Rating: 4.5 stars
Cover Rating: 5 stars (I love it. It's bold. I just feel like it will be a hard sell though. It will be hard for some people to read this book because there is no denying what it's about.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: August 27, 2013
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 196 p.
Add it: Goodreads
Two boys take the plunge to break the world record for longest kiss. They will have to stand and touch lips for more than a day. People think they are crazy but this kiss is more than just a stunt. Thiskiss means something. Slowly the people involved will realize this, people around the globe will realize this. This kiss is only one part of a much larger story unfolding.
David Levithan does whatever the hell he wants with narration. He doesn't care if it's not the norm he says, this is how this story has to be told. I applaud him for this, but I didn't love the narration in this story. It was just a little bit tricky. It wasn't necessarily hard to understand what was happening, but it was a bit heartbreaking and eerie watching the dead watch everyone else. Another reason I didn't love this narration is honestly it's going to make it a harder sell for me to give teens. The cover is plenty provocative (I love it!) and with the added strange narration I feel like a lot of my teens just won't get into it.
As for the story itself, it was so beautiful. My eyes were wet pretty much the entire time I was reading this. There was no crying but my chest ached for everyone involved. There was one moment where they nearly spilled over, but I was a quick enough reader to settle things down.
David Levithan does give the best relationship advice. "For the past year Neil has assumed that love was like a liquid pouring into a vessel, and that the longer you loved, the more full the vessel became, until it was entirely full. The truth is that over time, the vessel expands as well. ...Even though liquid is easier to see, you have to learn to appreciate the air."
This was a beautiful book and if you are looking for great GLBTQ lit David Levithan is the way to go. He definitely switches things up with his books. I completely fell in love with Harry and Craig, Avery and Ryan, Peter and Neil and everyone else in this book. I loved them all and was sad to see them go. I recommend you pick this up if you want something that will change your life, even if it's just a little bit.
First Line:
"You can't know what it is like for us now—you will always be one step behind."
Favorite Lines:
"You have become our dreaming."
"And then everything falls apart anyway."
"'I don't usually like people. So when I do, part of me is really amused and the other part refuses to believe it's happening."
The prose sounds really beautiful! My sis just bought this one, and she said the narration is a little jarring too. Now that I think about it (after reading your review), I can see how it would be disconnecting to teenagers because the narration is from an older perspective. And teenagers may have a hard time connecting to the voice of a past generation. I'll definitely have to read this though -- it sounds different enough to spark my curiosity ;)
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