Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Boy Meets Boy
by David Levithan
Levithan is one of the big bright lights in teen lit these days, and I loved his parts of Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, so I wanted to try seomthing of his own. plus, the cover is cute, and I haven't read a lot of teen gay lit - seriously, it's like chicklit for boys who like boys.
The story was cute, the writing wonderful, the emotions exactly the kind of gut-wrenching up-and-down-ness of new maybe-love. My only real issue was the fact that the whole town and school and setting was obviously SO fictional. A town where the star quarterback is also the homecoming queen? Where there are no issues with being gay in any corner, it seems? Where the main character has never had a tough time because of it? He has one friend from a neighbouring town who has religious parents who have trouble with his sexuality, but otherwise, everything is tickety-boo. Hmm. It's like the most idealized, hazy-focused vision of what life could be like if no one had problems with any form of sexuality or its expression. Which is lovely and all, but still sadly far from realistic, and I think most gay teens would know that pretty well already. Still, I suppose, if you are going to lose yourself in sweet fiction, why not escape all the way?
Levithan is one of the big bright lights in teen lit these days, and I loved his parts of Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, so I wanted to try seomthing of his own. plus, the cover is cute, and I haven't read a lot of teen gay lit - seriously, it's like chicklit for boys who like boys.
The story was cute, the writing wonderful, the emotions exactly the kind of gut-wrenching up-and-down-ness of new maybe-love. My only real issue was the fact that the whole town and school and setting was obviously SO fictional. A town where the star quarterback is also the homecoming queen? Where there are no issues with being gay in any corner, it seems? Where the main character has never had a tough time because of it? He has one friend from a neighbouring town who has religious parents who have trouble with his sexuality, but otherwise, everything is tickety-boo. Hmm. It's like the most idealized, hazy-focused vision of what life could be like if no one had problems with any form of sexuality or its expression. Which is lovely and all, but still sadly far from realistic, and I think most gay teens would know that pretty well already. Still, I suppose, if you are going to lose yourself in sweet fiction, why not escape all the way?
Labels: 2003, fluff, good stuff, love story, teen
# posted by kittenpie @ 8:41 AM 
