This book is brilliant and I would love to use it with the children at my school but it is definitely too mature for them, even with the blacked out boxed. I really loved it and the only thing that disappointed me was that it ended when it did. There is so much teenage confusion from everyone, so much denial and anger about having feelings for someone of the same gender as you from one character, but on the flip side, so much joy and acceptance from other characters towards who they are and who other people are. And at the end, when the main character finds peace and realises (I hope) that the relationship/friendship he was in before wasn't allowing him to be himself and wasn't good for him; I loved it! I just wanted to read more.

I love how Patrick Ness is always trying different genres and creating his own personal stamp on things. This short tale about young boys finding and experiencing sexuality is no different. The narrative had a very interesting structure, every inappropriate word was blanked out, leaving it open to the readers interpretation and so it’s readable for a younger audience. Personally I think this should’ve been a longer tale as the characters were undeveloped but a positive was that it was fast paced due to the shortness.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me access to this advanced copy.

I will always auto read anything by Patrick Ness, and I was so excited to be have this book approved on NetGallery. First of all, I want to say the illustrations by Tea Bendix are incredible. This was a wonderful short story about a young gay teenager, coming to terms with his sexuality, and exploring the concept of male virginity. The description for the book describes it as structurally daring, and it was exactly that. All use of profanity, and sexual content, within the prose has been redacted - at first this was a little jarring, but when I got into the swing of the book I LOVED it. The narrators awareness of those black boxes made the entire book feel as if it was his personal journal.
Overall, I loved this. It was another work of genius from Patrick Ness.

Friendship, sex, what it means to be a man —Anthony "Ant" Stevenson has a lot of questions. Are relationships different for boys who like boys?

Ant Stevenson isn’t sure when he lost his virginity, in fact he is not even sure if he has. When it comes to relationships between boys who like boys the rules aren't exactly clear. In fact, all of Ant's relationships are starting to feel complicated, especially those with his oldest friends. Ant is involved in a secret physical relationship with Charlie, but Charlie is also virulently homophobic. Charlie's homophobic rage is primarily aimed at drama kid Jack, who may be gay. Charlie also has a lot of rage towards Freddie, who is trying to persuade Ant to play rugby instead of football.
The writing and the illustrations work really well together, I absolutely loved this.

'Different for Boys' is another incredible YA book for Patrick Ness which combines a deeply important message with an original and moving story. This is a short book - just over 100 pages, many of which are taken up with Tea Bendix's simple but expressive line drawings - but it offers such a profound exploration of masculinity, teenage sexuality, friendship and prejudice.

I don't want to reveal too much because much of the power of this book comes from the surprises that are woven into the narrative. The narrator Ant tells us about his own sexual experiences and the tensions between his three friends, Charlie, Jack and Freddie, all of whom are attempting to navigate their own sexual identities. Ness explores the social taboos that prevent teenage boys from being open with each other and the destructive effects of insecurity and isolation, but also celebrates the beauty of trust and intimacy.

As one might expect from a Patrick Ness novel, this is a book whose message is enhanced by some clever stylistic and structural choices. Information is withheld and then revealed with explosive effect which may lead us to question our own assumptions and reactions. Ant frequently discusses with the reader what kind of book this is or isn't, leading us to reflect on the clichés and stereotypes surrounding the stories we tell about teenage sexual relationships. And perhaps most interestingly of all, lots of words in the text are blacked out - which is initially puzzling but soon makes sense and makes us think about what should really be taboo - for instance, swearing is blacked out but homophobic slurs aren't.

This is a highly assured piece of writing which is tender, devastating and necessary: a book to be shared with teenagers and adults alike. Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC to review.

Friendship, masculinity and sex, all the things teenage boys think about and Anthony Stephenson is no different. But he has questions… is it different for boys who like boys? When d you stop being a virgin? Is he still a virgin? Relationships are difficult and not just the romantic ones. Even the oldest friendships can be put to the test. But the relationship with his oldest friend, Charlie is one that is the most complicated. A massive homophobe but is also in a physical relationship with Ant. Relationships as a teen boy are all difficult.

