Book 56 of 2014: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

I realise I'm still reviewing the books that I read last year. At some point I will have a massive week long catch up with three posts a day and be totally up to date. Or I won't and I'll remain safe in the knowledge that I've got a guaranteed Tuesday blog post every week between now and March 2017.

Anyway. Last year everyone online was talking about this fantastic book they'd read called The Fault in Our Stars by some guy called John Green. Well, my usual tactic when everyone is raving about a book is to avoid it like the plague; it's the reason why I didn't get into Harry Potter until Goblet of Fire because too much hype turns me off.

But The Fault in Our Stars and John Green kept cropping up everywhere I went until in July I was in Glasgow, I finished my book and decided I had to buy some more reading material for the journey home. A quick trip to Waterstones where they were having a 'buy one, get one half price' sale on John Green books and I came away with The Fault in Our Stars and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

It promptly sat on my bookshelf for five months until I finally got around to reading it in the run up to Christmas.

It's written from the perspective of two boys, both named Will Grayson, who lead very different lives and happen to run into one another by chance one night. And from that moment on they find their lives are taking them in very different new directions. It's a story of love and friendship, and how tough it is being a teenager.

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I was vaguely aware that the two authors had taken a character and would be writing all of that character's chapters. I liked that idea because I knew that it would give the characters really distinctive voices; it's actually a writing technique that I would love to try myself sometime, I think it would make a great NaNoWriMo project. Although I wasn't sure what to expect, I really did enjoy it.

I was slightly annoyed when I accidentally spoiled part of the ending for myself. Here's a hint, if you're reading a book, don't look it up on TV Tropes until after you've finished it. You might read something that gives away the ending.

It's hard to talk about the characters in a book when two of them share the same name. Of the two Wills, the one who appears in the story first was my favourite. I liked him right from the beginning and I enjoyed his relationship with Jane. Though as the book went on I found that the second Will grew on me.

One thing that did bug me a little in the beginning was the fact that the second Will's bits were all written in lowercase with no capitals. It's one of those little niggly things and I thought it was going to drive me crazy through the book. Well, it didn't. I actually reached a point somewhere before halfway through the book where I honestly think I stopped noticing. That should be a lesson to me; I will not let quirky grammar issues put me off a book.

I'm definitely a fan of John Green now and I'll be looking out for his books in the future. And I enjoyed my first exposure to David Levithan so I'm sure I'll pick up more by him in the future.


And if anyone's looking for someone to co-author a book with them, let me know, it looks like fun.