Reading: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

I picked up this book because I thought it would be the perfect for me. Back cover description: 

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with... Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage. 

 I had read books by John Green and David Levithan before so combining them into one book was like this unbeatable dynamic duo. I immediately latched on to the idea of meeting someone with the same name because as a Liz with a fairly common surname this could potentially happen to me. Add in a musical and I .

What I learned is I really need to stop reading back covers because I get all caught up in how I think it will go based on that brief description and it is almost never right. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book at all. It's more like that feeling that people get when they see a movie based on a book. They always say "Well, I imagined it differently and the book is much better." Same deal here. 

There is no doubt to who wrote which chapter. John Green inserted his typical nerdy tone of an average kid with few friends while David Levithan experimented with form in his chapters. For example, Levithan's will grayson spends much of his time online so capitalization is rarely used and dialogue is told as if it it was being messaged.

 Did it replace the other books I read by these two authors? No. There wasn't enough emotional resonance for it ever to achieve that. But I don't mind that at all. Though the book wasn't life-changing, it was a very pleasant read to distract yourself from whatever might be bothering you.

Thinking of my favorite part, I thoroughly enjoyed John Green's opening chapter about picking friends, picking noses, and picking your friend's nose. And no, the book did not suffer a shortage of musical numbers. In fact, there was a bonus musical number in the back where John Green and David Levithan discussed how the book came into being. Now it just needs a soundtrack...


Some videos about the book that might spark your interest more than I might have done here in this post.
[ John Green reading an excerpt of the first chapter ] [ John Green promoting the book on its Amazon page ]