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Boys’ Love: A Novel
Boys' Love follows the life of Jon, a Filipino gay man and his coming out of the closet in conservative and Catholic Philippines. He becomes a journalist and lives briefly in the United Kingdom and the United States, but returns home to a colourful country that is beginning to change. He forges friendships and alliances in gay Manila, meets and break ups with lovers, and lives with eyes wide open to the possibilities of hope. The novel is readable and accessible. It has a narrative line that is enriched with different prose forms like vignettes, poems, songs, speeches, reviews, feature articles, portraits of people and sketches of places. Jon shows us the "love that dares to speak its name" in this novel of hilarity and heartbreak.
208 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 2025
About the author
Danton Remoto
37 books48 followersDanton Remoto was born on 25 March 1963 in Basa Air Base, Pampanga. He was an ASEAN scholar at the AdMU where he obtained his AB Interdisciplinary Studies in 1983. With his Robert Southwell scholarship, Remoto obtained his MA English Lit., 1989; then, on a British Council fellowship, another MA in publishing studies, 1990, at the University of Stirling, Scotland.
He was a Local fellow for poetry at the UP Creative Writing Center, 1994. He was at Hawthornden Castle, 1993, and later, at the Cambridge Seminar. Remoto teaches at AdMU where he manages the Office of Research and Publishing. He is also studying for his Ph.D. in creative writing at UP. He was an associate of PLAC and a member of the Manila Critics Circle since 1989.
He has won various awards, among them, the ASEAN prize for the essay, 1979; the Palanca for the essay in 1987; the CCP literary award for poetry; the Stirling District Arts Council award for poetry and the short story.
Among his works: Skin , Voices , Faces , Anvil, 1991; Black Silk Pajamas / Poems in English and Filipino , Anvil, 1996. He edited Buena Vista [Alfrredo Navarro Salanga's poems and fiction], 1989 and co-ed., Gems in Philippine Literature , 1989. More importantly, he has co-edited the Ladlad series with J. Neil Garcia.
He was a Local fellow for poetry at the UP Creative Writing Center, 1994. He was at Hawthornden Castle, 1993, and later, at the Cambridge Seminar. Remoto teaches at AdMU where he manages the Office of Research and Publishing. He is also studying for his Ph.D. in creative writing at UP. He was an associate of PLAC and a member of the Manila Critics Circle since 1989.
He has won various awards, among them, the ASEAN prize for the essay, 1979; the Palanca for the essay in 1987; the CCP literary award for poetry; the Stirling District Arts Council award for poetry and the short story.
Among his works: Skin , Voices , Faces , Anvil, 1991; Black Silk Pajamas / Poems in English and Filipino , Anvil, 1996. He edited Buena Vista [Alfrredo Navarro Salanga's poems and fiction], 1989 and co-ed., Gems in Philippine Literature , 1989. More importantly, he has co-edited the Ladlad series with J. Neil Garcia.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 1, 2025
Disclaimer, this was my first time reading of Danton Remoto's works. To say I am unimpressed is a gross underestimate. "Boys' Love: A Novel" at first is a poor choice for a title as it doesn't have an overarching theme. It's absence fails a reader to ground, relate nor find any meaning.
If the novel instead was a collection of essays of Chapter 37: Of Beasts and Stars, I would have given this an instant four star. It was a waste that Danton Remoto didn't push forward more on the gay experience. In the 208 pages I read this novel, I only got the fetish of the protagonist (or even the author's) academic inclination. For me, it read too pretentious that I was losing the core message of each chapter because I kept asking "Why does he have to mention the university and add an adjective beside it"
I was contemplating not posting a review on this novel because I'm too engrossed with my own biases and wanted to eviscerate this text. But given Danton's contributions and defining the true meaning of the word "Party List" in our Philippine Constitution, I felt it wasn't in the position nor have the privilege to give such a negative review. But Boy's Love reads more of a memoir — like Riverrun without any context for the reader to get into.
Special mention to Chapter 38, Gay Stories after New Year which I had hope that I'd rate this as three star as my bias of accurate representation of internalized homophobia would be in text. But to just give it a glimpse and not even incorporate it on the struggle of these supposed caricatures was the final line for me.
Though I'd still support future fiction works of Danton Remoto, I am quite hesitant to read it without proper reviews from it. This book isn't a good representation of Danton Remoto's contributions nor talent — as he's a good writer (technical). But the overarching theme kept me per chapter as "so what's the fucking point?"
