Will Grayson, Will Grayson

This is the story of two Will Graysons.

The first, and all the following odd chapters, are John Green's Grayson. He's a bit shy, and a bit cynical, and lives his life by two rules: 1. don't care and 2. shut up. I refer to him as Capital Will, because unlike will grayson, he knows when to use the shift key. But even with his restricting motto, Capital Will can be fun, lovable, and quite hilarious. I'm not going to lie, I sort of developed a fictional crush.

The second, and all the even chapters, are David Levithan's Grayson. Other will grayson suffers from chronic depression, has very few friends, if you could even call them that, and is a closet homosexual. I have such an attraction towards the self loathing, tortured characters, so it's no surprised that I found myself very drawn to his chapters. I absolutely loved his dark humor and sarcasm. The only draw back with him was that sometimes I found his “h8 lyfe” attitude was a little too cliche.

I know I said that this was the story of two Will Graysons, and it is, but it's also the story of Capital Will's best friend Tiny. “Tiny Cooper is not the world's gayest person, and he is not the world's largest person, but I believe he may be the world's largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world's gayest person who is really, really large.” Tiny reminded me my in-real-life somewhat large, and very gay friend. While he is bubbly, passionate, and charming, he can also be extremely self absorbed and obnoxious. I found him annoying at times, but for the most part I loved him because I knew deep down he's a nice person who's just struggling with finding himself.

Whether is was luck, or fate, or destiny, or just plain coincidence, Will Grayson and will grayson's lives intersect one evening in a porn shop in Chicago. Chapter by chapter we see how each author's casts lives are slowing changing.

This book was just simply made of awesome. It was so funny that I actually laughed out loud several, which I rarely do while reading. I loved all the pop culture references (Rancid, Dead Milkmen, Anderson Cooper.) The book got a little bit cheesy and unrealistic towards the end, but I was so consumed in the pages that I didn't even care. Other than the last chapter or so, the book is so honest and touching that it should be a staple in every teen's book shelf.