The Boys By Katie Hafner

MarilynW

The Boys by Katie Hafner, BJ Harrison (Narrator)

Extremely introverted, brilliant, nerdy Ethan thought he'd continue a life of solitude. It was better that way since he didn't fit in anywhere. He has a job he loves, things he likes, his routine, and being himself is so much more doable than fitting in...fitting in isn't going to happen. He seems to have no idea how good looking he is or that there could be someone out there for him.

Then he meets Barb and he's met his match. They bond over jukebox oldies at a favorite eatery. Then they move in together, they marry. Then Barb brings home two boys to foster and, with the help of the pandemic, Ethan slides into total isolation, just him and the boys.

How did Ethan and Barb go from such a happy, loving couple to the insensitive, cold Barb and the phobia ridden Ethan? Barb has left the boys and Ethan and he's going to forge on, protecting the boys with all he can conjure, not allowing himself to fail like he failed many years ago.

It's when Ethan takes the boys on a bike trip in Italy, a trip Ethan took a few years back with Barb, that we really understand how wrong some things are and how far Ethan has to go to claw back to a place where he can meet Barb halfway. This worked for me although I had questions when the story was over but I'm not sure answers would make the story better. Digging too deep might ruin Ethan's story about his past and his present.

Pub: July 12, 2022

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau by OrangeSky Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.

Barbara**catching up!

“The Boys” by Katie Hafner is a quirky story about our society’s ability (or lack-thereof) to recognize the beauty and kindness of eccentrics. It is rare that an eccentric person is seen in an empathetic gaze, rather than a judgmental one. Hafner chooses to place her story around the 2020 pandemic, and she shows how isolation can exacerbate disconnecting with society and furthering eccentric sadness.

Geeky Ethan Fawcett is a brilliant computer engineer who prefers solitude; he has severe anxiety and prefers to be alone. When gregarious Barb, who is a research psychologist studying loneliness in the elderly, captures his heart, they get married. Their courtship is adorable. Hafner knows how to write likeable and adorable, unorthodox characters. When the lockdown occurs, Ethan is happy. Hafner doesn’t spend too much time on the pandemic. Beyond the lockdown, she reminds us how we were all chomping at the bit to regain our lives.

Barb and Ethan decide to try to become parents. Ethan is hesitant, not comfortable with his ability to be a good father. On impulse, Barb brings home two Russian orphans (she has a family friend who has connections) in 2019; they are two boys of primary school age. Once the pandemic hits, Barb’s job makes her a national sensation given her studies on loneliness. She travels more, and Ethan is with the boys. Their marriage crumbles, although the reader does not understand why.

While the reader tries to discern why Barb is frustrated with Ethan’s parenting style, Ethan decides to take the boys on a biking trip to Italy, and it’s on this trip Hafner gifts the reader with a fantastic plot twist.

This is a beautiful story of loneliness, grief, and kindness. I do wonder how I would behave if I had met Ethan in Italy. I’m not giving a spoiler by saying that I want to be an Izzy in life. This is the novel that does beg you to take an internal look at how you respond to those quirky characters in your life.

Jessica Woodbury

Either you are going to be with this book or you're going to be mad at it. (Which, I guess, makes it a great book club pick.) I am not mad, exactly, but I do feel a little bit like I just saw one of those memes where you didn't realize the hat is actually a cake that looks like a hat until someone sticks a knife into it.

We know up front that something strange has happened but we don't really know what. Just that Ethan has taken his two sons on a bike trip and whatever happened there was so bad that they have not been invited back. We go back in time to have the story of how Ethan met Barbara, his wife, and this was all quite lovely. We learn about Ethan as an insular person who is slow to open up and how this relationship helped him grow.

And eventually things take a turn. I did not like the turn. It felt kind of cheap. And because I feel like the thing Hafner wants to talk about is something I would like to read about, and yet I feel like we never actually got to get into it at all. The device became bigger than the story.

Regardless, I read this in less than 24 hours, so it's a quick one. I was compelled to move forward because I just could not figure out how things could go wrong with Ethan and Barb, how the Barb at the beginning of the book is so different than the Barb of the past. It unfolds almost like a mystery, really. But I will leave it to you to see how you feel about it all.

Marilyn

The Boys by Katie Hafner was a clever and heartwarming debut novel. The characters in The Boys were beautifully rendered and endearing. It was a story that hinged on the lingering affects of a childhood trauma and how that trauma lingered into adulthood and played havoc with emotions, decisions, personality and with life in general. The boys explored the themes of love, grief, mental health and the effects of isolation during the pandemic. It was very well written and kept me engaged throughout.

