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A review by lotsa_matcha
The Scottish Boy by Trungles, Alex de Campi
3.5
I enjoyed it overall, but I do have some quibbles with it. Of the things I likes, I liked the queer rep, the well-handled ace woman, and the casual inclusion of characters of color in a medieval setting. I enjoyed the history it played with, though it could have been better integrated in the beginning.
As for my issues, the final transition to friendship felt abrupt after the long buildup. He's broken, and then bam, they're finally friends. I needed that to take a bit more time to make that leap. Suddenly he's doing better and now they're friends right after rock bottom. That also killed some of my interest in the sex scenes, which was a shame especially with how frequent they were.
Harry's concern about morality drops off about halfway through the book. Even if the threats are taken away, the concern with morality doesn't go away that easily once someone says it's hurting them. The threat of exposure going away was more believable. But Harry's concern for morality was such a fundamental part of his character that I would have liked to see how that played out once he accepted himself and with his journey in war.
Now to me largest critique, which is that this needed to be two books, not one. Or ir needed to be a longer book. Up to Iain's supposed death was relatively built-out. Then we have a section that covers 1334 to 1340. I felt cheated out of a lot of character growth and changes from Harry. It made Alys' confrontation less meaningful too. I would have liked to see more of his conflict with war and his morality, the abandonment of his children, his depression. His character through that was fairly one-tone, with him being sad about Iain being "dead" and his depression. It could have been fleshed out better. The self-loathing from war and leaving his children, his inability to care about anything -- this was paid lip service too but was not given tome to shine. It either needed to be skipped and the "in France" part needed to be greatly expanded, or we needed that overview to build his character, have his emotions be more complicated. There was only depression for grief, but grief can include so many more emotions that do more. He lost all his commitments like the second Iain died, and then never really reconnected with them. He sulked. That's it. That's all there is to grief apparently. But also "the only thing that makes me feel anything" is battle and killing. Yeah, you lost all likeability. Maybe if the author cultivated complexity and had him do good things, or if we saw that journey, but it was really one-dimensional. And it made stop liking a main character. Yeah, author said he changed and then acted like he didn't. His family's forgiveness was too easy. And there was no struggle with how Iain fit into his life again. And he never redeems himself. His quality was basically stated as "not as bad as the others" but he was. And could Iain love who he is now? That last bit was underwhelming and really needed to be a second book and be more nuanced. The Scotland part either needed to go or be expanded either. First part of the book had flaws but was built out and paced, but the second part was super underdone.
The book had a lot of potential, but despite being 500 pages, it apparently needed more building to reach it. It should have been split into two books or needed to be a 1000 page monstrosity to do its story and characters justice.
Harry's concern about morality drops off about halfway through the book. Even if the threats are taken away, the concern with morality doesn't go away that easily once someone says it's hurting them. The threat of exposure going away was more believable. But Harry's concern for morality was such a fundamental part of his character that I would have liked to see how that played out once he accepted himself and with his journey in war.
Now to me largest critique, which is that this needed to be two books, not one. Or ir needed to be a longer book. Up to Iain's supposed death was relatively built-out. Then we have a section that covers 1334 to 1340. I felt cheated out of a lot of character growth and changes from Harry. It made Alys' confrontation less meaningful too. I would have liked to see more of his conflict with war and his morality, the abandonment of his children, his depression. His character through that was fairly one-tone, with him being sad about Iain being "dead" and his depression. It could have been fleshed out better. The self-loathing from war and leaving his children, his inability to care about anything -- this was paid lip service too but was not given tome to shine. It either needed to be skipped and the "in France" part needed to be greatly expanded, or we needed that overview to build his character, have his emotions be more complicated. There was only depression for grief, but grief can include so many more emotions that do more. He lost all his commitments like the second Iain died, and then never really reconnected with them. He sulked. That's it. That's all there is to grief apparently. But also "the only thing that makes me feel anything" is battle and killing. Yeah, you lost all likeability. Maybe if the author cultivated complexity and had him do good things, or if we saw that journey, but it was really one-dimensional. And it made stop liking a main character. Yeah, author said he changed and then acted like he didn't. His family's forgiveness was too easy. And there was no struggle with how Iain fit into his life again. And he never redeems himself. His quality was basically stated as "not as bad as the others" but he was. And could Iain love who he is now? That last bit was underwhelming and really needed to be a second book and be more nuanced. The Scotland part either needed to go or be expanded either. First part of the book had flaws but was built out and paced, but the second part was super underdone.
The book had a lot of potential, but despite being 500 pages, it apparently needed more building to reach it. It should have been split into two books or needed to be a 1000 page monstrosity to do its story and characters justice.