Format: Paperback
Published: Marcy 7th, 2023
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical
Rating: 5/5 Stars
This book is so beautifully tragic, and it’s hard not to fall in love with Gaunt and Ellwood’s love story. 1914, and half German Gaunt struggles to understand the point behind the war, while others at his boarding school look excitedly forward to the day when they can enlist. It doesn’t help that Gaunt is completely in love with his best friend. When his mother begs him to sign up to prove their loyalty to England, Gaunt does so, keen to escape Ellwood (specifically his feelings towards Ellwood) and the school where he can’t shake him off.
The war is more horrific than he could have imagined, and Gaunt makes choices he never would have thought himself capable of. When he’s joined at the front by Ellwood, the two start a hesitant, uncertain romance, neither quite sure how the other really feels.
Winn captures the sheer brutality of WWI really effectively, inserting lists of the dead between chapters, followed later by ‘In Memoriam’ sections, detailing how men died for their country and how brave and wonderful it was. Some of these contain a strange, warped black comedy element in their deaths that serves to underscore the sheer pointlessness of it all.
Gaunt’s attitude towards the war is at odds with the rest of his classmates, but he has cousins in Berlin, family in Germany who he cares for deeply, and where the others see adventure and glory he knows, even before he signs up, that what awaits most who go to war is death. It’s an especially interesting contrast with Ellwood, who, like the rest of the boys, is worried the war will be over before he gets his chance. Some of the boys lie about their age and enlist, and any classmates Gaunt doesn’t see directly in the trenches, he hears about, either through writing directly to each other, or others reporting on their fates. Although the book focuses on these two, we still get to know the other characters and what they go through, and it really drives home how young the soldiers fighting were. After all, we start the book at their school, and when they’re in the trenches, old schoolboy dynamics underscore their relationships, even in France.
As I said above, it’s beautifully tragic, and it’s a reminder not just of the tragedy of war, but the ability to live and love through the darkest times, and how much more difficult this was for many. It’s acceptable (to a point) for the boys to ‘fool around’ at school, as long as they are not caught, and as long as they marry a respectable girl after. We also see characters who accept the way Gaunt and Ellwood love each other, who may not understand it (this is still WWI-era, after all), but who let Gaunt and/or Ellwood know they’re still cared for and accepted.
There is a lot within this book, and at times it can be very gory with the scenes in the trenches or during battles, and even outside of this, the characters are dealing with a lot mentally; it’s distressing, but it really brings home what these boys (and the majority of characters in the book are boys or barely-men) went through. Through Gaunt and Ellwood, Winn gives us an exploration of mental and physical disability during World War I, along with trauma, sexuality, and issues of class and race. It’s a wonderfully written book, and Winn’s writing is excellent. A strong recommendation from me – even a must-read, if you can.
Reading Challenge
Romance Readers Diversity Challenge 2025 ❤️
Prompt: A book featuring mental health representation
Progress: 7/12
Unwrapping Words 