This book appeals to the side of me that likes the sort of
happy ending tales that can be found in a lot of YA contemporary fiction.
Though this book did deal with issues that are quite heavy in real life, it did
it in such a way that gave out the message of 'when you find the right person
for you, everything bad that's happened to you no longer matters', which I feel
in an incorrect message to be giving out. 'Boy Meets Boy' was also very
idealistic in the way it presented Paul's town, so I think this novel is best
for someone looking for a light read and those just starting to find out more
about the LGBTQ+ community.
***
The blurb of this book describes it as 'slightly surreal'
and I have to agree; it doesn't feel like this novel could be real. That, for me,
is off-putting with contemporary reads because they're supposed to be realistic
books. The reason I feel this way is because of how Paul's town and high school
is portrayed; in the life that I'm used to, people aren't so open about their
and other's sexuality and/or gender dysphoria. Obviously, I want people to be,
but that is unfortunately not the world I know, so that aspect made the novel
feel like it was just trying to show idealisms rather than real life.
In addition to that, the author tried to make every main
character seem as likeable as possible, which added to the feeling I had that
this novel is and never could be real or a representation of real life.
When first introduced, the romance between Paul and Noah
seemed promising. However, as it developed and Paul made lots of mistakes, I
began to dislike him as a character and by extension their relationship. That
is certainly something that starts to ease me off liking the novel and it can
actually feel slightly upsetting when you don't like the main character in a
book. After that I started to lose interest in the novel because the mistakes
that Paul made were rude, idiotic and could have been easily avoided.
Overall, this book was okay. I'm not sure that it sparked my
interest enough for me to want to read any more of Levithan's books.
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