Will Grayson, Will Grayson, a review by Sydney

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Authors: John Green and David Levithan

Format that I read: eBook

Price: $8.99

Plot: Two young men, completely and utterly opposites are both growing up and going to high school in/around Chicago, and then, one evening, the cross paths and their lives change.

        

One of the Will Graysons has yet to “discover” his sexuality, the other finds his love to be right in front of him. However, this is not a cliché love story. The story goes back and forth from the perspectives of each character every other chapter. In the beginning of the story, it is not exactly clear that the perspectives are changing from character to character.

Character Analysis:

      

Will Grayson: Goes to school in Chicago and has yet to truly discover his sexuality. He first thinks that he is in love with his online friend, but then he discovers that it was all a fluke. However, throughout the novel he becomes more sensitive and more at peace with himself and others, as opposed to being more hotheaded and aggressive. He seems to not be too motivated towards the beginning of the book, but in the end his motivation is love. (Sounds cliché, right?)

        

Will Grayson: Lives in the nice suburbs of Chicago. He doesn’t really understand how significant his best friend, Tiny, is until he has competition. Will slowly falls in love to someone that has always been there, yet he has been too oblivious to notice. In the beginning of the book, he doesn’t seem to care about much, kind of a whatever kind of guy. Throughout the book, he becomes more motivated when he falls for a girl, Tiny’s musical, and his friendship with Tiny.

        

Tiny: Tiny is one Will’s best friend, and the other Will’s love. The “Chicago” Will Grayson and Tiny meet up in Chicago when Tiny is headed out after a concert and Will his meeting his so-called “internet love”, Isaac. Will becomes upset when things don’t go as planned with Isaac. Then Tiny and Will coincidentally meet, and everything changes. Tiny is motivated by writing his musical and Will Grayson and all of his other “boy crushes”. Tiny begins to find himself through the plot of his musical.

      

Theme: This book is important because it contains a myriad of beneficial themes like self-acceptance, being true to you, and not giving up. It is important to understand these themes because they are significant life lessons that you can extrapolate.

Strengths, Weaknesses…: The book was very entertaining; I couldn’t really put it down when I started it. It is full of surprises- for the better, and the worse. The writing was written in such a way that was very powerful to me, and I was able to kind of comprehend how each character was feeling, and I really enjoyed that aspect. When compared to other books I’ve read, I would have to put this in my top ten, at least. I could honestly say that there really are no weaknesses for this novel, perhaps maybe less cursing next time, but hey, it happens. I can’t really choose a favorite part of the book, but if I really had to, I would choose the scene during the musical because a lot of very important things happen during this time.

Book Ending: The ending of this book was pretty satisfying. My only concerns were that I just did not want the book to end… it could have gone on and on without it getting irritating. The ending was good because all of the puzzle pieces kind of started to “fit together”.

Rating: 5/5 chocolate bars

Book Cover: The cover isn’t really too catchy, I probably would not have picked it if it weren’t for Mrs. Hoole’s appealing book talk on it.

Appropriateness: The book contains explicit themes and language. I would recommend this book to a mature audience, however I think that it has to do with your comfort level and also parental consent.