April 18, 2010

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Date Started: April 15, 2010
Date Finished: April 18, 2010

Summary: Will Grayson 1 lives his life getting dragged through the dirt by his fabulously gay and overweight friend, Tiny Cooper. He floats by on life by following two rules 1) Don't care too much. 2. Shut up. Will Grayson 2, is gay, lonely, and depressed (really, he's on medication for it) and is in love with someone he met on the internet. One fateful night due to a messed up Fake ID and a falsified love connection, the two Will Graysons meet and change each others lives forever.

Likes: This book reminds me if you took John Green's Paper Towns and David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy and combined it with Nick and Norah's Playlist that Levithan wrote with Rachel Cohn. Yet the story is it's own story. I didn't sit their reading through the book thinking about what the book reminded me of,but looking back on it, I can see different threads and reminders of the characters in his story. I liked all the characters surprisingly. I didn't think I'd like Gay Will Grayson because at first he comes off as whiny and annoying, but as I got to know more about his character I felt empathetic to his situation and understood why he didn't feel like he deserved to be loved. Non gay Will Greyson is an interesting character. He's smart, but his passive-aggressive ways are irritating until he does finally take some action and as a reader I was like "Thank God!" The story reminds me of my high school days and I could relate to the character's experiences. I like Jane too, she's a refreshing departure from the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

Dislikes: It takes a long time for the two Will Graysons to meet and the story drags a little from time to time. I thought the lack of capitalization in one of the Will Grayson's would bother me, but it didn't, but if you're a grammar nazi, then it might not be your grammatical cup of tea. I wanted to know more about Tiny and his home life. I mean, his name can't really be Tiny, can it?

Overall: I enjoyed this book and I think that Green and Levithan work really well together and their styles and interpretations of each other's characters were well written. I hope that they will work together again. I want them to take more risks with their characters as well.

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