Published: April 6, 2010 by: Dutton Books
Pages: 310
Rating 3/5 Stars
*highlight white text to reveal spoilers*
Will Grayson, Will Grayson is the hilarious story of high school student Will Grayson, and his journey to find out who he really wants to be. Will lives in the shadow of his only friend: the amazingly confident Tiny Cooper. When Tiny casts Will as one of the main characters in the school musical, Will begins to think that it's the end of the world. Until by a chance of fate, he meets another boy downtown who just so happens to be named: Will Grayson. Together, the pair try to help each other through their paths of self-discovery, and end up creating the best school musical ever.
I absolutely love both Green's and Levithan's writing. They both brought great things to the table, however I do think that the book could have been executed better.
What I really liked about this book, is that is was incredibly unique. I haven't read anything like this before. The concept was so original, and the plot was very interesting. There was nothing predictable about it. I also loved how diverse the characters were. In most romance books, there is a focus on a straight couple. However this book's focus, was on a gay couple. If there's one thing that annoys me about books with couples, it's that they are mostly not diverse. I loved this change, and I can honestly say that Will and Tiny are now one of my favourite OTP's.
I really liked the character development in the story. Self-discovery plays an important role in the book, and it was amazing to see the characters change. All of the characters were so incredible, and not one person annoyed me in this book.
There were some negatives to this book :( . For starters, it was extremely hard to follow. There were two people with the same name, and no direction as to which Will was speaking. The book was told from the alternating Will's, but it was so hard to find out which Will's POV it was.
I also feel like there were some parts to the book that were not needed. One idea would come along that would mean nothing in the next chapter. Some parts payed no attention to the overall plot and in my opinion, didn't have a reason to be in there.
Overall, this book was so humorous, and a great pick-me-up. I do wish there was more direction though :( . That is why it got a 3/5 rating.
Have you read Will Grayson? What did you think?
Emily @ Paperback Princess
I enjoyed Will Grayson, Will Grayson mainly because of Tiny. Omg he was so over-the-top and I loved that about him! I actually found the gay Will Grayson to be more interesting than the straight Will, but I do agree, the book was pretty hilarious! David actually just released a book called Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story. Girl I snatched it up so fast, and even though I haven't read it yet, I skimmed some pages just to see what the inside looked like, (am I the only one who does this?) and it's told in the format of a play!
ReplyDeleteTiny was honestly the best character of that book! Gay Will was a bit more interesting to me too just because he was much more dynamic. Straight Will was so negative on everything! I've seen Hold Me Closer on goodreads and I need to pick it up! I love play-like books!
DeleteThis was the first John Green book I've read so I'll always have a little bit of a soft spot for it, but to be honest Green isn't really an author I rate too highly. I think he often tries way too hard to both be funny, which results in some totally unrealistic dialogue, and overly diverse (seriously, in every single one of his books the cast of characters are all racially diverse, and then there's the occasional homosexual character for good measure). I don't feel that the latter is a bad thing at all, but it does seem to me that Green is really fishing for compliments by showing everyone how diverse his books are.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, this book is pretty decent. I actually had no problem telling which Will was speaking, mainly because the two parts were written in different fonts. While the plot was decent. the characters, I felt, were pretty stale. They were just the same as all of Green's other books and the dialogue, while it was pretty entertaining, was totally unrealistic (seriously, nobody talks like they do in John Green books. Nobody). I also thought the ending was really cheesy, unrealistic, and a huge let down.
Anyway, I did like some things in this book. I liked the way the two authors managed to have the dual narratives flow well together and the plot was, in general, fairly different from Green's other books. Overall, I'd probably give this 5/10, but I'll always have a soft spot for it.
This was the book that also introduced me to the band Neutral Milk Hotel (yes, they actually exist. In case you don't know they are probably the most well respected and influential indie band of all time) so I'll always be grateful for John Green for that. Great review!
Thanks, Killian! I do agree that John Green's characters are quite similar from book to book, but I do love them anyways. I also thought that the two author's writing worked together perfectly, and that it wasn't a typical John Green book. I've never listened to Neutral Milk Hotel, but it's cool that this book got your start! Discovering new music is the best :)
DeleteMy only problem with this novel is that I don't really like John Green, don't ask me why but he's just seems kind of... unsympathetic to me. Plus I think his novels are overhyped, good but still overhyped. Anyhow, two of of my friend read and loved this novel so I'm interested but still. Thanks for the awesome review, now I honestly don't think this is for me haha. :))
ReplyDeleteI don't think this book was for everyone, but it was still impressive. Thanks Veronika!
DeleteThe summary of this book seems indeed unique. But I'm not the biggest fan of John Green, so I have my little doubts as well. As for the names, it might get pretty confusing, but I'm pretty sure that it won't be like A Hundred Years of Solitude, where everyone had the same or similar name (and we're talking about three generations of the same family). Anyway, it's one of the books I keep in mind. :)
ReplyDeleteIt was very unique! Wow, that book must be very confusing!
DeleteI really want to read this book!I am not a huge fan of John Green-despite loving The Fault in Our Stars,I didn't enjoy his other books-but I am quite curious about David Levithan.I've always wanted to try out his books.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely recommend this to you! I really like David Levithan :)
Deletehaven't read this book, might have to because john green is one of my fav authors! great post sister!
ReplyDeleteI would highly recommend it to you! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI haven't read this book before, but I think I might give it a try!
ReplyDeleteIt was very cute!
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