Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green, David Levithan Published by Speak on 6 April 2010
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Young Adult
Pages: 332
Format: Kindle
Source: Kindle Purchase
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Will Grayson meets Will Grayson. One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers are about to cross paths. From that moment on, their world will collide and Iives intertwine.
It's not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chiacago suburbanites Will Grayson and Will Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With a push from friends new and old - including the massive, and massively fabulous, Tiny Cooper, offensive lineman and musical theater auteur extraordinaire - Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history's most awesome high school musical.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson started out pretty slow, and is a fairly weird story that is also strangely compelling. As the story unfolded, I found that I really enjoyed these two Will characters, but the real star was Tiny.
My Will Grayson, Will Grayson review:
I didn’t really know what to think of Will Grayson, Will Grayson before I started reading it – having only read the summary but no reviews, I was ready to be swept away. And after the slow start, I was. I really enjoyed the Will Grayson chapter the most, will grayson was a little more difficult to connect to, mostly because he himself thought he wasn’t someone who was worth getting to know. And while on the surface the two Wills were very different, there were many characteristics they shared as well. Being distant from the people around them was the most obvious one.
And while it seems like there are two Will characters being the main focus of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, to me, it was Tiny who was the real protagonist here. He is present in both of the Wills’ lives, one he has known since they were young, and the other he meets after owg meets him. And both the main characters and the secondary characters were well fleshed out, and were important to the story. Also, almost all of the characters had parents who were at least trying to be present in their children’s lives. This is something we really don’t see enough of in young adult these days, and I always do a fist-pump when parents are there, and trying to be involved.
The story of Will Grayson, Will Grayson is about everything that a teenager goes through (or can go through) emotionally in his or hers late teens. Friendship, relationships with teachers and parents, crushes, figuring out what love is, and what friendship really means. Thinking about the future and what possibilities are there for later in life. And a lot of what seemed to be important to all of the characters was acceptance. Tiny being gay didn’t mean anything was different in their friendship to the first Will Grayson, and the second Will Grayson was gay as well – so of course, he was rather happy he could possibly flirt with Tiny. Self-acceptance was something they all had more trouble with, though. Accepting others the way they were didn’t pose any problems for them, but feeling good about themselves was a daily struggle.
Written in dual points of view, one chapter from Will Grayson and the other from will grayson, and each of those chapters written by either John Green or David Levithan, the difference in voice was obvious, both in the writing style and the way the characters expressed themselves. Also, because the story is written in first person point of view, present tense, it felt like I was there with the characters, immediately privy to their thoughts and emotions. I think I’d be a happy reader if there was to be a book called Tiny Cooper one day – I’d love to learn more about these characters.
Some of my favorite Will Grayson, Will Grayson quotes:
Anyway, I haven’t cried since then. I don’t really understand the point of crying. Also, I feel that crying is almost – like, aside from deaths of relatives or whatever – totally avoidable if you follow two very simple rules: 1. Don’t care too much. 2. Shut up. Everything unfortunate that has ever happened to me has stemmed from failure to follow one of the rules.
right now i’m walking through the kitchen to get to the back door.
mom: have some breakfast.
i do not eat breakfast. i never eat breakfast. i haven’t eaten breakfast since i was able to walk out the back door without eating breakfast first.
i feel bad for her – i do. a damn shame, really that i had to have a mother. it can’t be easy having me for a son. nothing can prepare someone for that kind of disappointment.
The part I enjoy most is not the doing, but the noticing. Noticing the way she smells like oversugared coffee, and the difference between her smile and her photographed smile, and the way she bites her lower lip, and the pale skin of her back. I just want the pleasure of noticing these things at a safe distance – I don’t want to have to acknowledge that I am noticing. I don’t want to talk about it or do stuff about it.
COYER scavenger hunt item #24: Read a book that fits in the LGBT genre (2 points)
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge
- 2015 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
- Bookish Resolutions Challenge 2015
- LGBT Challenge 2015
- Summer COYER 2015
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
I should read this. I read Every Day by David Levithan and LOVED it. So it would be interesting to see the difference between John and David’s styles in the same book. Plus, it sounds good!
I really need to read Every Day, I have it on my kindle. And the differences in style are quite obvious, but it works really well since they are writing two different characters.
This is one of my favorites from John Green ( and David Levithan too just haven’t read much by him). I thought it was a really good story and totally agree that Tiny stood out. Great review!!
I haven’t read much by either of them yet, but I have several books just waiting for me on my kindle. Tiny was awesome 🙂
This is on my list to read, Lexxie. I like that the authors took different characters to write. I’m sure that helped make the characters really different from one another since they were written in the voice of different authors. I also like the topics discussed as they are topics every teen has to deal with in one way or another. I think I’m going to move this one up in the queue, Lex. But there’ll still be quite a few in front of it. 😉 So many books….
**BIG HUGS**
Yes, that definitely made the two Will Grayson’s very different, Brandee, and it worked really well with the story as well 🙂 I hope you’ll find the time to read this soon-ish 😉
*BIG HUGS*
Great review. I didn’t love the ending of this book, but I really liked the duel perspectives and the two Wills. They are both interesting characters.
I thought the ending was very Tiny, Aj… and I liked what one of the Will Grayson’s tried to do for him, too. Even if it was pretty unrealistic 🙂
I really loved Tiny too. I still need to read his book – it’s told in the format of a musical. 🙂
But is it told in the format of ‘a’ musical or ‘the’ musical? It sounds like it is the musical that happens at the end of WG, WG.
Thanks for stopping by Lauren 🙂
This one is on my shelf and I really need to read it. Oh, but there IS a Tiny Cooper book. Here it is – Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story (This is a referral link, by the way, so feel free to access the book another way if you don’t feel comfortable with that!)
Thanks Nicole, but that one looks like it is the actual musical that Tiny produces in WG, WG. I think you will enjoy this one, it’s very well done 🙂
Ahhh, makes sense – I had seen people saying that they were excited for a book about Tiny, so I just assumed.
I guess there will be more from Tiny’s point of view in it, but I don’t want to read the whole musical 🙂
I have still to read a book by either of these guys. Their books always sound great and this one is no exception! Great review!!
Oh, this one would be the perfect one to start with, Heather, as you get both authors for one book 😉
I looooove David Levithan! But haven’t read this book yet (though I own it). Should be interesting to see how a book by both him and John Green is. 😀
I haven’t read any Levithan books yet, Stephanie, though I have a couple on my kindle 🙂 WG, WG was very well done!
Every Day is my favorite by him!
Great review! I find it very interesting that while the book is told from the Will’s their point of view, you thought Tiny was actualy the protagonist. That makes me curious about how the book is written. The struggle of feeling good about yourself is definitely something I can relate to as I went through that as well in my teens and sometimes still struggle with. It does sound a bit confusing to me that they are both called Will Grayson.
The fact that they both were named Will Grayson is a big part of the story, Lola, and if you decide to read this, you’ll understand fairly quickly. And there is no confusion about which Will is telling his story, or is being mentioned by the other characters.
I agree, the struggle to feel good about yourself is hard sometimes, and I thought the way it was dealt with here made a lot of sense 🙂
This one sounds like a really nice relatable book, showing the differences in their personalities even though they have the same name. The message behind the story just sounds really lovely here Lexxie! Lovely review.
It was so well done, Jeann, and yes, having the same name, and being roughly the same age didn’t really mean anything. Apart from when they met they both felt a little confused 🙂
Yay for positive parental involvement! This definitely sounds like sn entertaining and relatable book. I’m surprised I haven’t read it yet, honestly. It sounds like something I’d enjoy. So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