John Knowles’s A Separate Peace, taking place in the 1940s, goes through the life and struggles of Gene Forrester. Gene is a quiet boy that attends The Devon School, where he meets his future friend Finny. At first, they develop a strong friendship, but it begins to turn sour as envy gets in the way. The friendship takes a dark turn as the tree jumping ritual, developed by the friends, ends in Gene pushing Finny off the tree. The rest of the book is spent on Gene trying to find himself as Finny recovers. I would give this book two stars. It was overall a boring book with a very dark tone. The seemingly humorous moments were forced and didn’t work well with the overarching tone. The story was also lacking a lot. After the big event with Finny getting pushed off the tree, the rest of the book just drags on, with no point to it. The big question is whether Gene pushed Finny, but the question isn’t answered and makes for what I thought was a very poor ending.