Book Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson By: John Green & David Levithan

"'It's been a bit of a crazy day for Will Graysons everywhere'" 

(P. 111)

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green & David Levithan
PAPERBACK
Amount of Pages: 310
Publisher: Speak
Release Date: April 6, 2010
From: Library
I was not paid for this interview~




Summary (From the back of the book): One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high school stage.

Wdebo's Review: Our names are always seen as something that belongs to and defines us so the idea of someone having the same name and especially being able to meet them is just such a strange little concept. (It even made it as a challenge for GISHWHES). So the concept of the story was very interesting and the fact that it has two superstar authors writing it out just made it a book that I've been meaning to read for ages. Though it was an enjoyable book (especially given that I live in the Chicago suburbs so it made it easier to picture the areas and scenarios), there were parts that I was just not entirely satisfied with.

Both John Green and David Levithan are a couple of authors that I really like and have been reading from since high school. I like how well their styles, though different, blended into a well formed duet of voices. However, though I did relatively enjoy the story there were still some parts that I had to question. As much as I've enjoyed most of the John Green's books, it's not hard to notice how he relies on his one go to character, the male protagonist who pines over the beautiful and pretentious manic pixie dream girl. Though each book's male and female character do differ, they all basically follow the same path and this book is no different. Though Will and Jane's story is similar to other John Green books, I do honestly love John Green's writing and so it's still fun to read even if I can pretty much figure out what will happen from the beginning. There is just something about his writing that makes it enthralling even if all of stories do follow the same pattern.

On the other hand, though I typically do like David Levithan's writing, I was just not feeling the beginning of Naperville Will Grayson's story. It seemed to be trying too hard to capture that angsty teenage voice and just came off as annoying. However, as the story gradually continued he became a slightly more likeable character, which I was happy about, because I would not have liked to dislike a whole half of a book.

I also find it finally how even though the title is the two protagonists' names, the story, especially from the middle onwards seemed to be focusing the most, not the the male leads, but on the ironically named Tiny. Towards the end, it seemed to be Tiny that showed his growth and depth the most. Even the protagonists seem to be side characters to the one man show that is Tiny Cooper. On the plus side, he was a very entertaining character so it was not a con just surprising.

Cafe Cover Chat: The light background is a fun little touch especially since the story is trying to structure and market itself as a fabulous musical. (B+) 

All in all, though there are some issues to the book. It does have some fabulous authors to create a fun little novel to help entertain the readers for a few hours.

Grade: B

Wdebo :)