Boy Meets Boy

The protagonist and narrator for the novel is high school sophomore Paul, who is openly gay and accepted by his family and friends. Paul has known he was gay since he was in kindergarten and ‘became the first openly gay class president in the history of Ms Farquar’s third grade class.’

Tony is Paul’s best friend who lives in the next town over. He is gay but unlike Paul, Tony’s parents are religious and are not accepting of his sexuality. It is great to see a strong friendship between two gay teenage males that is not romantic or sexual.

Joni is Paul’s other friend, when she starts dating Chuck, a classmate Paul does not approve of, it puts strain on their friendship.

The supporting characters are interesting and vivid. There is Infinite Darlene, a drag queen who is the homecoming queen and star quarterback, and Zeke the “Gaystafarian”, who performs gigs at the local bookstore.

It’s boy meets boy, when Paul is instantly attracted to Noah, the new boy at school, after an earlier chance meeting in a bookstore. Similar to boy meets girl stories inevitably boy loses boy when Paul kisses his ex-boyfriend Kyle, who is questioning his sexuality.

Paul has to set out to win Noah back. The school bookie put his odds at 12-1 of Noah taking him back but Paul is determined to gain his trust back. Despite Paul’s mistake he is a likable character.

The novel presents an almost perfect utopian world where all sexualities are celebrated and accepted. For example, there are the Joy Scouts instead of the Boy Scouts (after the “Boy Scouts decided gays had no place in their ranks, our Scouts decided the organization had no place in our town”) and the high school has a thriving gay-straight alliance. Levithan is deliberately showing readers a world one would hope will exist in the future where there is no judgment, prejudice or discrimination against LGBTQ people.

Boy Meets Boy is dedicated ‘for Tony (even if he only exists in a song)’. ‘Tony’ is the title of Patty Griffin’s song about a young gay classmate who committed suicide. Levithan has said ‘every time I hear that song, it breaks my heart; you could say I wrote a whole novel to change one song’s ending.’

The writing is very witty, wry and quirky. Although the pace is a little slow moving at times. Ultimately it is a quirky story about love and the obstacles to love.

Reader reviewed by Cricketboy

Boy
Meets Boy is about an average sophomore teenager named Paul. Paul is like any other high school sophomore, except hes
gay, but most of the school is also. He has known it since
kindergarten when his teacher wrote it on his report card. Pauls
friend, Infinite Darlene, the cross-dressing quarterback and
homecoming queen, whos always getting into peoples business.
Joni, Pauls best friend, who may not even be a friend anymore.
Tony is Pauls other best friend who cant even leave his house
without his super religious parents knowing. Then theres Noah, the
boy who changes everything. Paul falls on love with Noah at a school
pep fest, but looses him when he is comforting his ex-boyfriend in a
tough situation. Paul works hard to get him back in time for the
school dance. David Levithan does a great job of creating a
hyper-realistic world of hate-free love and care. I enjoyed the book
because it included a lot of cheesy romantic humor, didn't bash gay
people like most other novels would on this subject, and it had a
strange atmosphere that was pleasing.

I
would rate the book 3.5 stars for being funny, but the story is
somewhat cliché, its the same as any other romantic comedy, other
then the fact that over half the people in the book are either gay or
gender confused.

Reader reviewed by Nikki

I liked this book. I thought at times it was a little bit dull, but it was a good read in the end. I did like the plot, and the characters were great. Seemed to me like one of those books that's hard to get into and takes a while to like, but it gets there and its worth the wait. I thought it was a charming book. Something new. Rather than the boy meets girl and they have a happy ending, it was a book about the same concept with two people of the same sex.

