Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Two Boys Kissing

by David Levithan

From the New York Times best-selling author of Every Day, another thoughtful and original perspective on relationships.

2014 Lambda literary award winner and 2014 Stonewall Honor Book, Two Boys Kissing explores how people fall in and out of love, and what is means to discover yourself.

The two boys kissing are Craig and Harry. They're hoping to set the world record for the longest kiss. They're not a couple, but they used to be.

Peter and Neil are a couple. Their kisses are different. Avery and Ryan have only just met and are trying to figure out what happens next. Cooper is alone. He's not sure how he feels.

As the marathon progresses, these boys, their friends and families evaluate the changing nature of feelings, behaviour and this crazy thing called love under the watchful eyes of a Greek chorus of a generation of men lost to AIDS. David Levithan connects recent history with the present moment in a novel that is both a celebration of equality and a memorial to a lost generation.

David is the New York Times best-selling author of Boy Meets Boy and Marly's Ghost. While among his many collaborations are Will Grayson, Will Grayson with Fault in Our Stars author John Green, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist with Rachel Cohn, which became a major film. Tiny Cooper from Will Grayson, Will Grayson, now has his own novel: Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story. David is also a highly respected children's book editor, whose list includes many luminaries of children's literature, including Garth Nix, Libba Bray and Suzanne Collins. He lives and works in New York.

Praise for Every Day:

'Every Day is a wonder.' Patrick Ness, author of Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls

Reviewed by nannah on

3 of 5 stars

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I'm torn . . .

On one hand, I LOVE that this is a beautiful, poetic tribute to gay boys, but on the other hand . . . I'm not sure if I actually enjoyed the book?

Content warnings:
suicide
homophobia
homophobic slurs

Two Boys Kissing is a plotless, read-for-the-experience type book from the collective PoV of gay AIDs victims. They visit Cooper, a depressed boy who runs away after his parents find out he's gay, two boys who meet at a gay prom (one of whom is a trans boy), two boys who are trying to break the world record for kissing, and two more boys already boyfriends. They sort of also visit Tariq, a black gay boy, whose entire purpose in the book is to support the two boys kissing--even so much so that he has the solid word line: solidarity (which seems slightly backward), and his pov doesn't get a separate chapter as often (or barely) as the others or as much focus or care.

I could also tell the book was written by a white author when I read this: "People like to say being gay isn't like skin color, isn't anything physical. They tell us we always have the option of hiding. But if that's true, why do they always find us?"

Why do people always feel the need to compare sexuality to skin color when they're two different experiences and are not really comparable? People keep trying to find ways to make being gay on the "same level" of oppression as being black, asian, latinx, etc.. . . and it's such a tiny paragraph here, but it still makes me roll my eyes.

Characters often break into lectures, too, that seem awkward and preachy. I expect it from the narrators, but it's strange coming from the characters' mouths in casual conversation. It feels like David Levithan just has so many points he wants to cover that he loses track of them and whether or not they're placed in the right spots. They're just kind of thrown in to make sure they actually made it in the book somehow.

I guess I'm not sure if I'm the right audience for this. Maybe it's for gay boys or for people who should be educated/more exposed to the LGBT+ community (which is like, pretty much everyone). However, as a queer woman (sorry for the q slur), this book was kind of isolating, too, only mentioning girls as a side note or as friends to the characters, and only once mentioning LGBT+ women. Only once. This book was mostly written from a white experience, too, which can be isolating as well.

Anyway, it was a nice read, but I probably won't read it again.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 2 August, 2015: Finished reading
  • 2 August, 2015: Reviewed