[Book Review] The Fallen Boys by Aaron Dries

The Fallen Boys by Aaron Dries is a wicked dark, twisted tale filled with very graphic situations that will make you cringe! But like all my favorite twisted tales, there was also a lot of heart, hope, and determination.

Content Warning: Suicide

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on The Fallen Boys by Aaron Dries

Ooooh this book. It’s another one that’s impossible to discuss as I think you’d best go in blind. In my notes below, I will discuss two elements that I loved, but I won’t speak about the plot. 

I had two favorite elements of this story; the gore and the descriptive writing. Each of which could go hand in and and play off one another wonderfully, or they could be used as a stark contrast between the lighter scenes versus the dark scenes. 

So first we have the body horror. My god, I was so uncomfortable reading quite a bit of the scenes here… and it’s really difficult to make me squeamish! It was all written perfectly. It was certainly very vivid in many scenes. I loved that the author took things right up to the line, and then sometimes took a large step over the line. Each time that happened, I couldn’t help but cringe! But even so, the author didn’t over do any of the scenes with too much detail that could bog the story down. 

Then we have the descriptive writing. As you can take away from my paragraph above, the description related to the violence was intense! But there were also plenty of really beautiful chapters about certain characters lives that was absolutely beautiful. I mean, just the way characters described or thought about their loved ones was so heartwarming. I found that even if I didn’t want to feel for specific characters, some of the beautiful character-building chapters had me waffling. But more importantly, it was the little things that were perfectly described that really got me. Like the description of light coming in through a window or the movement of a girls hair. 

My Favorite Passages from The Fallen Boys

Starke entered his house a detective, slipped off his shoes and became a husband and father. 

He went to the refrigerator and opened the door, looking for answers to mysteries he would never comprehend. He closed it and settled for water instead.

Napier was surprised by how easily it was to get Joe to come around. Almost too quick, really. But then again, the best monsters are born of desperation. 

…change is never easy and is often unwelcome. But that doesn’t stop it from coming your way. You can’t cheat change, just like you can’t cheat the hands were dealt. 

My Final Thoughts on The Fallen Boys

My toes will always hurt when thinking about this tale. Eek! Such a heartbreaking and absolutely brutal tale.

In this book, there was a quick mention of a certain bus driving character that got me curious. When I googled, I saw that she appears in another of Aaron’s tales. Guess I’ll have to pick that one up soon! 

I highly recommend this one if you enjoy body horror and don’t mind a little darkness. 

---

Snag a copy through Bookshop to help support local indie bookshops:

Thanks for reading!
I’m so glad I snagged this book after Corona Con! This was my first Aaron Dries read and I cannot wait to read more soon!