I’m rounding down on this one for now, after weeks (months) of letting it sit in limbo because I couldn’t make up my mind how I felt about it. But this is a true 3.5 star book right here. Parts of it I loved and found very funny and charming and parts of irritated the hell out of me. The ending is very heartwarming and the characters are ultimately lovable. I think I might have just missed my window on loving this one. Too bad, I’ve owned it for six plus years. Should have read it sooner.
As the title might have conveyed to you, there are two Will Graysons: Will Grayson and will grayson (sigh). Both are teenaged boys living in Illinois dealing with the pangs and sorrows and joys of young adulthood. Will has a gay best friend named Tiny Cooper and wishes to spend his life as invisibly as possible despite having a best friend who enjoys the spotlight so much he wrote a musical about his life, which the school is letting him cast and perform. will grayson is clinically depressed closeted gay kid and in an online relationship with someone named Isaac he’s about to meet for the first time.
Both boys have darkly funny POVs. Will Grayson’s sections are written by John Green and will grayson’s are written by David Levithan, who I think I can safely say is not one of my favorite authors. I tried reading one of his books several years ago and didn’t even make it past the first chapter. It just felt too affected to me. This felt the same. I eventually warmed to will grayson, but I really didn’t like him and his negativity and his snobbishness at first. Later, we see more of his vulnerability. I think that early part of the book is the main reason I don’t want to give this a full four stars. I thought Will Grayson’s sections were enjoyable right from the start. I was never a teenage boy, but those sections felt very authentic to me anyway. I liked the mix of self-consciousness and emotional vulnerability that Will was always portraying.
That the book in the end turns out to be about how important love in friendship is really won me over in the end. Plus, Tiny Cooper is a great character. He could very easily be a caricature, but he also felt very real to me. So, I liked this but didn’t love it.
[3.5 stars]
Read Harder Challenge 2021: Read a book set in the Midwest.