Book Review: 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson' by John Green and David Levithan

Just finished this book about half an hour ago, so hoping the details are still fairly vivid in my memory, but we'll see!

Having read two other novels by John Green novels, I have wanted for a while to read more. My sister bought 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson' a year or more ago but I didn't really remember about it until I was looking for something to read. It took me a while longer than it usually would to get through it, due to study for prelims (which are all done now... yay!), but there was no rush.

Brief Summary: two will Grayson's meet coincidently. Both at similar stages of their lives and fighting different battles, the novel follows them through good times and struggles with the aim of providing truthful conclusions on the topic of love: romantic, family, and friendship.

I'd never read a novel by more than one author before, or at least not as far as I can remember. It turns out that Green and Levithan wrote alternating chapters, each in charge of bringing to life one of the Will Graysons, but I didn't realise this until I was close to completing the book which indicates that the novel flowed and interlinked well.

One of the two Wills' chapters were written entirely in lower case. This annoyed me to start with but soon just became a natural part of the reading of the book- and was exceptionally useful when I lost track of which Will was narrating!

The main theme that grasped me in the novel was that two of the characters (one of the Will Graysons and the ginormous best friend, ironically named Tiny, of the other WG) were gay, and this was a topic which played a major part in the storyline. Having never actually read a book from the point of view of a homosexual character (again, as far as I remember!) this was very interesting for me, and a nice change. I felt that difficulties for young gay boys and their coping mechanisms, not that I'm an expert on the topic, were dealt with well and made for an interesting read.

Furthermore, mental ill health was a fundamental pert, and this always interests me when its handled sensitively. The descriptions of the character in question's difficult episodes was so vivid and realistic, at least for someone unable to entirely understand what it must be like. What I liked about it was that, although mental illness helped the reader to relate to the character, it did not become so central to the plot that I would go as far to say that that was what the book was about, because it wasn't.

The book was about growing up, finding your feet, and friendship, for the most part. It mostly related well to actual teenage life. I would say that I was slightly disappointed by the ending, as I found it a little bit cliché/cheesy and felt that the authors tried a bit too hard to impart wisdom, as opposed to allowing the reader to naturally draw their own meaning from what was a powerful overall story line.

But the entire thing certainly had me hooked and I would highly recommend- particularly if you're in your teens or struggling with love, relationships, mental illness or your sexuality.  It may be my favourite John Green novel so far, but they're all so different it's very difficult to make an accurate comparison. Either way, it's fairly fabulous.