This book gives a peek into the lives and loves of a group of teenage boys and all the problems that come with being young and unsure what’s going on with your emotions, friendships and newly discovered sexuality. It’s a tongue in cheek short graphic novel, where the usual words that teenagers use have been black bar redacted leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. It was an interesting and unique book that I’m certain people out there will identify with.

I'm always excited to read Patrick Ness. This was a short read (which I didnt realise) and this meant the character development felt lacking in a way I'm not used to in a Ness novel. I like how he always tries different things out but the black boxes didn't land right for me. I don't think they did anything for the story. Some nice moments, but a bit underwhelming.

I wanted and expected more from this.

Ness is an author whose books sometimes work for me and sometimes don't, but they are usually different and interesting. He tries new styles and concepts, doesn't cater to trends, and I like that. But I didn't really understand the point of this book and I think what Ness may have intended to be an empowering message about virginity only serves to reinforce this ridiculous (see also: subjective, misogynistic and fictitious) institution.

It's a quick read at slightly over 100 pages, some of which contain illustrations. Unfortunately, this probably contributed to why I found it lacking. None of the characters are developed, seeming to be characterized by stereotypes-- overtly camp Jack and toxically masculine and homophobic Charlie --when I felt like they each had more to offer the narrative. The illustrations seemed pointless and unnecessary.

The blurb says this book "explores teen sexuality" which is odd because I think it barely grazes the surface. Other books have more effectively explored being a closeted gay teen, in my opinion. Deposing Nathan is a great one. Even Ness's own Release does a better job.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to once again push a song I love about being a closeted gay teen-- Either by Fancy Hagood --it gives me chills and it's not nearly appreciated enough.

Patrick Ness was one of my favourite authors as a teenager, and while I haven’t followed his work as closely as I’ve grown up, this book was a reminder of quite how talented a writer he is.

I will admit I was cautious at the start of this one, but I was soon completely absorbed in the story. We follow four boys who attend an all-boys school, and over the course of a few weeks the friendships and relationships between them shift, are built up, and are torn down. It’s incredibly moving, and at the heart of it is a realisation that intimacy and romance come in many different forms.

The ‘gimmick’ of the book is that the less PG words and phrases are blacked out. It’s done very well – in a slightly meta twist the characters themselves are aware of it, so they use it for comedic purposes. The idea is to tell a story about teenagers’ real lives without any of the words/phrases that aren’t allowed to be used in teen media. While it felt a bit obnoxious at first, I soon came round to it. After all, we now have an internet culture where censorship is so out of hand that you can’t use the word ‘mascara’ without clarifying that you do, in fact, just mean mascara. With that in mind, it’s a genius move.

The illustrations by Tea Bendix really tie the whole story together, and heighten the emotional beats of the story.

This is an excellent novella: poignant, moving, and utterly heart-breaking.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a copy for an honest review.

PATRICK NESS – DIFFERENT FOR BOYS *****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This YA short work of fiction, a novella with lots of pencil sketches, is deceptively brilliant. I read it in one sitting. Written in the first person by a teenage boy it’s told using the simplest of words and shortest of paragraphs to the maximum effect. Chunks of his prose are redacted, swear words and sexual exploits, but characters comment about this as though they can see the words they are speaking written on the page. Which is clever.

The story is simple. Four lads sit in the classroom, their desks formed into a square. The POV protagonist is gay, having blanked another boy (who pretends he isn’t gay). The third is a rugby player and the fourth is an out gay boy who some people treat like blank. Which figures, as some children can be blanks towards those who are in any way different. With programmes like Sex Education, you’d have thought attitudes had changed. Obviously not.

And that’s it. A few ups and downs. Nothing much more. But brilliant. Written by a master craftsman. Any young person (or old, for that matter, especially parents) who is gay, or has gay friends, should read this. It’s an important story. And, if you’re a blank blank who doesn’t understand that, it’s even more important that you read it.

Reading Patrick Ness again is like being reunited with a favourite friend after being apart for too long. You just sit, grinning, eyes half-closed in sheer bliss as familiarity and ease surround you. I have been a fan for many years, I adore his work (not in weird way) and was thrilled to be able to read his new book in advance. Without wanting to sound like an obsessed fan girl, this book reads more like the author himself than his others and I read it with his voice in my head (again, not in a weird way). I found this book incredible.

