Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Release Date: August 27th, 2013
Goodreads: Two Boys Kissing

New York Times  bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

Hundreds of Young Adult titles are released yearly, but how many of them are actually important? You have the ones that give you adrenaline rushes, the ones that make your insides churn with horror, the ones that make you feel all fuzzy inside, the ones that make you want to pour bleach all over your brain, and that's all great and fantastic and endlessly entertaining, but how many of them are actually important to the world, to humanity and society? How many of them carry a message that needed to be written, that is urgent that the world reads? I have absolutely no problem saying that Two Boys Kissing is one of those few books that the world really needed. So here's to you Mr Levithan.
 This novel is beautifully written, brutally honest, and incredibly insightful. What I loved most about this novel is that Levithan didn't feel the need to beautify these relationships and these characters. He didn't think it was necessary to have them all taking part in great lives with fulfilling relationships to get the point across that being gay is awesome and perfectly great. No, Levithan decided to not show that gay = great, he went for gay = human. He presented all these kids in all their confusing, painful, insecure, imperfect glory. Even in today's more tolerant culture, being gay is not easy. And aside from that, gay guys and gay couples go through the same difficulties that we do as they navigate through their feelings and relationships and self-awareness. I loved that Levithan also chose to present that within the greater problem that is our society's intolerant views towards homosexual relationships.

I was impressed by how insightful Levithan was in all of his discussions of relationships, self-discovery, and falling in and out of love. I've been in a relationship for six and a half years, and though it's been wonderful, uncertainties, doubts, the threat of monotony and the fear of what will come next always loom over long-term relationships, and Levithan captured all of those magnificently. It felt like Levithan had this really amazing understanding of the many different versions of love and the power it has on people, how it shapes and changes them and helps them grow. There is a lot of power in the relationships we form with each other, whether they are between friends, family members or lovers, each of this relationships mold us into different persons. This power is undeniable and it doesn't go ignored in this novel.
The narration in this book is perfection. The book is told by a collective consciousness of what I want to call "The Ghosts of Gays Past", all those amazing people that paved the row for the gay community of today. Their narration is painfully beautiful and brutally honest. The way these stories came together through the focal point of Craig and Harry's kiss and the voice of that consciousness was breathtakingly beautiful. Each of of these boys is different and must face different situations as they grow into their identities as gay boys and men, but the narration captures their essence and universalizes the experience of being a gay person at this point in time, when the oppression is lifting, but still very present. Every couple of pages, I had to take a break and wipe tears away because the painful reality behind this book is heartbreaking and touching. But the really weird thing about all this is that, while I cried,  I also couldn't help smiling. 
The writing might be a bit complex and ambitious, but it's appropriate for the feel of the novel. This is a novel with a message that transcends the story and the characters. This book is incredibly important precisely because of that message. It encompasses everything from self-discovery, self-awareness, and gay lifestyle, to society and love in all of its forms. This book, although admittedly sad because it does not shy away from presenting the hardships of being gay, especially those we wish to put behind us, is full of desperate hope and it injects the reader with that hope, with this vision of what the world could be. There is a slightly preachy quality about the novel, but that is because the core of the book is not the story itself but the message, one I fully support.    

In short, Two Boys Kissing is a powerful, beautiful and emotional take on what it means to be a gay person today, versus what it was before and what it still could be. This is a very short novel, and at first it might be hard to get into it, but it all quickly comes together and becomes absolutely riveting. This book needs to be read and I encourage everyone with a stake in this cause or even the slightest interest to pick it up.