Review: Will Gray, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Leviathan

Hardcover, 310 pages

Published April 6th 2010 by Dutton Juvenile

Five Stars

Summary:

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them both legions of faithful fans.

My Thoughts.

I'm not going to lie and say this book made me laugh out loud during math class. My teacher assumed it was because of the odd problem we were doing, but cosine graphs are only so funny (in fact, they're not all hilarious).
The summary doesn't really give much away, but it's a story about two boys who share the same name. One's gay, the other's straight. This is a novel that tells their story.
Will Grayson and Will Grayson are two complete different characters with their own completely different set of problems. Straight Will Grayson and Gay Will Grayson do share one similarity: Tiny.

Tiny is what made this book for me. Tiny is the reason why I want to be in a musical (yes, there are musicals involved in this book).

“Tiny Cooper is not the world's gayest person, and he is not the world's largest person, but I believe he may be the world's largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world's gayest person who is really, really large.”

With an introduction like that you can't really go wrong. But there's more to the book than just Tiny (who scarily resembles some football player I sit next to in history class).The problems that these two boys have to make are real and believable. One's having trouble figuring out who he really is, and the other is discovering that's next after you've come out of the closet. I cried, I laughed, and I loved it.

What I Loved.

The Wittiness. I love wit and snappiness in my characters and these definitely delivered. I mean, when a character says, “dating you would be like a series of unnecessary root canals interspersed with occasional makeout sessions.” you know you've hit the jack pot.
The Sheer Fabulous-ness of Tiny Cooper and his Musical. Is he not fabulous? When he decides to make a musical about his life with lyrics like "I was born this way / Big boned and happily gay / I was born this way / Right here in the U.S.A." there are no words to describe how awesome it gets. This proves it, Lady Gaga stole from Tiny Cooper!
Straight Will Grayson. He's confused that he doesn't know his place in the lives of others. He's upset that his friend named a character in his musical practically after him. And he has to deal with the drama that school comes with. You grow and understand what he's going though because it's totally relatable.
Gay Will Grayson. There are so many books out there that deal with coming out with your sexuality, but there aren't very many books about what happens after. This is one of the few. Will knows who he is, and he's accepted this fact. This story is about him living with it and dealing with his depression that seems to be ever present in his life.
The IMs. Normally I don't like them very much, but it helped tell the story and was very amusing.

What I Didn't Really Like.

The lowercasing of Gay Will Grayson's chapters. I'm going to sound like a complete arse but I like my capitalization the way it is. I got used to it and I totally got what they were trying to convey, but it kind of bugged me.
Maura. She's a bee with an itch.

Should You Read It?

Yes! Go! Be enlightened by Tiny Cooper!

Cover: 3 stars

As pretty as it is, I thought it was going to be some distopian alternate universe sort of story. I only wish it could reveal a little more of what kind of book it is.