Rachel Rambles About Two Boys Kissing

I apologize for my unexpected absence from the blog recently! School and life and being a teenager has gotten in the way of blogging, but I should be around a bit more now! (I can't speak for Megan though because she's even busier than I am. :P)

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
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.

I don't even know what to say about this book. Seriously. I'm kind of speechless.

This doesn't usually happen. Usually, I find a way to ramble on and on and on about books I love. But I'm having a hard time coming up with words to convey just how much I love this book.


As soon as I finished reading Two Boys Kissing, I immediately wanted to flip to the first page and read it again. I want to return my library copy of this book and purchase my own copy so I can read it over and over again, because I can tell that this story is one that I will never get tired of. It's beautiful and powerful and I loved every page of it.

Something that surprised me about Two Boys Kissing is how it is so much more than a story about two boys kissing. I'd started reading the book expecting a fun story about two boys trying to break the world record for the longest kiss, and what I got was something else entirely. Two Boys Kissing is narrated by the generation of gay men who lost their lives to AIDs, but the main characters in the story are gay teenagers in 2013. This format highlights just how different the lives of the former generation are from the current generation, and it's a fascinating contrast. The story-telling is unique and poetic and beautiful, and the cast of characters is varied and developed. The reader gets to know all the different boys in this book really well, and it's kind of amazing how David Levithan manages to give each of them so much character development in such a short book.

Rather than try to come up with more words of praise for this book, I'm just going to end my ramble with this: Two Boys Kissing is amazing and you should read it as soon as possible.


Trust me. This book is something special. You don't want to miss it.