Redeeming 6

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, child abuse, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, sexual content, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Redeeming 6 is the fourth book in Chloe Walsh’s Boys of Tommen series, new adult novels that explore the lives of a group of teenagers in the fictional town of Ballylaggin, Ireland. As Walsh is a “passionate advocate for mental health awareness,” many of her novels, including those in the Boys of Tommen series, focus on the impact of trauma on young people and the importance of relationships in healing (“About.” Chloe Walsh).

The first two novels in the series, Binding 13 (2018) and Keeping 13 (2018), focus on Shannon Lynch, the sister of Joey, Keeping 6’s protagonist. Shannon and Joey have an abusive father and a neglectful mother. While Shannon takes most of the brunt of her father’s abuse, she also deals with severe bullying at the different schools she attends before transferring to Tommen College at the beginning of Binding 13.

On her first day of school, Shannon meets Johnny Kavanagh, number 13 on the school’s rugby team, and the two form a complicated relationship. As Shannon and Johnny try to stay away from one another, coincidence continues to pull them together, and their attraction grows. Meanwhile, Johnny suffers a possibly career-ending injury while playing rugby, hurting his hopes of making the national team.

After learning of Shannon’s association with Johnny, her father increases their abuse, believing that they have a sexual relationship. Shannon and Johnny eventually confess the secrets they have been hiding about their lives and their feelings for one another, yet Shannon’s dysfunctional family continues to prove a problem for their relationship. At the end of Binding 13, Shannon’s father beats her so mercilessly that her brother Joey steps in and helps his younger siblings escape from their parents. Their father later returns to the family again, and Johnny has to help the younger siblings escape. Shannon’s father burns down the family house with him and his wife inside, while Johnny’s family adopts the younger Lynch siblings.

Meanwhile, Joey struggles with the weight of taking care of his younger siblings and avoiding his abusive father. He turns to substance abuse, which only increases as the first two novels in the series continue. The third book in the series, Saving 6, turns its focus to Joey and his tumultuous relationship with Aoife Molloy. While Joey tries to keep his distance from Aoife, to hide his feelings for her and conceal his family situation, Aoife always makes efforts to be his friend, even helping him to get a job working with her father as a mechanic.

After years of knowing one another, Joey and Aoife finally confess their feelings for one another, but Joey’s addiction continues to be a problem. Aoife tries to help Joey, even confronting his drug dealer several times, but after she finds him nearly overdosing on heroin after standing her up for a date, Joey breaks up with Aoife, claiming he is not worthy of being with her. The novel ends with Joey reaffirming this belief to Aoife, saying that he may be good enough for her one day and, until then, he still wants to be her friend.