BOOK REVIEW 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson'

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

By: John Green and David Levithan

For any of you Oak Forest High School students that also happen to read the school newspaper, this title may seem familiar to you. On a side note, it you don't read Vedas, pick up an issue! The staff works really hard for that newspaper. I did a review on the book for the paper, but I'd like to take this week to go into more depth, and be more critical and opinionated. 

The premise of the book is fairly simple, we have two high schoolers with the same name, Will Grayson. The novel follows the story of a very, how can I put this ummmm.... strange meeting, and how their lives intertwine and change after that.

One Will, the one written by John Green, lives by a set of rules, all revolving around the idea that the less attached you are to people, the less you feel and get hurt. The only person he really allows himself to care about is his best friend, Tiny, who may or may not be the best character in this novel. This creates some problems for him and him overcoming this is his major contribution to the plot.

The other will from what I gathered, is depressed. Also, nothing in his chapters is ever capitalized, one reason being that it creates more of a distinction between the two characters, another being that the character doesn't think very much of himself. In away he is kind of a lowercase person because he see's himself as less important and things to take notice of are always capitalized. His chapters have more of a somber tone to them and the only time he ever really seems to be happy is when he is talking online to Issac, a friend that he has never met, that he treats as a more then friend and is pretty much his main source of light in this life. An online friend that you probably have feelings for and have never met before... hmmmm... let's see who can guess how this is going to end.....  

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. Both of the Wills were very unique and different people then I have ever seen in a book before and the development they went through is still some of the best I have ever seen. I especially loved Tiny Cooper. The giant, over the top, and loud best friend Will #1. To directly quote the book in Tiny's description, "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." Yep, that's Tiny, and god is he entertaining. For most of the novel he is trying to get Will to play the part of 'Phil Rayson' in his life story musical 'Tiny Dancer: The Tiny Cooper Story' and has probably 10 new boyfriends over the course of 300 pages. 

But this novel did fall into the pit of my most common problem with books, the end. A book ending has to be really good in order for me to be satisfied, and sadly this one fell a little bit short of my expectations. It just didn't seem to sum up the novel correctly and was a little bit random and forced.

If you do decide to read it, and I do recommend the book, try getting the audiobook for it. The first time I read it, I listened to it and for me it just added something. The character voices and the actors that played both of the Wills really helped set the tone of the book and keep my interested. Also, it helps take away some of the confusion with the two same-named characters because each Will is voiced by a different actor and it can help keep the two straight.  

Pages: 310

Read In: absolutely no idea

Rating: 7/10

Ages: 14- up

The Four Categories: romance, and high school problems