Different for Boys is a short, illustrated book about Ant, a teenage boy, who is in a sexual relationship with his best friend, Charlie. What the two boys are experiencing with each other is hidden, both by being physically blacked out in the book along with any swear words, but also hidden from the others in their friendship group as Charlie is outwardly homophobic. For such a short book, it is astounding how much of a punch this has. The four friends are so well-constructed that I could visualise and hear them sitting in a corner of one of the high school rooms I used to sit slumped in. I was part of their group, albeit it a silent, invisible one, that I felt the full force of their confusion, comradery, jealousy, tenderness, acceptance, rage... As an almost polar opposite of the narrator of this story (I'm older, female, heterosexual for the most part), this is not an easy feat. A mention here must go Tea Bendix whose illustrations perfectly accompany the text.

As a teenage girl, I devoured Judy Blume books in an attempt to understand what I was going through, how to do certain things, and, essentially discover if I was normal or not. I have never underestimated how important these books were for me and I know that Different for Boys is going to be the same life-changing 'Yes, other people experience this too!' reassurance that young people desperately need, now more than ever. As an educator, parent and as a human being believing in peace and acceptance, I am grateful that this book exists. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to go back to the beginning and read it again.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this is advance in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Patrick Ness.

I've read various Patrick Ness books and really enjoyed them. This felt quite different, but it was good. I loved how the characters acknowledged the black boxes over some of the words. That surprised me and made me smile. It felt like a good representation of some teens working out who they were, and some not wanting to think about this too much.

There's genuinely nothing I wouldn't read if it was by Patrick Ness - he's an absolute master of words.

While this was certainly different to the things of his I've read before, it was simply gorgeously written - honest, open, raw and fundamentally brilliant.

The illustrations were really interesting too - they supported the text and gave space for the feelings without being a distraction.

Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

After what feels like more than just a three year wait, Patrick Ness is back. Different for Boys is more grounded than most of Ness's oeuvre to date, going hard for a grittier realism. This is a compact and efficiently constructed story, accompanied by Tea Bendix's gorgeous minimalistic illustrations. Different for Boys is about a group of four friends as they enter their final years at a boys' school. Ant, our protagonist, has secretly been sleeping with his friend Charlie for some time now, but Charlie refuses to see their relationship for what it is, claiming that they're just biding their time until they find girlfriends. Charlie's internalised homophobia expresses itself violently in a series of outbursts and slurs directed at their friend Jack, who is more stereotypically camp.

I don't know how he does it, especially since he didn't grow up in the UK himself, but Patrick Ness has an uncanny ability to replicate the speech patterns and behaviours of British teenage boys. A fun quirk of this book is that swear words, but not some slurs, are censored, picking up on a double standard we have in this country about appropriate speech. This also allows Ness to accurately replicate just how much teenage boys swear (read: a lot) without aging the book out of the intended audience. With a lot of 'cute' LGBTQ+ stories flooding the YA market right now (not to say that that in itself is an issue) it is nice to get a book that can speak to teenage boys on their level.

If I'm being honest (greedy), this has only made me ravenous for more Patrick Ness!

This is a YA novel that is fairly short with some comic book style illustrations. It is about teenage boys figuring out their sexuality. It is quite clever in the way it blanks out the 'explicit' details of the physical relationships but it is easy to fill in the blanks. It's well told and will be very important to young boys struggling with their identity.

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.

A short, simple story that is actually anything but. I really enjoyed this. I'm sure it will be very relatable to a lot of people. I'd love a longer version!

Unfortunately unable to read as no send to kindle option. Will get my hands on a physical copy at some point and feedback then

New Patrick Ness is always a good thing.
This one is short, but non the less crams s lot in.
It's amusing, a little bit cheeky laughing at its own censorship.
It's full of emotions, and I genuinely felt them coming through the page.
The illustrations add an extra depth to the whole thing.
Very well done.

This was a quick but amazing read. It accurately portrays teenagers in a very real way. Whilst still making it accessible for younger readers. The illustrations and sentiments is beautifully written.