The Real Boy

Content Ratings

No Romance

There is no romantic content; Oscar's primary emotional world is shaped by his relationships with the island's plants, his catalog system, and eventually a young girl who becomes his friend.

Moderate Themes

The novel is a tender and thoughtful exploration of neurodivergence as a different—not deficient—way of engaging with the world; the social isolation Oscar experiences is handled with great compassion.

Mild Violence

The magical illness threatening children and the mysterious deaths of magicians create sustained danger; violence is present in a fairy tale register.

Synopsis

Oscar works as a hand in a magician's shop on a magical island and is happiest among the herbs and catalogs; when children on the island begin falling mysteriously ill and the magicians begin dying, Oscar must confront both the external threat and his own neurodivergent way of experiencing the world. A gentle, beautifully observed novel with an implicitly autistic protagonist at its center.