Reader reviewed by Natalie

This is the best book I have read since A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb (read that too, it's great). And, that has been my favorite book for two years. This almost passed it on my favorites list, but, that book is beautiful. So this one is second (Still a great honor with me---Im hard to please.)
So, this book is about Paul, an openly gay high school sophmore, and his friends. The characters are addicting, and so is the plot. I understood every single decision that Paul made, even some of the worse ones.
If I had to say something about this book, it's that the world is sort of unrealistic. Nobody cared that Paul was gay. I mean, no offense, but somebody always cares. It doesn't matter how accepting your school/parents/friends/churches are, someone is going to care. And, it might not be in a bad way, but it will happen.
The rest of this book was ridiculously perfect, and David Levithan is my hero. And, even if you're straight, or a girl or whatever, I guaruntee you will love this book, and even if you don't (you will) you will love at least one of the main characters. They're that great.
So, overall, this is the best book I've read in a very long time. And I've read a lot of great books. So, if you love reading, definately check this out!
You won't regret it!

Reader reviewed by Piper M.

 A must read for anyone who has ever seen someone cute across a room and wished they knew them.  As the title shows it is about a gay couple in an open minded world. Classic romance with a modern twist, Boy Meets Boy is filled with humor and young love.  There wasn't a moment I didn't love this book. It was absolutely perfect from start to finish. It deals with the difficulties of being gay in a straight mans' world, but shows that with a little tolerance everyone can be happy. For fans of: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, The Shirmp series, The Rainbow Boys series, and Geography Club.

Reader reviewed by megannx3

This book is about two boys who find love in each other. I'm not gay. However, i loved following their lives. I was so happy in the end. This is such a teen book, and well written, great plot-line and i love it! Paul is a shy highschool boy that knows what he wants. and what he wants is Noah<3!
+ this book is by my favorite author!

Reader reviewed by A-Rae =]

This book is now one of my favorites! It's comical and romantic. It's defenately something new and exciting, its as if everything in that school is backwards, i wish my school was like that! Paul is irresistibly charming, him and Noah are absolutely perfect for eachother! =]

Reader reviewed by looneytunez8

When I first read the title of the book, Boy Meets Boy, I could tell right away that it was a part of LBGT genre. It caught my attention once I started reading the first few pages. I ended up reading more than I excpected in the first 30 minutes of me reading it. This is a really great book. If you enjoy any books from the LBGT genre, Boy Meets Boy should be a good read for you.

Reader reviewed by Khy

[from the back of the book]

Love is never easy. Especially if you're Paul. He's a sophomore at a school like no other- and these are his friends:

Infinite Darlene, the homecoming queen and star quarterback.

Joni, Paul's best friend who may not be his best friend anymore.

Tony, his other best friend who can't leave the house unless his parents thinks he's going on a date...with a girl.

Kyle, the ex boyfriend who won't go away.

Rip, the school bookie, who sets the odds.

And Noah. The Boy. The one who changes everything.


Everything about this novel worked. The characters, the plot- everything just worked together in good way. Even though the characters aren't normal, they're real. They deal with normal problems, but the book presents them differently. Paul, the main character, may be a gay boy who goes to the weirdest high school in the weirdest town I've ever heard of, but he still has the same problems that people in normal high schools in normal towns deal with. He's losing his best friend because she can't stay away from her boyfriend, he's trying to find a way to help his slightly depressed friend deal with his sexuality and overprotective parents, his ex still has feelings for him and won't go away, and he likes a guy who likes him back and then they start going out but then Paul messes EVERYTHING up and has to fix it. The book may have an unrealistic setting, but the problems and plot are still realistic. It may not sound like those things work together, but they do.


I only disliked one thing about this book. In the end, I felt as if some things weren't resolved. Some of the problems in the book weren't really solved in the end, and if they were, the book didn't tell me. I could guess about what happened, but I don't want to guess. I want to know for sure.

All in all, it was a magnificent story.

Reader reviewed by Meg

I really really really enjoyed this book. The story takes place in something like an alternate universe, or rather an alternate town, where everyone is really accepting of the gay community (for example the high school quarterback is also the Prom Queen). This set up allows for a gay romance to blossom without all of the "gay issues" that muddle up other gay romances. These issues aren't totally thrown out the window however, the main character's best friend lives in another town which is not so GLBT friendly. This balance allows this book to do something totally cool...present a romance between two boys uninterrupted by prejudice, while not neglecting to show the difficulty of the queer experience.