Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Read for: This review

I loved this book!  I have to admit, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it.  For some reason I seem to have some kind of mind block about books that are written by more than one person.  I don’t know why.  Probably because a really long time ago I read a collaborative book and it sucked and somehow I just attributed the suckiness to the fact that two people worked on the book, when in reality it was probably something else entirely!

Anyway, this one was about two teenage boys named Will Grayson who both live in the Chicago area but have never met.  One night, through a set of funny and sad circumstances, they come into each other’s lives.  Even though they don’t really become friends, they each eventually gain something from each other.

The characters in the book were so real and likable.  Especially Tiny Cooper, the first Will Grayson’s best friend.  I think he was my favourite character.  As I read the book, the way I felt about each character changed.  Sometimes I liked them and other times I was annoyed by them.  I think this is why they felt so real to me, because this is how we feel about the real people in our life.  Sometimes they are awesome and other times we get ticked at them.

I also love John Green’s writing.  I’ve never read anything by David Levithan before but I think the two writing styles worked well together. (They wrote alternating chapters for each of the Wills.)  They styles were different enough that each character had his own voice but similar enough that book book flowed well.  And I loved the ending.  I had no idea where the story was taking me, but I really liked where it ended up.