If the novel instead was a collection of essays of Chapter 37: Of Beasts and Stars, I would have given this an instant four star. It was a waste that Danton Remoto didn't push forward more on the gay experience. In the 208 pages I read this novel, I only got the fetish of the protagonist (or even the author's) academic inclination. For me, it read too pretentious that I was losing the core message of each chapter because I kept asking "Why does he have to mention the university and add an adjective beside it"
I was contemplating not posting a review on this novel because I'm too engrossed with my own biases and wanted to eviscerate this text. But given Danton's contributions and defining the true meaning of the word "Party List" in our Philippine Constitution, I felt it wasn't in the position nor have the privilege to give such a negative review. But Boy's Love reads more of a memoir — like Riverrun without any context for the reader to get into.
Special mention to Chapter 38, Gay Stories after New Year which I had hope that I'd rate this as three star as my bias of accurate representation of internalized homophobia would be in text. But to just give it a glimpse and not even incorporate it on the struggle of these supposed caricatures was the final line for me.
Though I'd still support future fiction works of Danton Remoto, I am quite hesitant to read it without proper reviews from it. This book isn't a good representation of Danton Remoto's contributions nor talent — as he's a good writer (technical). But the overarching theme kept me per chapter as "so what's the fucking point?"
December 13, 2025
DNF at page 73, Chapter 18
While browsing for BL titles at MIBF 2025, this book immediately caught my eye at the Penguin Publishing booth. I admit I did three things wrong before buying it—with a huge smile on my face and my card already swiped: I didn’t read the blurb at the back, I assumed it was a novel because of the word “novel” in the title, and the cute boys on the cover completely sold it to me.
That said, this book reads less like a novel and more like a memoir. Up to the point where I stopped, there was no clear conflict, antagonist, or concrete plot. The narrative feels more observational and reflective, almost autobiographical. Some passages were well-written and thoughtful, but overall, it felt stretched—more like reading a textbook or a magazine essay than a story-driven work of fiction.
This might be a BL book better suited for literary students or academic readers rather than typical BL fans. Personally, I read BL for the kilig—for emotional tension, romance, and character-driven storytelling—not to analyze blended literary forms presented under the label of a “novel.”
The boys on the cover were undeniably cute, but readers shouldn’t expect to find those characters within the story itself. The cover feels more symbolic than representative of the actual content.
That said, there are some genuinely beautiful lines in this book. I couldn’t help but wish the author had woven those moments into a more traditional Boys’ Love narrative—with a clearer plot and romantic arc—instead of framing it as a memoir.
Overall, this book may resonate with readers who appreciate reflective, literary writing, even if it didn’t quite match what I was personally looking for in a BL read.
While browsing for BL titles at MIBF 2025, this book immediately caught my eye at the Penguin Publishing booth. I admit I did three things wrong before buying it—with a huge smile on my face and my card already swiped: I didn’t read the blurb at the back, I assumed it was a novel because of the word “novel” in the title, and the cute boys on the cover completely sold it to me.
That said, this book reads less like a novel and more like a memoir. Up to the point where I stopped, there was no clear conflict, antagonist, or concrete plot. The narrative feels more observational and reflective, almost autobiographical. Some passages were well-written and thoughtful, but overall, it felt stretched—more like reading a textbook or a magazine essay than a story-driven work of fiction.
This might be a BL book better suited for literary students or academic readers rather than typical BL fans. Personally, I read BL for the kilig—for emotional tension, romance, and character-driven storytelling—not to analyze blended literary forms presented under the label of a “novel.”
The boys on the cover were undeniably cute, but readers shouldn’t expect to find those characters within the story itself. The cover feels more symbolic than representative of the actual content.
That said, there are some genuinely beautiful lines in this book. I couldn’t help but wish the author had woven those moments into a more traditional Boys’ Love narrative—with a clearer plot and romantic arc—instead of framing it as a memoir.
Overall, this book may resonate with readers who appreciate reflective, literary writing, even if it didn’t quite match what I was personally looking for in a BL read.
August 17, 2026
I think Danton Remoto is a rather fascinating author. The book cover and marketing immediately sets the 'novel' up for something that it really isn't. The frustrations of the other reviews within Goodreads is honestly understandable.