Ethan Fawcett was a nerdy tech guy. He was brilliant in his own way but so socially awkward. Ethan worked for a startup company as their chief technology officer in Philadelphia. It was the perfect job for him since he was so introverted and socially challenged. After Ethan had been with the company for a while, Barb, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania started working there. Ethan and Barb, unbeknownst to both of them, had been keeping tabs on each other. Ethan finally got up the courage and asked Barb out. After a whirlwind romance, the two got married. They were happy in their marriage. Barb helped Ethan prepare questions prior to social engagements so he would not feel awkward when they got together with friends or family. They both decided that it was time to try and start a family. Ethan was reluctant at first. He did not feel that he would make a good father. The responsibility was too overwhelming for him. He finally came around after much coaxing from Barb but they discovered that that they had fertility issues.

One day, Ethan arrived home to find twin Russian orphan boys sitting on the couch. Barb had brought them home with the intention of fostering them. Ethan was introduced to Tommy and Sam. At first Ethan was not sure about it but soon enough he bought into it and became a doting father to Tommy and Sam. Ethan’s life revolved around Tommy and Sam. He found ways to teach them English and Ethan even learned some Russian to be able to converse with the boys. Ethan decided to homeschool the boys. He paid attention to all the food choices available for the boys since they were allergic to tree nuts. Then the pandemic hit. Barb was working from home and so was Ethan but taking care of Tommy and Sam took up almost all of Ethan’s time. The more Ethan became involved with the day to day caring for the boys, the more Barb began to pull back, question Ethan’s choices and stopped interacting with Ethan and the boys all together. They finally separated and Ethan kept the boys.

Ethan decided to take the boys to Italy on a bike riding vacation. He and Barb had done that on their honeymoon. Ethan wanted to share the experience with Tommy and Sam. He contacted the same company and made all the arrangements. Over the course of the trip, Ethan had a special guide, Izzy, that was assigned to him. One day, Ethan and Izzy and the boys were caught in a rainstorm so they sought shelter in a church. While they sat in the church, the church’s choir was practicing. Ethan was mesmerized by the music and one young boy’s voice in particular. He started talking to Izzy and confessing his most deeply rooted secrets. Ethan had never admitted these feelings or spoken them out loud to anyone before, not even to Barb. He admitted the guilt he felt about his parent’s deaths to Izzy. Ethan had been carrying these feelings around for so many years. Both of Ethan’s parents died when they were thirty-eight years old. They had been on vacation in Hawaii. His mother was swimming in the ocean when she was pulled under by a strong rip tide. Ethan’s father went in to save her and they both tragically died. Something happened to Ethan that day after finally unburdening himself of that long ago trauma he had experienced. Would it be enough for Ethan and Barb to get back together?

I really enjoyed The Boys by Katie Hafner. It was hard to believe that this was her first work of fiction. I will definitely look forward to reading her future books and I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau by OrangeSky Audio for allowing me to listen to this audiobook through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Publication is set for July 26, 2022.

Dona

Thank you to the author and publisher for an advance reader copy, and to Libby for an audiobook copy of THE BOYS.

For Ethan and Barb, one of the greatest casualties of the Covid pandemic of 2020 and resulting shutdown, is their marriage. They simply don't agree on anything any longer, not after spending all this time together in close quarters-- they especially don't agree about their two boys, Sam and Tommy. After separating from Barb, Ethan decides to take the boys on a bicycle tour of Italy, where he'd once been happy with Barb...but all that does is prove to him how real the problems with his family are, how hard he will need to work to begin to repair things, and how much more impossible than ever it seems to keep his family together.

I don't usually favor character development over narrative, but in this case, I do. I've never encountered a book in which one of the main protagonists is characterized by serious mental illness concerns, but neither the other characters nor the book itself ever stigmatizes him, his behaviors, or his choices. In fact, when I started reading reviews after I finished the book, and encountered so much stigma from so many different people, that was actually the point at which I realized how clear this book is of stigmatizing language and attitudes. For this reason alone, THE BOYS is a contemporary literary masterpiece.

I have more compliments and criticisms to offer about this book. Its a very slow burn. A good percentage of readers find the narrative turn preposterous or trite. (Personally, I think it makes perfect sense in the development of the character.) But none of this really matters.

What does is the compassion that exists in these pages. Everyone should read this book just to experience the act of considering a mentally ill person with such empathy and generosity...well, I suppose, a reader might experience that until their own internal voice shuts out Hafner's narrative voice, in a thought like, perhaps, "Nobody's that crazy!"

