Wretched Young Things, Saga Hillbom

Description

Wretched Young Things
Paperback – January 10, 2026
by Saga Hillbom

Set in Oxford in 1947, Wretched Young Things is a lush, morally charged historical novel about ambition, class, and a forbidden love that becomes entangled in violence and betrayal.

When first-year students Jules and Geoffrey meet during a wine-soaked evening, they are instantly drawn to one another. Jules is reckless, sharp-tongued, and openly contemptuous of the elitist world around him. Geoffrey is charming, cultured, and deeply constrained by family expectations. What unites them is a shared devotion to literature, a hunger for something beyond tradition, and a growing attraction that quickly turns dangerous.

Geoffrey is soon pulled into the sinister Clarendon Club, a secretive circle of powerful young men tasked with preserving their families’ influence at any cost. When Geoffrey learns that refusing their demands could ruin his parents financially, he is forced into moral compromise. Meanwhile, one of the Clarendonians harbors a bitter hatred for Jules, putting the lovers directly in the club’s crosshairs.

As Jules and Geoffrey’s relationship deepens, it becomes a secret that could destroy them. When a far darker crime ties them together, their love is tested not just by society, but by blood and guilt.

Moody, sensual, and steeped in postwar tension, Wretched Young Things is a haunting paperback novel about queer desire, privilege, and the terrible price of survival in a world built on silence.