What did you read over the October break?

I read a book entitled Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan. To be honest, there was part of this book I loved and another part I really couldn’t stand. I absolutely loved following the four stories of the different young homosexual men: a marathon kiss, a dating couple, the romance of meeting someone new, plus the loneliness and despair that can occur for any teenager. Reading about these individuals was quite captivating, and I enjoyed when the boys’ lives were being described–or I should say watched.

The part I had a hard time with was the collective, authoritative author “we” always speaking to a “you” that wasn’t actually me. While homosexuality was the premise of this novel, I thought that the experiences of the boys were very real no matter what one’s sexual orientation, and the “we” was always speaking down to the “you” relating everything back to the death of many gay men from the AIDS epidemic. This created a disconnect for me as the reader.

I really enjoyed the stories but had a very hard time with the narrator. Despite this, I would recommend it–just for the remarkable boys’ stories. They were very real, very tangible, and very much what teens experience today in 2013.