Rating: 🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴 / 5 bike tours
Recommend? Please read this book
Finished: May 29 2023
Format: Paperback; Audiobook, Libby
Read this book if you like:
👤 Mental health rep
🫂 Marriage stories
👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Family drama
🔥 Slow burn
🪢 Story twist

Cynthia

I usually try to start with the good, but let me just get the bad off my chest and then we can move on to all that I wish to celebrate about The Boys.

There is a certain type of twist I absolutely despise. I feel it’s an insensitive approach to a very real and sensitive issue. The author decided to incorporate this particular twist into The Boys. I saw it coming a mile away and desperately hoped I was wrong. Then, as I reached the reveal, it was so drawn out, which only made my loathing for such a twist increase.

The thing is: It really didn’t need to be a twist. This could have still been a phenomenally touching story without tricking the reader. I have seen a movie and read a book that used a similar plot device without making it a twist and I loved both of them.

Ordinarily, the aforementioned twist would ruin a book for me. But this novel was so beautiful. I adored Ethan. I adored Izzy. And I greatly appreciated Barb’s character and understood her reactions. It was clear that her love for Ethan was genuine and the beginning stages of their romance was just so sweet.

Maybe - and I’m going against so much of what I generally believe - the twist in this will help readers understand trauma in a way they hadn’t before. I can only hope. To me, a twist like this only exists for shock value and it feels very wrong. I want to believe the author had other intentions - better intentions - because the other aspects of this story were sensitively portrayed.

The Boys included a cast of wonderful characters and the narrative, overall, is so gentle. It’s easy to feel settled in it, even if that one aspect is a bit jarring. The people who were good to Ethan - they filled my heart with immense joy.

So this will be my anomaly. It will be the one time that particular twist didn’t ruin the whole thing and perhaps this means that Katie Hafner did something in this differently, something that made the story so extraordinarily special that nothing could ruin it for me. The Boys proved to be a heart wrenching and heart mending tale of childhood trauma and its lasting effects. If I’m honest, a part of me wants to go right back to the beginning so I can spend some more time with the characters I came to love and respect.

I may have started with the bad, but I assure you that I thought this book was just so good.

I am immensely grateful to OrangeSky Audio for my audio review copy through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Bonnie G.

In the hands of a lesser writer this would have been trite and absurd, but Hafner pulls it off. Briefly, the book centers on Ethan, a gifted programmer who launched a successful startup (not billionaire success, but comfortable life without having to work much success.) He had serious childhood trauma, and perhaps as a result is very introverted. He is lovable but unquestionably a bit odd. When he meets Barb his life changes but his unexamined dormant trauma response takes a complicated turn in part 2 of the book and then we either are hateful and give up on him or root for him to find a path to healing. This is a book about giving people space without abandoning them, practicing empathy while also setting boundaries. These are tall orders. Living with someone with serious OCD is so hard and often thankless - it is made worse when that person refuses to seen meaningful help or solutions. (I speak from experience.) The beauty of Barb's and Izzy's response to Ethan, their non-judgmental gaze and their ability to find the beauty in Ethan's skewed perspective, really moved me. This book is not perfect, but it is very good and for me empathy building, and I was absorbed all the way through. So glad I read this.

Monte Price

I'll admit that some of my disappointment with this is expecting something more than what Hafner set out to write, but I will place some of that blame on the synopsis I read on the inside flap.

Ultimately I think the book is either too long for what it actually is, or alternatively, not nearly long enough if it wanted to use the first 50% to set up Barb and Ethan before the boys came into their lives...

I also think the book suffers from not getting Barb's point of view at any point, and that is clearly a choice that was made because if the point of view was included some of the impact would be lessened when we get to the part of the book told to us by the Italian tour guide. But even there I would have liked to go back to Barb after that and not Ethan, because so much of the book paints her with a broad brush that seeks to shame her for not being maternal enough. A feeling that would be foolish on its own, but is compounded even further by some revelations in this book.

It didn't work from me. It wasn't nearly as deep and insightful as some of the blurbs would have led me to believe. I think that with a little more time and attention and a different editor this could have been something, what it is though feels very derivative of other narratives that have already told us this same story and this does nothing to add to that particular convenrsation.

Inés Molina

This was emotional......

Dani

I’m at a loss for words right now. This one was strange. I do think it’s thought-provoking and something that I’ll want to revisit later.

