerness at the time due to, well, everything I said above. It's interesting to hear how differently we read the book though, and it's great that you found something you could get from it.
Jayce wrote: "Yeah so you've missed the point of most of the story by a solid country mile. At least I know not to trust your reviews going forward."
I don't think I did, no. And lol yeah, feel free to skip my reviews, I think that'll benefit us both
Caroline wrote: "What a vitriolic review!"
I mean, yeah? I really didn’t like this book. Which is why I gave it 1 star. And made it pretty clear in the first sentence that this wouldn't be a review full of niceties and praise.
You missed the point of this book SO BADLY OMG
Lila wrote: "You missed the point of this book SO BADLY OMG"
Lol sure
Gaby wrote: "This sounds crazy bad omg"
Yeah, it really was. I've read and loved a lot of WWI lit and imo, this was just a total miss.
☆°•°☆♡kelly♡☆°•°☆ wrote: "Yeah.... I have removed this from my TBR. What a strong review "
Lol, glad I could help. Your time is definitely spent better reading something else
Glad I saw this review before I picked this one up. I love me some World War historical fiction, and this sounds exactly like the kind of World War historical fiction I would hate.
Is there any chance you have any recs for WWI lit/historical fiction? It sounds like we likely have similar tastes, so I would absolutely love some recs.
Cassie wrote: "Glad I saw this review before I picked this one up. I love me some World War historical fiction, and this sounds exactly like the kind of World War historical fiction I would hate.
Is there any ch..."
Omg YES, I absolutely have recs and I'd love to shove all my faves at you 😂 I can't message you but if you send me a dm on here on instagram, I'd be delighted to rec you some WWI books!
idk if you’ve read it yet, but if you haven’t in memoriam is rlly rlly good !! same setting and central idea but less insta love, I will admit it’s a bit optimistic but I rlly enjoyed it !
eleanor wrote: "idk if you’ve read it yet, but if you haven’t in memoriam is rlly rlly good !! same setting and central idea but less insta love, I will admit it’s a bit optimistic but I rlly enjoyed it !"
Can't believe I missed your comment. In Memoriam is actually my favourite book, so that's a perfect rec haha
This review made me laugh. I'm totally convinced it's more entertaining than the book.
This book roast...I mean review...had me rolling lol. I will not be reading this book now because I too wouod have hated it after hearing all this. That's crazy.
Read_Sleep_Travel_Repeat wrote: "This review made me laugh. I'm totally convinced it's more entertaining than the book."
Lmao, well... I mean... (yes, absolutely!)
GiveMeBooksOrGiveMeDeath wrote: "This book roast...I mean review...had me rolling lol. I will not be reading this book now because I too wouod have hated it after hearing all this. That's crazy."
Hahah, glad I could make you laugh. This is one of only 2 brutal reviews I've ever written but it just got me so mad I had to be a hater 😂
I honestly don't understand how you can say that the author hardly cared about the setting when the trauma the protagonists has because of the war is one of the central themes of the book. And the love story is not even insta-love. Sure, Stephan is infatuated by Danny almost immediately, but more because of Danny's kindness in the midst of all that horror Stephen is being through. The actual romance takes quite a bit to develop. Not only they're scared of getting caught, they literally have no time to think about it at first considering all they got put through in just the first chapters. Someone else commented saying that it seems like you read a different book, and I have to agree. I truly believe this review misinterprets it outside of one's personal opinion.
I think your review is a bit mean to be honest. You may not have like it but you don’t have to rip it to shreds. I personally loved it. I love WW1 and 2 books and I loved this one too.
Which good books have you written? Would love to read them.
Thor wrote: "I honestly don't understand how you can say that the author hardly cared about the setting when the trauma the protagonists has because of the war is one of the central themes of the book. And the ..."
Yeah, we definitely don't seem to have read the same book. Glad you managed to enjoy it.
Emily wrote: "I think your review is a bit mean to be honest. You may not have like it but you don’t have to rip it to shreds. I personally loved it. I love WW1 and 2 books and I loved this one too.
Which good ..."
I didn’t realize only authors were able to dislike books they read, I'll try to keep that in mind. I'm glad you personally loved this one.
It is a Young Adult book so maybe you were not the intended audience.
Exactly. Like when at the end you say that "Stephen and Danny could've stopped WWI in 1916 because they were smarter than anyone else but homophobia is why the war lasted till 1918". That's literally not what happens. It is such an insane misinterpretation of the text. Even the "straight" captain tries to warn the people in charge but the point was exactly that no matter who had warned them they wouldn't have believed them. Because they didn't want to. But i guess you couldn't have made a joke out of that so...
Thor wrote: "Exactly. Like when at the end you say that "Stephen and Danny could've stopped WWI in 1916 because they were smarter than anyone else but homophobia is why the war lasted till 1918". That's literal..."
