I may up my rating after I have had a chance to mull this audiobook over. I found it slow at the beginning but the last third was excellent. ( )

I would give this book 10 stars if i could. Will Grayson, Will Grayson will speak to a part of yourself that you have bottled up. Every once in a while there will be a book that will gently force you into seeing the world a little bit differently. Will Grayson, Will Grayson was that book for me. This book, this story of lives and how they become intertwined, is the story of what it means to grow up. It is the story of loving yourself and loving others, for exactly who they are. ( )

I don't really want to write this review because I know I am in the very slim company of people who didn't totally love this book. Don't get me wrong - - it's a good book, and I can see why people might absolutely love it. I just didn't.

The book is creatively told in alternating chapters by two different teenaged boys, both named Will Grayson. Apparently Green authored one Will Grayson and Levithan authored the other. I much preferred Levithan's chapters to Green's although I should forewarn you that he's not big on capitalization or punctuation. But his Will Grayson was darker, and yet also funnier, and his character arc was more poignant. He also happens to be gay.

The Green's Grayson has a best friend, Tiny Cooper. Tiny is very large and also very gay. He's an intriguing character who is full of life and love for his friends and passion for writing a play called Tiny Dancer. Which is really a story about himself.

The two Graysons do not know each other, but end up meeting midway through the book, and from there, the story revolves around their relationships with Tiny Cooper.

It's very hard to explain why I didn't love this book without revealing spoilers. I couldn't help but feel that the whole book was like an episode of Glee (a show I similarly enjoyed a bit, but didn't love). The character of Tiny Cooper is just a little too unrealistic and over the top for me to actually empathize with him, and because I really didn't, the ending wasn't powerful for me. If you loved this character and read more into him than was actually written, you were likely to find the ending very moving.

I was MUCH more invested in Levithan's Will Grayson, and I felt like his story was sort of unfinished and less wrapped up. Something really horrible happens to this Will Grayson, and I felt as though it was treated seriously initially, but then later was seen as something Will should just forget and move on about. I just didn't feel quite satisfied with the treatment of his storyline.

Green's Will Grayson explores the themes of teenage love, and how you often want what you can't have as a teenager, and then when you can have it, you don't want it. It's a true coming of age tale, and it has some very well written moments.

But I found myself just not really liking this Will Grayson so much. He just didn't seem masculine to me. In fact, none of these characters really read as "male" to me (except Levithan's Grayson when he talks about sex) - - which was one of my big issues with the book. I just couldn't really embrace the way these characters were communicating as really evoking the teenage male (I live with two of them). I supposed that the gay characters might be more feminine (I guess, I really don't know from any personal experience), but this character was not gay, and I still felt like his dialogue was feminine. Which is even more strange because the two authors are male. I'm probably reading more into this than I should have, but I felt as though the target market for the book was female, and that the book was written with that in mind . . .I had given it to my teenage son to read (prior to reading it myself), and he (the same one who loved Prince of Tides) didn't care for it/finish it. After I read it, I could see why he probably couldn't relate.

All in all, I commend the book for its creativity as well as its willingness to write about mainstream gay characters. It's definitely a fast paced read, and there were some moments of brilliant writing in there (loved the whole interaction between Green's Will and Jane and their discussion of Schroedinger's cat).

But unfortunately, the ending just didn't quite fit with my perception of the three characters and just felt a little to sitcom-ish to me because of this disconnect. ( )

Will & Will: Um livro sobre amizade
"Estar em um relacionamento, isso é algo que você escolhe. Ser amigo, isso é simplesmente algo que você é" (p. 293).
Inicialmente eu pensei que este fosse ser um daqueles livros leves, com um baita clichê e muito romance, o que de fato é verdade. No entanto, no decorrer da estória, percebi que tratava-se de algo muito maior, amizade.
Tiny Cooper não foi um personagem pelo qual eu me apaixonei, chegando a me irritar em algumas partes, já a evolução tanto do Will Grayson do John Green quanto o do David Levithan foram muito boas.
Este foi o último livro do John Green publicado no Brasil que faltava para eu ler, agora estou desolada e necessito que ele publique algo novo, se não terei que dar um jeito de ler pelo menos a lista de compras dele hahah
Na contramão, é o primeiro livro do David Levithan que leio, e posso dizer que gostei muito da forma que ele escreve. Aqui ele não utilizou letras maiúsculas e usou alguns artifícios que fizeram toda a diferença na hora da leitura.
Por fim, posso dizer que este é um livro leve e divertido que trata de temas sérios com respeito.
Recomendo. ( )

This is for the Audio CD Version by Brilliance Audio:

Let me begin by saying I love audio CD’s. I rarely start my car without a book in my CD player. My love for them began when my work commute was one hour each way; now it is only about 10 minutes so books take longer, but they are still a part of my everyday life.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is read/performed by MacLeod Andrews and Nick Podehl. Having 2 people, one for each Will Grayson, proved to be very useful. I thought they did an excellent job bringing together a complex duo of stories into one cohesive audio event. An especially interesting part of the audio experience was hearing some of the “singing” of the songs in Tiny Cooper’s musical.

While, for many, Tiny Cooper is the favorite character, I have to say that the Will Graysons (or is that Wills Grayson???) are my favorites. I think they represent the moody, funny, concerned, peer pressured, harried, and at times, haunted teen population.

The book illustrates that, while there may be differences (one Will is straight, the other gay), the similarities are what bind us. The need to be loved and noticed coupled with the need to be invisible and left alone - divergent needs but equally strong - are explored through the tracks of this audio book.

Two authors, one straight (John Green) and one gay (David Levithan) collaborating enabled them to explore these similarities and differences. All of this coupled with the humor and fabulousness which is Tiny Cooper. This was on my “to be read” list and I am thrilled that I got a chance to listen to it sooner than I thought I would! ( )