I was first interested in the story because a lot of it takes place during the pandemic. Ethan and Barb are married. We get a glimpse of Ethan’s upbringing and losses. We see his relationship with Barb grow and flourish.

That is, until they adopt twin boys from a Russian orphanage. Then the pandemic hits. All our relationships were put to the test with the hardships we faced. Missing work, losing money, loss of our social support groups. So of course being new parents is stressful and he takes a very hands on approach while Barb is more relaxed.

They grow apart and resentful of each other and eventually she is gone. So he decides to take his boys to Italy, where he and Barb shared such a lovely trip long ago. That’s when we begin to learn the secrets Ethan has and why he’s acted the way he has.

I think at its core, it’s a powerful story about the loneliness and disconnect with reality we faced during the pandemic. The twists were good, but not quite worth the ride it took to get there. Also, I was left with more questions than answers.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review.

Heather Adores Books

2.75⭐ rounded up for the audiobook.

I struggled with this one, much like Ethan had his struggles. It was very slow going and remained slow throughout for me. I did not connect with any of the characters at all.

As a food allergy mom I did appreciate that part of the storyline and how Ethan took it so seriously.

BJ Harrison did an alright job narrating, although he's a little monotone sounding. 7 hours and 19 minutes, easy to follow at 2x.

I have never read any of the authors that the blurb states ~ for fans of read this...so maybe that should have been my clue to pass. Also, this appears to be Katie's first novel, but she has 6 non-fiction titles ~ I am not really a non-fiction reader either, so that should've been my second clue.

*Thanks to Spiegel & Grau by OrangeSky Audio, the author and NetGalley for the advance audiobook. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

More reviews here ➡
Heather Adores Books

Judy Collins

THE BOYS by Katie Hafner and audio narrated by B. J. Harrison is a charming, quirky, endearing tale of love while exploring the traumas of childhood and human connections.

Ethan is an introvert and now a grown man. He is married to Barb. He is anxious and worries about everything. He does not do well in social settings or engage in regular chit-chat.

While working as the chief technology officer at a startup in Philadelphia, Ethan meets Barb, a University of Pennsylvania grad student, and the two start dating. They soon marry, though Ethan knows he is not in her league.

He experienced some childhood trauma that he has carried into adulthood and has not been open about. His parent's died in an accident on vacation when in their late thirties, and the anniversary is approaching, which always is difficult for Ethan.

Ethan is a nerdy genius engineering geek, and Barb is an extrovert and research psychologist who studies loneliness among the elderly. He never thought much about being a father, but after trying with no luck and finding out he is sterile, there was always adoption.

Things change when his wife brings home two young twin brothers, Tommy and Sam (Russian orphans) , for them to foster temporarily.

The boys were supposed to give the couple a chance to practice parenthood before they launched into what they had just learned was not going to be the old-fashioned, easy way of making babies.

This new experience was quite scary for Ethan with the responsibility, but soon he became a loving father engaging with the boys in ways he never thought possible.

The pandemic hits, and Ethan becomes overly obsessed and protective of the boys, their schedules, and their lives. This draws a line between Barb and Ethan. Ethan spends so much time with the boys and engaging with them, but his wife seems distant and cold toward them and does not take time with them or make the necessary precautions like Ethan. Ultimately they separate, and Ethan keeps the boys.

In their early relationship, Barb and Ethan went to Italy on a memorable biking tour, and since he enjoyed it so much, he decided to take the boys after the pandemic travel restrictions are lifted.

However, there is a huge plot twist when all is revealed, and nothing is as it appears. Can Ethan and Barb find their way back to one another?

Beautifully rendered characters and evocative. From love, grief, isolation, and mental health.

A delightful and clever debut! I recommend going into the book blindly to enhance your reading experience. For fans of flawed characters and quirky literary fiction with humor. Fans of Elizabeth Berg and Fredrick Backman will enjoy. Perfect for beach summer reading/listening.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #OrangeSkyAudio for an ALC to listen to, enjoy, and review. The audio narrator, B. J. Harrison, was superb.

Blog Review Posted @

www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins |#JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pub Date: July 26, 2022

July 2022 Must-Read Books

Wendy

I listened to this book and even though the moral of the story was good; I found it to be quite dull

Kelley

ARC received courtesy of Goodreads First Reads Giveaways

Wow!! The stunner in the middle of this book is astounding! I don't know where Katie Hafner came up with the idea for this novel but it was inspired!

