Book Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green & David Levithan
Genre: Young Adult
Source: library
Published: April 6, 2010 by Dutton Children’s

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 of them legions of faithful fans.

My Thoughts:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a story about two teen-aged guys, with the same name, whose paths cross and intertwine.

Will Grayson lives in Evanston, Illinois. (He will be referred to as Will-E for this review.) He has two rules that he lives by: (1) Shut up and (2) Don’t care too much. He flies under the radar for the most part. He’s been best friends with Tiny Cooper (the 300-pound, loud, proud, look-at-me-I’m-gay guy that everybody loves) since they were in grade school.

Tiny is flamboyant, vivacious and screams confidence. He's definitely used to being the center of attention.  He's the guy that everybody likes and falls in love with, whether you are gay or straight. And he falls in love more often than he changes his underwear! Tiny is putting on the high school musical of the year and steals the show in this book. 

Then there’s Jane. Will-E doesn’t know if she’s gay or straight and he doesn’t know if he likes her or not. Will-E doesn’t date much and lacks skills in that department. Tiny tries his hand at match-maker by trying to hook up Will-E and Jane.

Will Grayson lives in Naperville, Illinois. (He will be referred to as Will-N for this review.) Will-N lives about an hour away from Will-E. He is depressed, angry and bitter. But at the same time, he just wants to be loved. He, like Will-E, doesn’t have many friends. There’s Maura, who understands his dark humor and puts up with his shit (and vice-versa). But Will-N can only take Maura so much before she starts to irritate him. He can only stand her in small doses. Derek and Simon are the computer geeks who Will-N sits with at lunch. The three of them are also on the Mathletes together.

Will-E was suppose to be with Tiny and Jane at a 21 and over club, to watch a band perform, but his fake ID turned out to be a dud (the ID stated he was 20 instead of 21). While Tiny and Jane get inside, Will-E walks around town killing time before they all ride home together. He ends up using his dud fake ID to get into a porn shop where he is greeted with:

“You browsing or you want tokens?”

Poor guy has no idea what he walked into! Wisely, Will-E chooses browsing.

Will-N is going to meet Isaac, his online boyfriend, for the very first time. The two have been chatting online for about a year and have decided that it’s finally time to meet in real life. Isaac suggests the two meet at a place called Frenchy’s, a place that Isaac’s friend recommended. Will-N arrives at Frenchy’s only to find out that it’s a porn shop.

As Will-E is paying for a magazine (a gag gift for Tiny for abandoning him), Will-N walks in. And this is where the two worlds of the two Will Graysons collide. Both being left abandoned, they sit outside on the curb and share their sorrows with each other. Things don’t pan out between Will-N and Isaac. But that turns out okay because Tiny takes Isaac’s place in Will-N heart and ends up being the common thread that binds the two Will Graysons.

You might be thinking that it would be easy to get the two Will Grayson’s confused and mixed up while reading this book but Green and Levithan did an excellent job of separating the two narratives. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is told with alternating POVs in alternating chapters. The story from Will-E’s POV is grammatically correct, whereas the story from Will-N’s POV is in all lower case (even the names are in lower case). So it is easy to tell right from the start who’s POV you are reading.

The premise for the book definitely caught my attention but the book blurb doesn’t even give you a smidge of what’s to come. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a laugh-out-loud funny read that will capture your heart at the same time. This story left me with goose bumps (in a very good way). As I turned the last page and read the final line, I closed the book and thought to myself WOW!

You definitely do not want to miss out on this fabulous collaboration!

First line:

When I was little, my dad used to tell me, “Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”

I normally don’t give book acknowledgments a second thought (or mention them in reviews) but the ones in this book are worth taking at look at. It’s at the back of the book and let me just say that this isn’t your usual list of acknowledgments.

Brianna’s Rating:

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