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A review by some_okie_dude27
Black Heart Boys' Choir by Curtis M. Lawson
5.0
"I shall be immortal in my art, the best parts of me captured in stave and song. Neither death nor Hell can undo that magic."
Few books make me want to throw it across the room and exclaim 'hurrah!' in ecstasy. If you do not feel the overwhelming urge of joy after reading this book, than you are most likely dead. I don't just say this because I consider Curtis my friend, but because this book is simply that good.
Lucien Beaumont is an insufferable prick, but once you understand his home life, you would most likely understand why. His dad's dead, his mother's gone off the rails and has succumbed to despair turning to drugs to avoid the pain of her existence, and he's now going to a public school that he hates. Lucien isn't like most people, he's acquired his father's gift for music and his obsession to be the best is what drives him to do things that most people wouldn't dare to do.
While there were certainly bits where I wanted to punch his smug, stupid face, there were also bits where I actually sympathized with the son of a bitch. Curtis certainly knows how to make people root for a guy who is not the best person, he understands why people root for characters like Walter White or what makes such repugnant characters as Alex DeLarge or Patrick Bateman so appealing (though Lucien isn't as sadistic as Alex nor as emotionally detached as Patrick). I felt for this character, I got angry at him, but never for long. I almost rooted for him to win even though I cringed in disgust at what his goals entailed. I felt his rage and his hatred, but also the bits of sympathy and humanity within that slowly dwindles as the novel goes on. There were even moments where I wished I could sit down with him and tell him that he's not alone in how he feels and he doesn't have to go down this path.
But make no mistake people, Lucien is not a sort of folk hero or martyr for a noble cause, he's an angry kid who wants to make people hurt in the way that he has hurt, much like in the case of school shooter phenomenon that Curtis initially wanted to tackle with this work, but much like My Friend Dahmer, I simply couldn't shut off my sympathy for this kid, as much as I could hate him at times. But if you come out of this thinking that Lucien is a Che Guevara of our generation, then you have most likely missed the point of the book.
Curtis writes with a smooth flow, never getting bogged in repetitive detail or going on tangents that no one cares to read about. Curtis has that 'just right' quality about his prose that I like to encounter in the books that I enjoy to read. I usually don't knock out books in several days unless I am truly invested in the story that is being told, and Curtis certainly knows how to keep one turning the page. The rest of his characters felt as alive as Lucien did, I probably felt the most connection to Max, as I was most like him when I was in high school, which to think of it was not all that long ago. He was the one that I felt the most for and one that I think I might've been friends with if I existed in the universe of the novel, and I did genuinely feel sorry for him and the situation that he got himself into, as well as feeling bad for him having such an egotistical, manipulative, and cantankerous friend as Lucien.
No book is perfect, and as much good as there is to Black Heart Boys' Choir, there are some issues that I've found after having thought of it. The ambiguity that the novel entails, while done mostly well, can become disorienting (though, I do understand that it was most likely the point). Also the portrayal of the female character Violet is....interesting. It's not bad or tasteless for the matter as some of the other novels that Curtis took inspiration from, at first she seems like Lucien's Jean, the girl who's most likely in love with him, though unlike Jean she is not innocent or 'pure' but rather vain and egotistical. She seems to be his Jean in the way that she is an object of his obsession rather than someone that he 'loves.' To be fair, she does have her moments of depth, but I never found that it was as impactful or hit as hard as it did for Lucien or his friends. Also some of the slang is dated. I know, weird, insignificant criticism, but nonetheless.
If there's one lesson to be learned from Black Heart Boys' Choir, it is that hatred solves nothing. As euphoric as the final pages of the novel are, there is also that lingering, bitter taste that comes from all of the violence and despair that had to come about from Lucien's obsession and how this could have easily been avoided if someone had chosen to care about Lucien, or any other of the Luciens around the world. Curtis never seeks to glorify, but rather to understand. His portrait of troubled youth seeks to be an empathic warning about the dangers of rage and hatred, and how pointless that it all is at the end of the day. Truly a haunting, yet still euphoric experience.
