“It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.”
A Separate Peace is everything you look for in a boarding school book set during WW2. Following the stories of two young boys, the narrator and his charismatic and effortlessly awesome best friend, Phineas. The boys are close as brothers, and unbothered by the war being waged outside, for the most part. Until one fateful night when everything goes sideways, permanently altering the trajectory of the boys lives forever.
I really loved this book, and though I might’ve said it about the last few books I read as well, it doesn’t make it any less true. The story felt so real, above all else, but wasn’t entirely surrounding the war. It was interesting to see how the war affected people that were less involved in it, though it does end up changing their lives as well. I also loved the narrator’s thought process. I might not agree with him on most things, but the author did a spectacular job making him feel very 3D, like a real person. This book had all the emotions as well, joy, sadness, terror, and the narrator portrays them all with such clarity it’s almost possible to believe you are physically standing in his shoes. Five out of five stars, an excellent read.