Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan Published: 2010 (Dutton Books, a member of Penguin Group)
Pages: 308
Summary: Will Grayson, meet Will Grayson 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. - Taken from blurb.
Available here.
Hello, everyone!

I've finally added Will Grayson, Will Grayson to my "read" list. Finally!

I do not say "finally" because this was a bad book, more because it did take me a long time to finish it. I started this book around a year and a half ago on my Kindle, but simply couldn't enjoy it. Something I now know was because I just didn't like it in that format, which is the case with a lot of books for me. It was on offer in W H Smiths when I bought TFIOS so of course, I snapped it up, and it's sat on my TBR shelf/pile ever since. Truthfully, I only started reading this because I can't read any new books until I get through the majority of my TBR (even though this isn't stopping me from buying new ones.)

I'll stop myself babbling now and just get on with the review.

This book is about two teenage boys, both called Will Grayson, and both slightly disenchanted with their lives. Their lives intersect completely out of the blue and they form an unlikely friendship. Each Will narrates the book, taking a chapter each.

Personally, I prefer the first Will (Ch 1 Will) to the second (CH 2 Will), he is more believable in my opinion. CH 2 Will is more overly pessimistic. Your standard angst ridden teenager, he's not exactly a pleasure to read, and while he does develop it's hard to shake the initial feeling that his attitude is, to say the least, annoying and tedious. Their opening lines show exactly who they are as characters, and I think that perhaps the author of CH2 Will (I believe this was David Levithan, please correct me if I'm wrong) should have been more careful in his choice as, for me at least, it ruined the character no matter how much he developed.

CH 1 Will: When I was little, my dad used to tell me, "Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friends nose." This seemed like a reasonably astute observation to me when I was eight, but it turns out to be incorrect on a few levels.

CH 2 Will: i am constantly torn between killed myself and killing everyone around me.

As a frequent YA reader, I dislike these types of characters, they're unrealistic and uninteresting. That aside, as the story progressed, ignoring CH 2 Will's attitude became slightly easier as he got into more interesting, dramatic situations. The scenario in which he met CH 1 Will was perfect, and completely unexpected.

Unlike most of John Green's writing this book didn't give me any strong emotions, CH 1 Will's best friend Tiny made me laugh on occasion, but other than that, nothing. I haven't read very many of David Levithan's books, so I can't make any observations on his writing.

My main complaint for this book is the ending. Although the Will Grayson's were a pretty interesting touch, the ending left much to be desired for me and it was not what I wanted.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it. I probably wont ever read it again. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.