Few books make me want to throw it across the room and exclaim 'hurrah!' in ecstasy. If you do not feel the overwhelming urge of joy after reading this book, than you are most likely dead. I don't just say this because I consider Curtis my friend, but because this book is simply that good.
Lucien Beaumont is an insufferable prick, but once you understand his home life, you would most likely understand why. His dad's dead, his mother's gone off the rails and has succumbed to despair turning to drugs to avoid the pain of her existence, and he's now going to a public school that he hates. Lucien isn't like most people, he's acquired his father's gift for music and his obsession to be the best is what drives him to do things that most people wouldn't dare to do.
While there were certainly bits where I wanted to punch his smug, stupid face, there were also bits where I actually sympathized with the son of a bitch. Curtis certainly knows how to make people root for a guy who is not the best person, he understands why people root for characters like Walter White or what makes such repugnant characters as Alex DeLarge or Patrick Bateman so appealing (though Lucien isn't as sadistic as Alex nor as emotionally detached as Patrick). I felt for this character, I got angry at him, but never for long. I almost rooted for him to win even though I cringed in disgust at what his goals entailed. I felt his rage and his hatred, but also the bits of sympathy and humanity within that slowly dwindles as the novel goes on. There were even moments where I wished I could sit down with him and tell him that he's not alone in how he feels and he doesn't have to go down this path.
But make no mistake people, Lucien is not a sort of folk hero or martyr for a noble cause, he's an angry kid who wants to make people hurt in the way that he has hurt, much like in the case of school shooter phenomenon that Curtis initially wanted to tackle with this work, but much like My Friend Dahmer, I simply couldn't shut off my sympathy for this kid, as much as I could hate him at times. But if you come out of this thinking that Lucien is a Che Guevara of our generation, then you have most likely missed the point of the book.
Curtis writes with a smooth flow, never getting bogged in repetitive detail or going on tangents that no one cares to read about. Curtis has that 'just right' quality about his prose that I like to encounter in the books that I enjoy to read. I usually don't knock out books in several days unless I am truly invested in the story that is being told, and Curtis certainly knows how to keep one turning the page. The rest of his characters felt as alive as Lucien did, I probably felt the most connection to Max, as I was most like him when I was in high school, which to think of it was not all that long ago. He was the one that I felt the most for and one that I think I might've been friends with if I existed in the universe of the novel, and I did genuinely feel sorry for him and the situation that he got himself into, as well as feeling bad for him having such an egotistical, manipulative, and cantankerous friend as Lucien.
No book is perfect, and as much good as there is to Black Heart Boys' Choir, there are some issues that I've found after having thought of it. The ambiguity that the novel entails, while done mostly well, can become disorienting (though, I do understand that it was most likely the point). Also the portrayal of the female character Violet is....interesting. It's not bad or tasteless for the matter as some of the other novels that Curtis took inspiration from, at first she seems like Lucien's Jean, the girl who's most likely in love with him, though unlike Jean she is not innocent or 'pure' but rather vain and egotistical. She seems to be his Jean in the way that she is an object of his obsession rather than someone that he 'loves.' To be fair, she does have her moments of depth, but I never found that it was as impactful or hit as hard as it did for Lucien or his friends. Also some of the slang is dated. I know, weird, insignificant criticism, but nonetheless.
If there's one lesson to be learned from Black Heart Boys' Choir, it is that hatred solves nothing. As euphoric as the final pages of the novel are, there is also that lingering, bitter taste that comes from all of the violence and despair that had to come about from Lucien's obsession and how this could have easily been avoided if someone had chosen to care about Lucien, or any other of the Luciens around the world. Curtis never seeks to glorify, but rather to understand. His portrait of troubled youth seeks to be an empathic warning about the dangers of rage and hatred, and how pointless that it all is at the end of the day. Truly a haunting, yet still euphoric experience.