Me on Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green & David Levithan
Release Date: April 6, 2010
Publisher: Dutton
Pages: 310 (Hardcover)

Twitter was all abuzz when this book came out, possibly because it turns out I follow a lot of John Green and David Levithan fans. I felt indifferent, it sounded like an interesting book, I stuck it on my to-read list, but it wasn't that high in terms of desire to read and priority. When I went to the giant library downtown on February 19th (in the morning, my recent ankle breaking accident happened that afternoon), I saw it on the shelf and grabbed it, figured why not.

Meet Will Grayson. His family's pretty average, school's okay, and his best friend Tiny Cooper, who wants to put on a musical about his life as a big, loud, gay person, is the biggest, loudest, gayest person he knows.

Meet Will Grayson. He lives in an apartment with his mom, has one friend named Maura who he sort of avoids, takes pills because he's depressed, and is kind of having a secret IM relationship with someone he met online, a guy names Issac.

A chance encounter bring Will Grayson and Will Grayson together late one cold Chicago night and throw them together, maybe not always directly, but still together.

I found this book to be unexpectedly funny and heartfelt. Of course, I wasn't sure what to expect at the beginning, considering I've never read any John Green and the only David Levithan book I've read is his recent co-written with Rachel Cohn Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (that might be a lie, I think I tried to read Looking for Alaska a few years ago and didn't completely focus on it while reading it).

It tries to make you think like some contemporary books do, in terms of connections and life and relationships and people and what makes us do what we do as people who try to be normal but feel like we're complete freaks on the inside. Everyone has some stuff happen to them that makes them think they're weirder than everyone else, whether it be a big loud gay friend or an odd semi-compulsion to be negative and depressed or not knowing what you want in life until it's almost too late or getting a fake ID that fails to get you into an over 21 club because it says you're only 19 (or 20, I don't remember).

This book was a refreshing contemporary insight into completely believable and realistic characters, showing us that sure, life isn't perfect and we're all weird in some way or another, but sometimes chance encounters can bring us together and change the way we see life for the better. And that love and affection and appreciation can bring together anyone.