Ethan Fawcett is a socially awkward, tech-savvy, 30ish year-old when he meets Barb and they get married. Barb is a psychologist who is almost the complete opposite of Ethan. She's funny, friendly and outgoing. Their marriage seems to flourish and Ethan's life grows with Barb. Then the pandemic hits. Ethan becomes obsessive, scared and reclusive. He opens up to Barb about his childhood. Barb brings home 2 foster children to try to entice Ethan back to his life but he becomes even more obsessed with the boys.

While we all dealt with the lockdowns of the pandemic differently, I suspect there are many, many people who didn't deal with it well at all. I know I'm one of those people. Seeing the way Ethan and Barb handled the pandemic gave voice to all of the ways people fell through the cracks. We can all agree that the pandemic had devastating effects on our mental health and/or exacerbated issues we had dealt with (or not) for years. Ethan came through the other side which should give us all hope! I was rooting for Ethan throughout the book!

Kristen

Don’t do it friends. Don’t get sucked in.

Will

4.5, rounded down

As if Weike Wang’s glowing review in the NYTimes of Katie Hafner’s The Boys wasn’t enough to catch my interest, she grabbed my attention completely writing:

”There is a surprise at the center of this book, so original and unusual that I stopped pushing forward for a day to reread the first half again and check for inconsistency.”

That line kept coming back to me over several weeks until I could no longer resist. It was such a tease. I needed to know. What unusual surprise would await me? As I read, I speculated on several possibilities, all wrong. It was a surprise, and it was unusual, if not, as I told myself at the time, simply bonkers. And, no, I’m not going to tell you. The less you know about this delightful novel the better.

This is essentially a comic novel, but like any good comic novel there is so much more beneath the surface. The main character, Ethan Fawcett, is smart, quirky, socially awkward and could have stepped out of the pages of an Anne Tyler novel. The writing may not be quite on Tyler’s level, but it is still very good, and the novel is highly readable. It pulls you forward with a mystery that is set up in the first two pages. While an entertaining read, I also found it warm, heartfelt, and emotionally moving. Could this total sap’s eyes have welled up a bit? Maybe. My standard and off-used line applies whenever I read an impressive debut novel: I look forward to what this author does next.

Nursebookie

TITLE: THE BOYS
AUTHOR: Katie Hafner @katiehafner
PUB DATE: 07.26.2022 Now Available

This is a story about …

Love
Mental Health
Lingering Trauma
The Pandemic

It’s about the complexities of marriage,
starting a family, and eventually dealing with deep seeded emotions about grief and loss. This debut novel and character driven story with a unique plot, that is completely engaging in a unique and poignant story, captured my heart.

This took me some time to get into the story, but passed that, I am glad I stuck with it, and ended up enjoying this one a lot.

Caitlin Tremblay

My main beef with this book is that I feel like it makes light of very real, very serious mental health issues. Also, Barb kinda sucks, though I’m aware we don’t get to read anything from her POV.

Deborah

The quirk factor is really high in this debut novel, drawing comparisons (in the book flap blurb, anyway) to Anne Tyler, but IMHO, while this book is charming and touching at times, it ain’t no Tyler.

Ethan is an introverted social misfit who’s been successfully involved in a tech startup but lacks human connection—until he meets Barb, who really “gets” him, and it looks like we’re in for a happily-ever-after. But Barb desperately wants children, though Ethan is ambivalent, and when it turns out they can’t conceive, Barb brings home a pair of virtually mute brothers for them to foster. Ethan’s unhealthy obsession with caring for the boys then crowds out everything else in his life—he’s gone from ambivalent to all-in—causing a rift in his marriage. Barb moves out. Ethan, who has become claustrophobic and almost entirely housebound, then decides the only thing to do is to take the boys on a luxe bike tour through Tuscany, the trip he and Barb did on their blissfully happy honeymoon. So off they go. There’s a big shock for the reader almost immediately thereafter, which I totally did not anticipate, so I’m not going to say another word about that; I’d really like you to be as rocked back as I was. Suffice it to say that the trip, while disastrous in many ways, helps Ethan begin to heal from the profound childhood trauma he’s been burying all these years, and maybe gives him a chance to repair things with Barb.

Nicole

I think this is one of those “love it or hate it” kind of books. BIG twist in this one. It took me a little bit to get on board, but in the end I was into it!

Star Gater

I had the audiobook and thought narrator BJ Harrison did a really good job. I'm not repeating the synopsis or spoiling the book. I will say, I did not find anything humorous -- which was advertised. The book genre is listed as general fiction. That became an issue once I completed the book, and I guess I understand the labeling.

