Plot summary
Openly gay high school sophomore Paul lives in an LGBT-friendly small town in New Jersey. He is best friends with Joni, whom he has known since early childhood and to whom he came out in second grade, and Tony, who is also gay and who lives in the (much less accepting) next town over with his strict, religious parents.
On a night out with Joni and Tony, while listening to a friend play music in a bookstore, Paul meets Noah and is instantly attracted to him. They discover that they attend the same school and after some miscommunication and false starts, they eventually reconnect and start to date. At the same time, Joni (who has recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend Ted for the twelfth time) starts to date Chuck, a football player who was extremely cruel to Paul's friend, Infinite Darlene, when his crush on her turned out to be unrequited. This relationship causes a great deal of tension within Joni and Paul's friendship, and it also upsets Ted and Infinite Darlene.
The previous year, Paul had dated Kyle, who then dumped him and spread the rumor that Paul had "tricked" him into being gay. As Paul's relationship with Noah starts to flourish, Kyle attempts to come back into Paul's life. He apologizes to Paul and starts coming to him for comfort and support, as he is uncertain about his sexuality and his aunt has recently died. While Paul is at first cautious, he comes to understand Kyle more and see him as a friend. Paul tells Joni everything about his relationships with Noah and Kyle, and Joni tells this to Chuck. Chuck spreads this information all around the school and before long, people are placing bets on what they think the outcome will be. Noah's feelings towards Paul seem to cool at this stage.
Tony is having trouble coping with his homophobic parents, and he decides to go for a hike with Paul in nearby woods. After their hike, Paul hugs Tony tightly, only to be interrupted by Tony's mother's best friend, who spreads what she saw to everyone she knows. Rumors spread that Paul and Tony are in a relationship, so Tony's parents forbid him from having contact with Paul.
The next day, Kyle is feeling a great deal of stress and fear, and Paul kisses him. Noah hears the rumor about Paul and Tony, and in the process of denying that anything happened between the two of them, he inadvertently confesses the fact that he kissed Kyle that day. Upon learning of this, Noah ends their relationship. Not long afterwards, Paul and Joni's friendship seems to end.
Paul is arranging the Dowager's Dance, a dance held yearly by his high school. The theme of the dance is to be Death, and in order to study this theme, the planning committee (including Kyle) go to a cemetery one evening. When Kyle and Paul find themselves alone together, Kyle kisses Paul and tells him that he loves him. Paul says that he doesn't feel the same way, and Kyle is upset and leaves. Paul goes to see Tony and explain everything to him, and Tony confesses that he is feeling troubled by everything that has been happening but that he is working on showing his parents that he is more than just his sexuality, and that being gay will not stop him from living a full and happy life. Tony's mother comes home and catches Paul and Tony talking, but instead of getting mad, Tony quietly challenges her and she finally allows Tony to see Paul again. Tony also decides that he wants to go to the upcoming dance, and he and Paul decide that his parents are most likely to let him attend if a large group of people come to pick him up.
Paul realizes that he is still in love with Noah and that what he has to do is show him how he feels. Over a week he sets himself seven tasks to prove his love to Noah and make his apology:
- Day 1: Paul spends the entire night making origami flowers and decorates the hallway and Noah's locker with them.
- Day 2: He writes a list of 100 words he likes and their definitions, and he leaves the list in Noah's locker.
- Day 3: He leaves a note in Noah's mailbox wishing him a good day; he does not want to overwhelm him.
- Day 4: He has his musical friend Zeke write a song for Noah, and Zeke goes with him to sing it.
- Day 5: Paul buys twenty rolls of film (Noah's hobby is photography) and enlists his friends to give them to him in a series of creative ways.
- Day 6: He writes Noah letters explaining everything he has been doing, thinking, and feeling.
- Day 7: He closes the distance and speaks to Noah in person.
Noah is overwhelmed by these gestures and asks Paul to be his partner for the upcoming dance. Their relationship starts afresh. Paul goes to see Joni and ask her to be a part of the group picking Tony up for the dance, but Joni refuses, saying that she and Chuck have already made plans. Paul challenges her, implying that she is letting Chuck control her, and he leaves. On the night of the dance, Paul gathers the group to go to Tony's house and ask his parents if he can come with them. At the last minute, Joni arrives with Chuck to join the group. Tony's mother hesitantly allows Tony to attend the dance.
Instead of going straight to the dance, the group go to a clearing in the woods where Tony and Paul hiked. They start holding their own celebration there, dancing and talking and laughing. Tony and Kyle talk and dance together, and Paul and Noah dance together for song after song. Paul looks around him, wanting to fix this image in his mind forever, and the book finishes with him thinking to himself, "What a wonderful world".
Reception
Boy Meets Boy received many reviews that focused on the nature of the book compared to reality. David Levithan, the author of Boy Meets Boy, said, "I try to disprove the cliché as much as possible." He said that writing books about teenagers in the gay community "[is] not the scary unknown anymore." Being gay himself, Levithan tried his best to have "the chance to connect to his readers" by feeling "as if [his] readers are happy to explore wherever [he] want[ed] to go." [5]
Boy Meets Boy focuses on the gay community through a teenager's eyes through a "delightfully reversed, pro-gay high school" setting. "[The book is] an upbeat story about acceptance and teen love long before the all-singing, all-dancing cast of Glee arrived on TV," seeing as Boy Meets Boy was published in 2003. [5]
Lambda Literary included it amongst 10 Outstanding LGBT Teen Reads (from the last 10 years) calling it "A sweet valentine of a love story". [6]
