3.75 out of 4 stars.
“Kids are stronger than you think!”
The life that younger brother, older brother, and their father are living is like a prison, so much so that the author doesn’t even lend out their actual names. My opinion it is to show that it isn’t about the individualism of the story but to the notion that it can happen to anyone. The father is a drug addict and brainwashed his children off the bat that their mother is essentially Satan and it was like battling a war with her while going through the divorce. It is never spelled out directly what family leader is the one to blame for this demise. The father is blatantly violent and involved with serious drugs but the mother is mentally unstable and allowed her children to live with that chaos/danger. All that is certain is that the children, younger brother and older brother are dealing with issues FAR too dangerous and unacceptable for how young they are and anyone in general.
“One of the Boys” is difficult to read. The mind games and sheer violence make me feel queasy. When asked why do I read books like this? Isn’t life hard enough but to then surround your free time with heartache? It is for the enlightening of it all. It is important to be educated that a lot of scary things are happening and we need to open our eyes. Which is ironic because one of the father’s lines in the book to the younger son is “be my eyes”. This means to be his look out while he continues to go down a spiral. I wish the boy’s basketball coach was more observant to dig deeper into the situation. At one point the father pushed the coach. He was able to see the violence this kid was exposed to and he still didn’t notify any of the teachers to look into it further. Everyone has a job to do each day and that is to pay attention. A lot of people are fighting hard battles and we are all too busy to pick up on the subtle cues. These kids lived in fear each and every day just waiting for someone to lend a hand.
Truthfully, this book is not for the weak of heart. It is really is hard to swallow. However, it is sadly a reality. I completely understand if it wouldn’t be your cup of tea to engage in but if one is looking to have another reminder to keep their head up and be aware as they live their own life to hidden struggles, I would suggest picking this one up!
