Nature versus nurture. Genes versus upbringing. What forces form a child into the adult he or she becomes? In WHAT BOYS LEARN, Andromeda Romano-Lax forces us to consider that issue as we meet Abby Rosso, a high school counselor whose childhood was really rough. Her only sibling is a brother who is a psychopath, ended up in prison, and regrets nothing. But Abby has done things that she's ashamed of.

Now Abby has a son who is 16, and she's really concerned about him. She's worried that he carries the "bad boy" genes that made her brother a criminal. She's also not thrilled with her own genetic contribution to his makeup. And Benjamin is not an easy child. He's gotten into trouble, he seems not to have any empathy, and their relationship has become distant.

"WHAT BOYS LEARN is a very powerful novel about family, mental health, a mother's love, masculinity and toxic masculinity, and forgiveness."

When two students die, Abby starts worrying more. She teaches at a private high school on the North Shore of Chicago, and one of the benefits is reduced tuition for Benjamin. But he doesn't really fit in with the privileged, wealthy kids who grew up in the mansions along Lake Michigan and on Sheridan Road. The police take him in for questioning after there's a connection between him and the girls who died. Abby doesn't know what she thinks Benjamin might have done.

Abby's ex-boyfriend, Robert, was a cop, and when she starts to ponder the multitude of missing and murdered women, he helps her find more information. She likes Robert but isn’t sure that he's a good influence on Benjamin. The other man in her life is her former college professor in psychology, whom she recently ran into while Benjamin was swimming at the pool. He tells Abby that he's really busy, he’s divorced, and he has to finish his second book, but he agrees to take her son on for counseling. Soon, his interest in the teen begins to make Abby suspicious.

Romano-Lax's writing is superb, and while the book weighs in at well over 400 pages, it's definitely not a slog. Quite the opposite. Because of the pacing, it ends up being a quick read. We want to find out what happens next, partly because we aren't sure what to believe about Benjamin. Is he a psychopath? Just a messed-up kid? A killer? It's also crystal clear that no matter what Benjamin might have done, Abby loves him unconditionally. In fact, we wonder how far she will go to protect him.

One of the issues that Abby faces is something horrible she did when she was a child that had terrible consequences. Will she be able to forgive herself? Her brother is the stuff of nightmares, and she spent many teenage years in foster care. The information and the psychological implications of what we read are chilling and might make readers even more suspicious of those we meet.

In the Epilogue, Abby shares her view of how to help teenagers and children who are in toxic situations. The ultimate irony is that her belief about people "finding the thing that sets you free" mirrors the mantra of the villain. Romano-Lax told me that the parallel was not intentional, but my armchair psychology degree (which means that I have NO psychology degree) suggests that she believes in people finding "their thing." Her fascinating background supports my conjecture.

WHAT BOYS LEARN is a very powerful novel about family, mental health, a mother's love, masculinity and toxic masculinity, and forgiveness. I plan to make it a book club read and think it will be extremely well received due to its controversial issues and complex themes.