Review: Two Boys Kissing
Posted by Kate on Friday, September 27, 2013. Filed under: contemporary fiction, fiction, published in 2013, review, reviewed in 2013, young adult
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Our source: Our local library
Our source: Our local library
What it’s about (from Goodreads):
New York Times bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.
While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other
Our thoughts:
Levithan is a brilliant writer. It's a little hard to write about how awesome this book was without sounding a bit like a fangirl. Forgive me. I loved everything about this book.
The narration is beautiful - it's told through the eyes of gay men of the previous generation, a collective "we", talking to today's young gay men. You can feel their compassion and frustration as experienced onlookers and it makes the story feel intensely personal.
The story is largely inspired by (but not based on), two events: Matty Daley and Bobby Cancielo, students from my alma mater, who broke the Guinness World Record for longest kiss in 2010 and the suicide of another local college student, Tyler Clementi, who jumped to his death after being filmed by his roommate kissing another man. Both happened within two weeks of each other and both were big local stories, so seeing them melded together in novel form was really interesting.
It's a story of a generation's struggles and a reflection of our world today - and it's done beautifully.
We would recommend this to:
Everyone! But particularly fans of young adult, coming of age stories, personal struggles and inspirational stories.
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