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Mollie - moll.ereads
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Sep 22, 2024 07:42AM
My dropped open further and further as I read this.... I am shocked :O think I'll give it a miss!
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Me to the author after reading this: go girl, give us nothing!
Mimi wrote: "Me to the author after reading this: go girl, give us nothing!"Not even nothing, just all the wrong things. Nothing would've been better tbh
Oh, I feel like we both read a different story 😅. I didn’t love it as much as I liked In Memoriam, but I still liked it enough. I hope you’ll still be able to read, though 😂. Seriously, I hope you’ll love your next read!
Mollie - moll.ereads wrote: "My dropped open further and further as I read this.... I am shocked :O think I'll give it a miss!"I honestly was purely running on rage at the end, like getting into some weird stare off and I refused to give up first lmao. But fair's fair, there were about 5 good pages in this book, though I wouldn't say that's worth reading it for 😆
I love an impassioned review. Very interesting thoughts! Sorry that you had such a rough time with it though. I hope your next read makes you feel passionate about reading again!
Sounds like you read a different book to me.
Marieke wrote: "Oh, I feel like we both read a different story 😅. I didn’t love it as much as I liked In Memoriam, but I still liked it enough. I hope you’ll still be able to read, though 😂. Seriously, I hope you’..."Haha sounds like it. I really hope I will too. Am thinking of reading Rachel Reid's new one which I'm pretty sure I'll love
Evie wrote: "I love an impassioned review. Very interesting thoughts! Sorry that you had such a rough time with it though. I hope your next read makes you feel passionate about reading again!"Heh, thanks. I felt so ragey reading this, I had to vent a bit because I felt like I was going insane reading it. Thanks, boo, I hope I'll find something good soon, too.
Martin wrote: "Sounds like you read a different book to me."Lol, I mean, they did do two different ARC covers so maybe they're two completely different books. I just know this one wasn't for me, it had me incredibly frustrated.
Cody wrote: "This book wasn't for me, either. The characters/their ideals felt too modern and the romance was too quick for me to feel any connection to the characters. I wasn't sure how a YA novel in WWI was g..."Yeah no, it really felt off in pretty much all the ways which is such a shame because the idea of it is great
Mac wrote: "Definitely a disappointment!!☹️"Such a bummer! :(
To be honest I don't think Hussey ever made it seem like Stephen was madly in love with Michael. They were childhood friends who explored their sexuality together, and he was obviously sad that Michael was gone, but Michael was his sexual awakening and Danny was his first love. That's how I read it. I think you've invested more in Michael than was intended.
Love this review! I was intrigued but you made really good points and my wallet thanks you haha
Alyssia wrote: "To be honest I don't think Hussey ever made it seem like Stephen was madly in love with Michael. They were childhood friends who explored their sexuality together, and he was obviously sad that Mic..."It's possible I did because I definitely didn't just read them as friends who fooled around. The blurb also says "brokenhearted from the loss of his first love" re Stephen's feelings about Michael and that's pretty much how I read their relationship too, but obviously everything is up for interpretation
Liz wrote: "Love this review! I was intrigued but you made really good points and my wallet thanks you haha"Lol, I mean, I wouldn't personally purchase this one, but there's always the library later on if you get curious haha. There are so many amazing WWI books out there though that are so much better
Seeing this review come back up on my feed made me laugh again at the thrashing you gave it cause Jesus this sounds bad still
Evie wrote: "Seeing this review come back up on my feed made me laugh again at the thrashing you gave it cause Jesus this sounds bad still "Lmao, I truly hated it. It's still wild to me that possibly the two worst books I've ever read have both been this year lol
well, you saved me from an insta-love story that i'd for sure hate (i DESPISE insta-love!) thank you for the review!
Mariana ✨ wrote: "well, you saved me from an insta-love story that i'd for sure hate (i DESPISE insta-love!) thank you for the review!"Haha, yeah then this book probably isn't for you
Well, now I need to know what the OTHER terrible book was!
@Robin lol, A Darker Mischief. It was batshit insane and not in a good way haha
But I do feel this was misbilled as a romance, it’s a pretty intense character study of a young man affected by war. The first love who dies was a friend who he briefly kissed once and Danny isn’t a great love, their attraction is more a catalyst for Stephen to begin unlocking and processing trauma from his first time in the trenches. It works as a study of queerness in the England in the early 20th c . I think there’s infatuation at first sight and trauma bonding, and a desire to protect in Stephen’s but not love…
Yeah so you've missed the point of most of the story by a solid country mile. At least I know not to trust your reviews going forward.
James wrote: "But I do feel this was misbilled as a romance, it’s a pretty intense character study of a young man affected by war. The first love who dies was a friend who he briefly kissed once and Danny isn’t ..."I felt the book centered their romance, and I (clearly lol) didn't much care for it nor would I look to it as a study of queerness at the time due to, well, everything I said above. It's interesting to hear how differently we read the book though, and it's great that you found something you could get from it.
