One of the Boys
By Jayne Cowie
🎧  Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Joshua Akehurst
Thriller | Dystopian 
Pub date: July 11, 2023
Book review 85 / 100 

I really enjoyed Jayne Cowie’s debut novel “Curfew,” which I reviewed a few years ago. She writes dystopian novels that could happen tomorrow, imagining a world where we try to solve a problem through policies and make the world more difficult for men. Curfew imagined a world where all men had a curfew, and One of the Boys imagines a world where scientists discover that most violent men share a gene – called the “M gene.”

I devoured this book in a single day. One of the Boys starts around the time the M gene has been discovered, and parents can test their sons at birth for the gene. Two sisters each have sons in the same year, and one decides to do the test and the other chooses not to, and both POVs are present in the book. By the time the boys are headed to school, schools have started to require boys to test negative for the M gene.

Now, I have a lot more opinions about One of the Boys than I did about Curfew because a lot of the policy is around schools. Cowie lives in London, and I live in the U.S., so I know public school policy is different between our countries, but in the U.S. we’re required to provide access to public education for all children. While that is not perfectly executed or funded, that is the law. By the time the boys were in high school, boys had to show a pass that they were M-negative to be allowed into public places. M positive boys were roaming the street, unable to go to school or have access to jobs. To me, it didn’t feel realistic how quickly things fall apart. 

Overall, I found the twists and turns really exciting, and I liked that we had enough POVs that I was able to think about what I would do in the given circumstances, and who I agreed with – instead of having a single POV that I was meant to agree or disagree with. It created a world that gave me something to think about mostly outside of the current political circumstances, and I think it would be a fun one to bring to a book club and discuss with friends. 

[book synopsis]

A mother knows best… Doesn’t she?

Antonia and Bea are sisters. They are both doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end.

Antonia had her son tested at an early age to ensure her little angel did not possess the ‘violent’ M gene.

Bea refuses to let her son take the test. His life should not be determined by a positive or negative result.

Both of these women will go to any length to protect their sons.

But one of them is hiding a monster.

And there are going to be fatal consequences for everybody…