There is nothing that I can add to the synopsis without spoiling. I found the story, written in parts. everywhere from eye-rolling, thought-provoking, mundane, to are you kidding me. This felt like a mystery/thriller gone wrong. However, as general fiction it doesn't compute.

This is a creepy story that took real family issues from head shaking to bizarre.

I actually could see this as a short film or television episode.

Thank you NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau by OrangeSky Audio for allowing me to read and review The Boys. Should I find as inexpensive copy of this, I will pick it up. I would like to read this again.

Scott

The Boys is essentially a domestic drama. In the first half, the thin plot is weighed down by the banal and mostly irrelevant observations of the first person narrator. It seemed a strange choice for a female novelist to write in the voice of such a dull man, and I kept thinking that the book would be much more interesting if it was written from the perspective of his wife, or if it alternated in perspective, Gone Girl style. The narrator of this book reminded me of the men in Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist and Dinner at a Homesick Restaurant. They annoyed me no end, but if you liked these novels then this one might be for you.

In the second half of book we finally get out of this drip's head, but the twist in the novel is so absurd, and light and flat as cardboard, that the second half is even more disappointing save for one interesting and semi-rounded character.

While the book's narrative rests on many unstable pillars, two are especially big. First, the narrator's mental illness is not addressed explicitly by anyone, including the narrator himself, his wife (who is a psychologist), or the psychologist they see for marital therapy. Second, the dramatic reveal of the twist relies on many characters in the book not saying aloud what they see in front of their eyes. This feels cheap, and like a cheat to the reader (at least this one).

Zibby Owens

This book fits in the troubled relationship genre category. It's about the challenges of relationships, particularly between people who are opposites during a pandemic. It's also about how adding children into the mix can smooth out the rough edges of a relationship and be a source of friction. Ethan and Barb are married when one day she brings home two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, for them to foster. Ethan gets overly attached to these boys. But when tragedy strikes, it drives Barb away. Then after she leaves, he takes the boys on this bike trip to Italy. But Ethan has a secret and must heal. This book is about love, and grief, and understanding, but it is also about the anxiety that comes when you are surrounded by emotional events that are out of your control.

This is mine: the book is easy to read, enjoyable, and a great character study. There's a conflict between these two good people. At first, the reader is misled into thinking that Barb, the wife, is nasty. But you find out not everything is what we think. Not to mention, the twist and reveal were unexpected.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:

https://www.momsdonthavetimetoreadboo...

Brianna Hart

It’s still hard for me to believe we can read/write stories that occurred during a global pandemic and it’s no longer weird. I did really appreciate the concept of how people came out of the pandemic. Some still wanted to stay home and became more introverted. Others were ready to get on with their lives and become social again. It was definitely interesting to live firsthand about the issues the pandemic brought about and then have them expressed in literature. Surreal, actually.

This story took a really wild turn in the second half. To be honest, I didn’t love it. It felt too fake for me, something that surely could not be happening. While I appreciate the fact that we can see the mental health issues, I was a little appalled at the approach to take care of them. I did love Izzy though, bless her!

Krithika

I followed Dr. Wachter on Twitter during the pandemic and loved how he helped cut through the noise of news and developments. Recently, he’s been very sweetly hyping his wife’s book, and I couldn’t help but pick it up.

For her first piece of fiction, it was a well crafted and a tender exploration of how people can process emotions, grief, and stressful situations very differently. The twist about halfway through was not a full surprise but a novel one nonetheless.

Emily Hatcher

Wow! This was such a wonderful surprise of a book on so many levels. The writing is smart smart smart yet so readable. The characters are deep and totally three dimensional. The plot totally took my by surprise and the overall commentary on the societal effects of the pandemic experience was so on point. I’d recommend this book to anyone and I surely hope Hafner continues writing fiction.

Leigh Gaston

2 1/2 stars

The first part of the book was interesting and promising. I was feeling confused in the second half and then a specific scenario just wrecked the book for me. I wanted to see how it ended so I did finish it. I liked that it dealt with some psychological/mental damage and coping mechanisms but it was a bit “way out there” for me.

Brenda

Rare for me to DNF a book but this was not for me. A friend told me the ending (at my request when I decided not to bother finishing it) and I feel pretty confident in the decision to abandon it.

Title	:	The Boys
Author	:	Katie Hafner
Rating	:
ISBN	:	1954118058
ISBN-10	:	9781954118058
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	Hardcover
Number of Pages	:	256
Publication	:	First published July 26, 2022

The Boys Reviews

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