The Boy I Love
Hussey’s depiction of life and death in the trenches of World War One transports the reader to the mud, suffering and horror of the “meatgrinder” with so much clarity that I felt I was there. It’s seen through the eyes of Stephen Wraxhall, a 19-year-old Second Lieutenant who has won a Military Cross for bravery in action. He has been injured but returns to the Somme ready for the “big push” that the Allies hope will end the war in 1916. However, Stephen, the son of a vicar, has a secret he must hide. He is a gay man, and that is illegal.
Stephen meets Danny McCormick, a cheeky recruit from a London fairground, and takes him on as an officer’s aide. Their relationship grows but must be concealed amid the looming battle ahead.
The book deals with the men’s bond with delicacy and emotional warmth. It was heightened by the question would either of them survive and, if they did, what the future would hold. I also enjoyed seeing gay poet Siegfried Sassoon pop up.
Hussey’s writing seems to emphasise the phrase describing men of lower ranks as “lions led by donkeys”. Descriptions of many senior officers present them as idiots and cowards, and I felt these were stereotypes. It was also difficult to believe that Stephen and Danny would have got away with their insubordination to officers. However, it’s a book to be recommended for the YA readers it is aimed at due to the sensitivity of the love story and very well researched descriptions of the Battle of the Somme.
