Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green and David Levithan

“Maybe there’s something you’re afraid to say, or someone you’re afraid to love, or somewhere you’re afraid to go. It’s gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt because it matters.”

Oh my sweet mother of God, John Green, you wrote a book that I completely fell in ‘really-really-like’ with (that was a catastrophically bad pun; PLEASE- my sincerest and deepest apologies to Tiny) Honestly? This book was probably another one of the few masterpieces that I read, and I am glad to say that I can read this book anytime.

My first glance at the cover really hit me with a sci-fi scene, with vibes of an alternate universe that really just screeched out of this world.

However, through the very common and rigorous ritual of madly flipping through and scanning pages like my school’s HP printer, I found out that it was simply about two captivatingly written characters who met under very strange and…unique circumstances that ended up with them and a whole lot of homosexual closet drama.

Why does that sound so suggestive, may you be asking?

I have like, literally no clue. Seriously. No clue. 

It couldn’t possibly be because there’s a really amazing, gay person in this book, could it?

No…

By the way, fair warning but there is a whole BUNCH of strong yet entertaining language with some mild sexual references, so if you are uncomfortable with the likes of this book, I would suggest you to stop reading.

Even though the warning would generally do the opposite of draw me into the pages (repulse, push away, what other words mean the opposite of captivate??), I loved this book!!!

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In this book, we meet two wonderful Will Graysons.

The first is John Green’s Will. This one is a lovable, cute, funny guy and best friends with notably ‘the largest gay guy in the world’ named Tiny. I nicknamed this Will Grayson ‘WG1’ (kinda self explanatory if you know what I mean), and he has this beautiful tendency to notice things about people. 

I really want to go into further depth about this topic for a reason that he’s kind of reminding me of myself. I tend to be quiet and notice a lot of things about certain people, places, things and sometimes write about them too, just in case I need ideas about things. I’ve noticed things about people where they seem to do things like run their hands through their hair when they’re stressed or upset, or drum their fingers on a table when thinking about something. 

Anyways, I sincerely appreciate that WG1 isn’t the kind of guy who tries to ask every cute girl out because there have been a whole bunch of tropes that have SERIOUSLY used that as an overdone cliche. I’m quite happy that he tries to keep a physical and emotional distance from people while observing from afar. Somehow I’m very drawn to people like that, in some sort of introverted way.

Okay that sounded like one really cringy sentence that came from some sort of twisted romance novel. Please no.

Anyway, the second (David Levithan’s) Will Grayson is basically what I’d call an Eeyore. In case you didn’t know, and this may spoil your childhood, but you might have been noticing that Eeyore has (highlight to read) depression. Anyways, Will is a true, inside-the-closet, gothic, 100% homosexual, expresso depresso guy who is a complete cinnamon roll. He’s so cute, and fluffy, and sweet, and soft that this book would’ve been so incomplete without the likes of my WG2’s personality. 

So this Will Grayson was actually David Levithan’s WG. This was my first book by David Levithan, and honestly I just gotta say that I completely fell in love with his writing style. I was so drawn by the way he wrote, and I think two things that were clearly and plainly evident but still endearing was the use of no capitalization, and also how he made dialogue look like people instant messaging each other. That might seem weird to some people but to me it was so interesting to witness another kind of style that didn’t really follow the norms of general grammar.

Then, there’s Tiny Cooper. 

To be frank with you, this book ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ was actually not completely about both WGs. It was really starring Tiny Cooper, a guy nicknamed the world’s largest gay person. Not necessarily the most gay or the most large, but the most ultimate combination of both, which made me love him immediately. 

However, Tiny Cooper was quite a cliche, stereotypical character. I hate to say this but many people who will read this book will probably not love him as much as I did. Instead of finding his actions quite overused in books, I found him very intriguing and charming, and frankly a well-written character, so props to JG and DL. 

I think one part that I really enjoyed reading in the book was the songs from Tiny’s musical. They’re about Tiny’s life, and about what it’s like being gay and completely, out of the blue homosexual, and even though some of the verses have bad language, I love them because they’re so freaking realistic and that’s what I like the most about this kind of writing: the authors try to relate the characters to real life people. 

Even though it was somewhat difficult to connect to the characters in the beginning, I think it was worth it to read a book like this. Honestly, what would I do with myself if I didn’t have a website to share these things on??

The one thing I kind of hate about underrated books like this one is that there is, like, virtually no fanart, which makes me kind of sad but also happy to draw fanart for books. Anyways, that’s all for this review, so thanks for reading!!