Well, after coming off of the excellence that was Turtles All the Way Down, I’ve got to say that the collaborative effort on Will Grayson, Will Grayson was a bit of a letdown. Written in alternating chapters by authors John Green and David Levithan, they both write about the lives of two very different Will Graysons. At some point, their worlds converge and comingle a little bit and the results are interesting.
I am also thinking that this book should have been called Tiny Cooper instead? He is a major character that is involved in both Will Grayson’s lives a lot. In fact, he might be talked about the most in this book. At any rate, he seems to be the most fleshed out character! All I really know about Will Grayson #1 is that he would rather just not be noticed, but his friendship with Tiny ruins that. It takes him the whole novel to realize that he doesn’t actually hate that Tiny is his best friend, which…kind of makes him a shitty friend! It also takes him almost the whole novel to realize it’s okay to like and date someone…especially if they like you back. It’s briefly touched on that Will might be asexual, but that thread is dropped almost as soon as it’s mentioned. Like I said, most of Will’s thoughts in this novel are spent thinking about how irritating Tiny is, when in reality, Will kind of sucks.
Don’t get me wrong, Will Grayson #2 sucks, too. Just in vastly different ways. At a glance, he seems to be the exact opposite of the first Will Grayson, who despite being oblivious, is quite smart and generally well-liked. This Will Grayson basically holds up two middle fingers to life and makes it his mission to have no relationships whatsoever. That includes a girl who is clearly pining for him named Maura, and his mother. He does however, make time for a guy on the internet named Isaac (obviously a catfish!). Will justifies his awfulness because of severe depression. I guess I can’t really add a comment here since I don’t suffer from depression. Maybe I’d be awful to everything, too.
It’s when Will #2 goes to meet up with his catfish that his world collides with Will #1. It’s also when he meets Tiny and the two start dating. That’s a major part of Tiny’s story, but the other part is that he’s making a play, first to be about himself, then it later morphs to being about love. If it wasn’t abundantly clear throughout the story, Tiny is an integral part of all of these people’s lives, but he never really gets the respect he deserves from either Will Grayson. I mean, the two of them sort of make it up to Tiny in the end, but I think Tiny just needs to move past high school and make theater major friends in college.
Overall, this book was sort of a pain to get through, and perhaps the most ridiculous teen novel I have read in quite some time. And if it’s not obvious by now, I read a lot of those. John Green’s written better, so read those. As for David Levithan, I would have to assume the same thing to be true. Skip this and pick something else from these two.