The fact that the publisher decided to include the subtitle, 'a novel', speaks volumes of how much the book does not follow almost any traditional novelistic expectations. Be it in the narrative structure, or even sentence-level prose, Boys' Love subverts expectations and pushes the literary tradition in ways that are, from the get-go, bound to raise eyebrows. These stylistic choices made were done in the backdrop of a very grounded awareness and understanding of the literary canon. This much is clear through his explicit references to literary works, as well as the through line between Remoto's creative writing teachers, many of whom had been graduates of the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Hence, it inspires the question: why did Remoto choose to write in this way—chapters that sometimes read as individual works of flash fiction mixed in with poems, book reviews, articles you'd find in a column, highly efficient and witty prose, sometimes bordering into stream-of-consciousness, paragraphs of musings about the history of the Philippines, the gay experience, societal patterns within the Philippines, and more.
What I find particularly interesting about Boys' Love, in contrast to it's prequel, Riverrun, is that while the narrative progression of this novel is more defined, its prose style decided to withdraw further from what was closer to typical 'novelistic' prose into 'writing whatever the hell I want and not caring about what the audience thinks'. Funnily enough, this led me to enjoying this a lot more. In Riverrun, I wished to hear more of the author's voice, his searing wit, and less in the overly restrained narrative voice that many have noted reads like a self-censored work, which as I mentioned in my previous review, may well have been intentional. However, in the pure enjoyment factor, Boys Love's unrestrained and sometimes audacious narrative voice works much better, again, despite following even less of the expected narrative structure. The amount of specificity and groundedness in the details make for a compelling read.
I do think that sometimes the book lost steam, for example, in chapters which become slightly didactic in a way that doesn't feel fully earned, and part of it is the result of having many of the chapters be flash-fiction in length. I also enjoyed the longer chapters more in general. Truth be told, as much as I like what he's doing, I would want to see him write a novel that have longer chapter lengths. He can keep being experimental and whatnot, but I think his brilliance can be hindered by simply the lack of words to showcase it in. This is what I also felt about Riverrun, and both books have solidified this critique for me.
I'm glad that this book exists, I'm glad that it was written in the way it was, and Remoto is a witty enough to carry (almost) the whole book in it humor to compensate the lack of narrative tension. Now, I want to see Remoto push himself more into writing a novel that feels less like a collage and more of a self-contained, seamless, body of work.
3.75 rounded to 4 stars.
The fact that the publisher decided to include the subtitle, 'a novel', speaks volumes of how much the book does not follow almost any traditional novelistic expectations. Be it in the narrative structure, or even sentence-level prose, Boys' Love subverts expectations and pushes the literary tradition in ways that are, from the get-go, bound to raise eyebrows. These stylistic choices made were done in the backdrop of a very grounded awareness and understanding of the literary canon. This much is clear through his explicit references to literary works, as well as the through line between Remoto's creative writing teachers, many of whom had been graduates of the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Hence, it inspires the question: why did Remoto choose to write in this way—chapters that sometimes read as individual works of flash fiction mixed in with poems, book reviews, articles you'd find in a column, highly efficient and witty prose, sometimes bordering into stream-of-consciousness, paragraphs of musings about the history of the Philippines, the gay experience, societal patterns within the Philippines, and more.
What I find particularly interesting about Boys' Love, in contrast to it's prequel, Riverrun, is that while the narrative progression of this novel is more defined, its prose style decided to withdraw further from what was closer to typical 'novelistic' prose into 'writing whatever the hell I want and not caring about what the audience thinks'. Funnily enough, this led me to enjoying this a lot more. In Riverrun, I wished to hear more of the author's voice, his searing wit, and less in the overly restrained narrative voice that many have noted reads like a self-censored work, which as I mentioned in my previous review, may well have been intentional. However, in the pure enjoyment factor, Boys Love's unrestrained and sometimes audacious narrative voice works much better, again, despite following even less of the expected narrative structure. The amount of specificity and groundedness in the details make for a compelling read.
I do think that sometimes the book lost steam, for example, in chapters which become slightly didactic in a way that doesn't feel fully earned, and part of it is the result of having many of the chapters be flash-fiction in length. I also enjoyed the longer chapters more in general. Truth be told, as much as I like what he's doing, I would want to see him write a novel that have longer chapter lengths. He can keep being experimental and whatnot, but I think his brilliance can be hindered by simply the lack of words to showcase it in. This is what I also felt about Riverrun, and both books have solidified this critique for me.
I'm glad that this book exists, I'm glad that it was written in the way it was, and Remoto is a witty enough to carry (almost) the whole book in it humor to compensate the lack of narrative tension. Now, I want to see Remoto push himself more into writing a novel that feels less like a collage and more of a self-contained, seamless, body of work.
3.75 rounded to 4 stars.
February 23, 2026
Actual rating: 1.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews