If you’ve ever read anything by John Green or David Levithan you know that they focus mainly on complex teen relationships and circumstances. If you’ve ever read Will, Grayson Will Grayson By John Green and David Levithan you know that the complex teen relationships and environments are some of the most enthralling and intense words etched onto about 300 black and white pieces of paper.
Taking place in the suburbs of Chicago, two boys both named Will Grayson, experience challenges and conflicts in high school. Their only connection is the first Will Grayson’s best friend Tiny and his overzealous determination to put on a musical he wrote named Tiny Dancer. It was basically meant to be a biopic of his life and his many, many boyfriends.Throughout the book, Tiny struggles to redefine himself and the musical while the first Will Grayson tries to determine his state of friendship with Tiny and his romantic relationship with the very cute, very curly haired Jane. All the while the second Will Grayson is trying to move on from being tricked by his best friend Maura. Maura, being the ever sneaky ever lying girl created a fake profile of a boy named Isak and tricked the second Will Grayson into thinking it was real. The second Will Grayson and Tiny soon bump into each other and try out a relationship of their own. I’ll leave out any major spoilers but once the musical is put on there are many happy endings that come out of struggle and hardship.
To be honest, the characters in this book are portrayed really well. The first Will Grayson as the brooding introvert who really wants to be noticed by his friends, but believes that not caring is the best way to survive high school. The second Will Grayson as the downtrodden teen who is left wondering why his best friend would betray him in such a way only to find hope in accidentally meeting Tiny even through his struggles with mental illness. Jane the punk rock girl who likes odd bands and going to random concerts with fake id’s and possibly Will Grayson. Maura who so desperately wants to prove the second Will Grayson gay just to further prove her lack of trust and security with people. And last but not least Tiny, the one that brings both Will Grayson’s together (although not until 100 pages in) and somehow manages to rewrite and put on an entire musical in the process. There are other minor characters that I love and don’t impact the story as much as I wish they did. Like second Will Grayson’s mom and his other gay friend Gideon (who is my favorite character, to be honest). Green and Levithan weld these characters together not just by the story but by how they relate to each other through their differences and that comes to portray the perfect sense of friendship.
The journey of both Will Grayson’s is greatly entwined, but surprisingly not because of the two boys with the same name. On the contrary, the two may have the same name but are very different from each other. Throughout the novel, the two only have a heart to heart conversation twice, when they first meet and near the end when they are helping Tiny with his musical. Sometimes I found it odd that the two barely talked or interacted, thinking that the story should be more focused on them and not Tiny. But then I remembered that Tiny’s love for attention was the whole point of the story and was like the center of gravitation that pulled both Will Grayson’s along with himself, together at the end.
The first Will Grayson realizes that he has to see past his stubbornness and pride to make an effort towards his friend and not just be the one who mopes about his problems and is selfish all the time. The second Will Grayson sees that he can’t be needy towards anyone because it ruins any and all relationships he tries to be in. He learns that it’s okay to be confident about himself and accepting of who he is even with his mental illness. Tiny understands that he can’t be the center of attention all the time and that he should still pay attention to his friends even when he is. Jane and the first Will figure out that true relationships take time no matter how many times a cat is put in a box and left for dead. Together this group of friends learns that friendship isn’t easy and actually takes effort and that time sometimes isn’t the best way to heal things, it may only make it worse.
By the conclusion of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Levithan have collected this group of people and created each one to be complex in his or her own way. Each one relatable to the reader and each one seeing their own complex world. Though both Will Grayson’s are different they go through similar problems and feel similar feelings. So if you’re up for crazy emotional roller coasters and boys with the same name trying to find out who they really are and what their meeting really means, you’ll definitely enjoy John Green and David Levithan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
