Authentic, inclusive and refreshingly candid, Patrick Ness’ Different for Boys packs mighty punch as it relates the pitch-perfect story of teenage boys grappling with questions around sex, sexuality, friendship and masculinity, with Tea Bendix’s cool, evocative illustrations enhancing its already-considerable clout.
Ant is friends with three very different boys – camp and confident Jack, Charlie, who’s a tinderbox of alpha-male confusion, and Freddie, who’s returned to their school after moving away. The boys were inseparable through primary school, but people change, and not everyone handles change well, especially Charlie, who’s outright homophobic.
At the same time, Ant is awash with big questions: “Are there degrees of virginity?” Is he still a virgin? Is virginity different for boys. Is it different again for boys who like boys? In this context, Ant and Charlie’s especially intense, confusing relationship sees them come to blows before Ant comes to some clarity.
Suffused in empathy, and funny with it, Different for Boys is a brilliantly incisive account of how it feels to be a boy who likes boys, battling homophobia while grappling with big questions around sex and relationships. It’s also a fine story of courage and support.
A poignant and moving LGBTQ+ story that explores sexuality and masculinity with a touch of humour, by twice Carnegie Medal-winner and bestselling author Patrick Ness.
Ant Stevenson has many questions, like when did he stop being a virgin? Are there degrees of virginity? And is it different for boys? Especially for boys who like boys?
Ant tries to figure out the answers to his questions as he balances his relationships with three very different boys: Charlie, who is both virulently homophobic and yet close friends with Ant; Jack, whose camp behaviour makes him the target of Charlie's rage; and finally Freddie, who just wants Ant to try out for the rugby team.
From the bestselling author of the Chaos Walking trilogy comes a timely and important story about inclusivity, prejudice and friendship.
So many boys will be feeling like Ant and will find solace, comfort and support reading this which is really important. - Little Blog of Library Treasures
An exploration of sexuality and masculinity focusing on a gay teenager. - The Guardian
Different For Boys by Patrick Ness explores teen sexuality, friendship, and romance in this frank and humorous LGBTQ+ story about Ant who is finding all his relationships increasing complicated. -- Emma Saunders -Books of 2023, BBC Entertainment & Arts
Tender and pitch-perfect, from one of the best YA authors around. - The Bookseller, One to Watch, March 2023 Previews
Praise for A Monster Calls:
‘This is children’s writing at its best: it appeals to the child in all of us, yet it asks profound questions and takes us to emotional depths.’ – The Independent
‘[A] significant and stirring book… Both realistic and magical, it is a fable about the complexity of our emotions, giving us permission to feel anger, and illuminating the nature of loss.’ – The Sunday Times
Praise for the Chaos Walking trilogy:
‘I would press urgently on anyone… It is extraordinary.’ – The Guardian
‘Furiously paced, terrifying, exhilarating and heartbreaking, it’s a book that haunts your imagination.’ – Sunday Telegraph
“Patrick Ness is an insanely beautiful writer” – John Green
Praise for And The Ocean Was Our Sky:
‘Ness’s imagination is often awe-inspiring; he goes to places no whale has gone before and is never short of a deep thought. This is not just a story about hunting whales, it’s a comment on the futility of war, and the myths that we create and use as excuses for our actions.’ – The Times
Praise for Burn:
‘Wonderful and mind-blowing and exhilarating and heart-stopping. What a storyteller!’ – Russell T Davies
‘Ness brilliantly juggles these multi-layered themes and twisting plot lines... He is a remarkable talent.’ – Daily Mail
‘It’s a clever, complex and completely engrossing story [...] Ness has great control over his plot and writes beautifully.’ – The Times
Author
About Patrick Ness
Patrick Ness was born on an army base called Fort Belvoir, near Alexandria, Virginia, in the United States. His father was a drill sergeant in the US Army. He lived in Hawaii until he was almost six, spent the ten years after that in suburban Washington state, and then on to Los Angeles, where he studied English Literature at the University of Southern California.
His main job after graduating was as corporate writer at a cable company, writing manuals, form letters and speeches and once even an advertisement for the Gilroy, California Garlic Festival (this is true). If you're American and hated your cable company, he probably wrote you a letter of apology.
He got his first story published in Genre magazine in 1997 and was working on his first novel when he moved to London in 1999. He's lived here ever since. Sometimes he teaches creative writing but mostly he tries to write 1,000 words a day, 'come hell or high water'.
In May 2008, he published The Knife of Never Letting Go, his first book for young adults. It won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Booktrust Teenage Prize and he hasn't looked back since.
Here is an interview with Patrick Ness where he talks about his new book The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
10 Things You Didn't Know About Patrick Ness
1. He has a tattoo of a rhinoceros. 2. He has run two marathons. 3. He is a certified scuba diver. 4. He wrote a radio comedy about vampires. 5. He has never been to New York City but... 6. He has been to Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo. 7. He got accepted into film school but turned it down to study writing. 8. He was a goth as a teenager (well, as much of a goth as you could be in Tacoma, Washington and still have to go to church every Sunday). 9. He is no longer a goth. 10. Under no circumstances will he eat onions.
On the story, Patrick said –Different for Boys is a special story to me, and I am amazed and genuinely delighted to see it in this special book illustrated by the great Danish illustrator Tea Bendix. It’s about that time in your life when you realize the ‘rules’ may not actually apply to you and how liberating that is. Plus, it’s a fun chance to satirize how YA novels are never allowed to show how real teenagers actually talk. Honestly, when I was fi fteen, I swore like a longshoreman. I still grew up to be a nice young man who was polite to grandmothers.
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