The Boys of Tommen series is defined by the traumas that the different characters have faced, as they grow into adulthood and learn to confront and heal rather than allowing their pasts to define them. In Taming 7, Walsh explores the histories of Gibsie and Lizzie, two characters whose pasts are intertwined by the deaths of their family members and past traumatic experiences. Through their conflicts, the novel explores the lasting impact of trauma.  

Gibsie was sexually abused by his stepbrother, Mark, when he was a child. He confessed this to his babysitter, Caoimhe, who is also Lizzie’s sister. When Caoimhe doesn’t believe him, only to discover the truth later on, she dies by suicide, leaving Gibsie a letter apologizing for not believing him. This information is kept hidden from Lizzie, who blames both Mark and Gibsie for Caoimhe’s death, as she believes Caoimhe died after Mark raped her. Gibsie and Lizzie are thus linked by these traumatic events, but it causes a rift between them.

Both characters try to cope with their trauma in different ways. Gibsie uses humor to cope, presenting a happy, carefree version of himself to hide the suffering he endures after what he went through. He struggles throughout the novel not only with Mark’s sexual abuse, but also with the death of his father and his sister, who died when he was seven. Gibsie has recurring nightmares of both of these events. He often sleepwalks to Claire’s house and wakes up in her bed the next morning. He is also abused by the school’s secretary, Dee, who uses her age and power to begin sexually abusing him when he is 15. Instead of seeing it as abuse, however, Gibsie is adamant that Dee “helped” him by giving him physical affection where he “didn’t feel anything” (115), since he struggled with physical relationships with other girls due to Mark’s abuse. Ultimately, after the truth of Gibsie’s abuse is exposed, he still feels as though no one will “be able to love [him] now” (417) because of what he has been through. Through Gibsie’s nightmares, his refusal to prosecute Dee, his humor as a coping mechanism, and his struggle with the truth of what happened, Walsh explores just how deeply rooted and impactful trauma can be, even years after it occurs.

Similarly, Lizzie’s portrayal as one of the novel’s antagonists further explores the lasting effects of trauma. After her sister’s death, she broke up with her boyfriend, Hugh, and has been unable to find a stable relationship since. She frequently lashes out at Gibsie and, by extension, Claire, despite the fact that they were once two of her best friends. Since Caoimhe’s suicide note discussed Mark’s sexual abuse but he was never convicted, Lizzie never got the closure that she needed. As a result, she continually blames Gibsie, believing that he is somehow complicit in Caoimhe’s death just by being Mark’s stepbrother. Even after the truth is revealed to Lizzie, Lizzie stands by her bitterness and anger, still blaming Gibsie at the novel’s end, exemplifying the continued impact that her trauma will have on her.

Gibsie and Lizzie handle their trauma in very different ways, with Gibsie using humor as a coping mechanism and hiding his past, and Lizzie speaking openly and angrily about everything that happened to her. Through them, Walsh explores the different impacts that trauma can have, while emphasizing its complexities and the fact that healing is always an ongoing journey.