Two Boys Kissing (by David Levithan)

I feel bad saying this book was disappointing, because it has an Important Message for gay teenage boys and I think would be very moving and meaningful if I were a gay male teen. It's the story of two boys attempting to break the world record for longest kiss, and it's narrated by the dead victims of the AIDS epidemic.

The problem for me was that I am not the target audience for this. The narrative voice just did not work for me very well. I guess after The Band Played On and How to Survive a Plague, the musings of the narrator felt superfluous, and it put distance between me and the characters, to the extent that I couldn't clearly visualize or connect to most of them. They never felt fully realized, and neither did their actions or dialogue. They felt like vehicles for the musings of the previous generation.

I like the concept and I'm glad this book exists for the audience it is aimed towards. But for me, it fell flat.