Luke's Book Reviews #2: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

I really like gay romance in fiction. I just find a relationship between two people of the same gender (mostly two boys) absolutely fascinating, and I really love that some people in real life have chosen to stay true to who they are and not live up to the straight status quo and pretend to be someone they're not. However, I don't feel as if these kinds of books have ever really been part of the mainstream reading world outside of young adult. Sure, you have titles like Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, More Happy Than Not, Lies My Girlfriend Told Me, and others from the past five years or so in young adult, but I almost never really see it in the adult romance or fiction sections at the bookstore (maybe that's because I mainly focus on young adult and hardly spend my time elsewhere, but no matter how many times I've looked, I've never found a new adult or adult gay romance published from major companies (they're published a lot more independently)).

I don't know if this is because gay romance is a harder thing to sell in a different market (like adult or children's), or if publishers think teenagers relate to sexuality the most and don't think other people experience it too. I think that's not true, because I'm pretty sure there are kindergartners right now who may have different kinds of feelings (feelings for same sex, want to be different gender), but don't feel as if they can read anything that supports that.

Young adult fiction had that phase too, and this was one of the books that changed it. Boy Meets Boy was first published in 2003 (another well-known YA book with LGBT characters, Geography Club, was also released in that year) and was very blunt about what it was. When you see the title of the book and relate that to the candy hearts, you immediately know "This is a gay romance". Some people would turn away at this point, but I was very much intrigued. Like I said before, I love reading about guys kissing (the fanfictions have affected my brain), but I also knew that this book was going to be a light and fluffy read filled with fun times (my brother also absolutely adored it).

So how was this book? Were the 185 pages (yes, that's how long it is) cute and fun, filled with a cute romance, real teen issues, and things I could relate to? Or was it a disappointment?