Jayce wrote: "Yeah so you've missed the point of most of the story by a solid country mile. At least I know not to trust your reviews going forward."I don't think I did, no. And lol yeah, feel free to skip my reviews, I think that'll benefit us both
Caroline wrote: "What a vitriolic review!"I mean, yeah? I really didn’t like this book. Which is why I gave it 1 star. And made it pretty clear in the first sentence that this wouldn't be a review full of niceties and praise.
You missed the point of this book SO BADLY OMG
Lila wrote: "You missed the point of this book SO BADLY OMG"Lol sure
Gaby wrote: "This sounds crazy bad omg"Yeah, it really was. I've read and loved a lot of WWI lit and imo, this was just a total miss.
☆°•°☆♡kelly♡☆°•°☆ wrote: "Yeah.... I have removed this from my TBR. What a strong review "Lol, glad I could help. Your time is definitely spent better reading something else
Glad I saw this review before I picked this one up. I love me some World War historical fiction, and this sounds exactly like the kind of World War historical fiction I would hate.Is there any chance you have any recs for WWI lit/historical fiction? It sounds like we likely have similar tastes, so I would absolutely love some recs.
Cassie wrote: "Glad I saw this review before I picked this one up. I love me some World War historical fiction, and this sounds exactly like the kind of World War historical fiction I would hate.Is there any ch..."
Omg YES, I absolutely have recs and I'd love to shove all my faves at you 😂 I can't message you but if you send me a dm on here on instagram, I'd be delighted to rec you some WWI books!
idk if you’ve read it yet, but if you haven’t in memoriam is rlly rlly good !! same setting and central idea but less insta love, I will admit it’s a bit optimistic but I rlly enjoyed it !
eleanor wrote: "idk if you’ve read it yet, but if you haven’t in memoriam is rlly rlly good !! same setting and central idea but less insta love, I will admit it’s a bit optimistic but I rlly enjoyed it !"Can't believe I missed your comment. In Memoriam is actually my favourite book, so that's a perfect rec haha
This review made me laugh. I'm totally convinced it's more entertaining than the book.
This book roast...I mean review...had me rolling lol. I will not be reading this book now because I too wouod have hated it after hearing all this. That's crazy.
Read_Sleep_Travel_Repeat wrote: "This review made me laugh. I'm totally convinced it's more entertaining than the book."Lmao, well... I mean... (yes, absolutely!)
GiveMeBooksOrGiveMeDeath wrote: "This book roast...I mean review...had me rolling lol. I will not be reading this book now because I too wouod have hated it after hearing all this. That's crazy."Hahah, glad I could make you laugh. This is one of only 2 brutal reviews I've ever written but it just got me so mad I had to be a hater 😂
I honestly don't understand how you can say that the author hardly cared about the setting when the trauma the protagonists has because of the war is one of the central themes of the book. And the love story is not even insta-love. Sure, Stephan is infatuated by Danny almost immediately, but more because of Danny's kindness in the midst of all that horror Stephen is being through. The actual romance takes quite a bit to develop. Not only they're scared of getting caught, they literally have no time to think about it at first considering all they got put through in just the first chapters. Someone else commented saying that it seems like you read a different book, and I have to agree. I truly believe this review misinterprets it outside of one's personal opinion.
I think your review is a bit mean to be honest. You may not have like it but you don’t have to rip it to shreds. I personally loved it. I love WW1 and 2 books and I loved this one too. Which good books have you written? Would love to read them.
Thor wrote: "I honestly don't understand how you can say that the author hardly cared about the setting when the trauma the protagonists has because of the war is one of the central themes of the book. And the ..."Yeah, we definitely don't seem to have read the same book. Glad you managed to enjoy it.
Emily wrote: "I think your review is a bit mean to be honest. You may not have like it but you don’t have to rip it to shreds. I personally loved it. I love WW1 and 2 books and I loved this one too. Which good ..."
I didn’t realize only authors were able to dislike books they read, I'll try to keep that in mind. I'm glad you personally loved this one.
It is a Young Adult book so maybe you were not the intended audience.
Exactly. Like when at the end you say that "Stephen and Danny could've stopped WWI in 1916 because they were smarter than anyone else but homophobia is why the war lasted till 1918". That's literally not what happens. It is such an insane misinterpretation of the text. Even the "straight" captain tries to warn the people in charge but the point was exactly that no matter who had warned them they wouldn't have believed them. Because they didn't want to. But i guess you couldn't have made a joke out of that so...
Thor wrote: "Exactly. Like when at the end you say that "Stephen and Danny could've stopped WWI in 1916 because they were smarter than anyone else but homophobia is why the war lasted till 1918". That's literal..."