The Boy I Am
Author: K. L. Kettle
£8.99
In stock
Buy from Bookshop.orgBuy ebook nowThey say we’re dangerous. But we’re not that different.
Jude is running out of time. Once a year, lucky young men in the House of Boys are auctioned to the female elite. But if Jude fails to be selected before he turns seventeen, a future deep underground in the mines awaits.
Yet ever since the death of his best friend at the hands of the all-powerful Chancellor, Jude has been desperate to escape the path set out for him. Finding himself entangled in a plot to assassinate the Chancellor, he finally has a chance to avenge his friend and win his freedom. But at what price?
A speculative YA thriller, tackling themes of traditional gender roles and power dynamics, for fans of Malorie Blackman, Louise O’Neill and THE POWER.
"Brutal, uncompromising and edge-of-your-seat action all the way through" – Alex Bell, author of FROZEN CHARLOTTE
"The best kind of up-all-night dystopian YA, thought-provoking, different and above all, an extraordinarily exciting story, whose main character, Jude, will stay with me for a very long time" Lucy Coats
"It’s a gutsy, intelligent, tension-building tale. A bit Handmaid’s Tale, a bit Mad Max, and a creature all its own." Sinead O’Hart, author of THE EYE OF THE NORTH
"Mind blowingly good. Love it. It’s going to get readers thinking." Dr Vanessa Harbour
"A dark, thought-provoking dystopian that is gorgeously written too" Amy McCaw, author of MINA AND THE UNDEAD
"It’s so gripping and tense and thought-provoking" Ben Oliver, author of THE LOOP
Meet the author
K. L. Kettle
Kathryn lives and works near London, having moved from her native Birmingham. Her YA debut THE BOY I AM was a winning shortlist entry in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI…
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K.L. Kettle introduces The Boy I Am
January 13, 2021 at 7:58 pm
SallyB –
I enjoyed this flipped dystopian story’s constant pace; it’s as though the author doesn’t want you to take time for yourself because the protagonist Jude, isn’t afforded that luxury.
Jude’s lack of social intelligence due to his dystopian circumstance is clear. He has been groomed by the Chancellor’s head boy to be auctioned to the highest bidder and through his grooming, tries to control his destiny by using a learned numbered system of facial expressions, whilst down in the depths of High House, he battles to survive with the other boys.
Jude is a character that you cannot help but feel compassion for and I can really see, especially if Jude was a woman in our own world, how the story itself touches in and out of reality.
The story shows us that we should not accept certain antisocial behaviours that sometimes fly just under the radar just because it has been accepted by so many generations before us.
Jo Gibbons –
An interesting, inventive YA story set in a dystopian future. A future where male and female roles in society are reversed, the story twists and turns and is told from the perspective of Jude, a teenage boy.
An enjoyable read, though more of a slow burning storyline than an action packed thriller.