A review by xabbeylongx
Boy Like Me by Simon James Green

emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Spoilers Ahead: 
This is a beautiful book, and I absolutely adored reading it. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did, but I am pleasantly surprised. 
Jamie is gay, teenage boy in the late nineties, although he doesn’t know he is gay just yet. He’s just trying to get through school, when the librarian hands him a book, specifically for him. When he gets home, he reads it, and he finds out that the story has nothing to do with what’s on the cover. 
It’s a gay story, about two gay boys falling in love. 
Something resonates within him, and he starts going through an identity crisis. Which is so confusing, because due to Action 28, the mention of gay relationships is strictly forbidden in school. However, someone puts a message in the book, saying he feels the same way. After much deliberating, Jamie puts a message back, and waits for a response. 
He and this mystery guy talk through the pages of the book, and Jamie tries to figure out who it is. He finds out when they’re brought to the Principle’s office, and Rob West - the guy who is always in detention - is there. The book is labelled ‘offensive’, and ‘pornographic’, and “action needs to be taken”. Whilst they are investigating, he and Rob make plans to steal the book. 
It eventually gets out that it’s Jamie and Rob that are the undercover queers. When people find out, they start to get bullied, and beaten up. Most teachers turn a blind eye, saying they brought this n themselves. 
Rob’s dad is a very high-up political man, and he threatened to send Rob away if he was ever seen as gay to other people - his reputation is at stake (of course!). So when it is leaked that they are gay, everything - essentially - goes to shit. 
Jamie is the leader - or was, before some dickhead called Debbie took it over - of the school dance, and he desperately wanted Rob to go with him. Unfortunately, Rob’s dog was sold, and the only reason he wasn’t sent away was because he promised not to talk to Jamie again, and he promised to have a public girlfriend. However, when Jamie finds photos of Rob’s dad fumbling about with his secretary (she was the one who ratted out both Jamie and Rob when they were caught, btw) whilst Rob’s mum died of cancer. Jamie threatened to release them unless they let them be happy with each other, and so Jamie did end up taking the boy to the ball! 
This is such a beautiful story, and I had my fist in my mouth the whole time. Jamie and Rob’s relationship is so sweet, I just love love, especially when it means people finding out about themselves along the way - in my opinion, it makes it so much sweeter. 
The narration throughout was just perfect, so comical and conversational, and it was so engaging along the way. The characters were all perfect, so loveable and most of home had a very good character arc, and it was just an amazing book to read. It’s so sad, hearing about the troubles that gay men have to endure, and I was tearing up when Jamie realised that he wasn’t the problem, society is. When he said about how anybody can hate love, I swear my heart broke, because he’s so right. The only thing I would say is that I think, honestly, it’s a little unrealistic that, during that time period, all of the people that love him would be supportive. I don’t know, I could be wrong, but I thought there would be a little bit of a bigger fallout than that. Still, it’s such an amazing book, and would definitely recommend! 
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