Book Review: John Green – “Will Grayson, Will Grayson”

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage. (Source: amazon.com)

It took me a very long time until I finally decided to read this book – it’s actually the only one that I kind of…rejected from the get go. Now, people might now be calling me racist or homophobic, but the honest truth is that I didn’t plan on reading it because it’s about a boy, Will Grayson, and his best friend, who is gay. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not homophobic in any way, believe it or not. Each to their own, after all, we’re all just people and shouldn’t be judged by who we love. It’s just…I don’t know, I just don’t care at all about gay people. They live their life, I live mine, but I don’t really care about them. They’re just…people. Like you and me. And I am not that kind of person who’d ever go out on the streets to fight for gay rights. Sorry. I’ll probably get a lot of hate for that now, but whatever. That’s not the point, anyways.

The point is – this book. There are books you read that leave you in complete awe for them, making you instantly want to read it again and wish you could then read it for the first time once more. Then there are books that you put away after you’ve finished and think that you don’t really need to read them again at all cost. This one book here is somewhere inbetween. It’s not the fault of the way John Green has chosen his words (for the first time, together with David Levithan), or the set up of the story or the characters. Because, hands down, as always, Green just had a very good hand at choosing his characters, of bringing them to the reader.

First of all, there’s Will Grayson. He’s kind of a sad character at first: a reserved young boy who lost his group of friends due to the fact that he stood up for his gay best friend. He never had a girlfriend before and doesn’t even let himself think too much about it, because he follows two simple rules: 1. Don’t care too much and 2. Shut up. In other people’s opinions, Will is kind of a robot due to this, but for him, caring too much only leads to misery, so he keeps away from all things emotional and romantic – with which a lot of people might be able to identify, me included. During the story, he changes his thoughts on things, and that change is one of the best things about the book; it’s lovely to see this kind of shy boy changing into someone who starts embracing life with all its flaws and miracles, no matter what. That alone teaches the reader one very important lesson.

Then there’s Tiny. Who, surprisingly, is everything else but tiny. He’s the distinct opposite of that; he’s ridiculously tall, and from the sounds of it, he’s also pretty “chubby”…basically everything you would never want to be while in High School. But despite that, Tiny is obviously the most happy person on the planet, the most positive gay boy you’ll ever meet in your entire life. He fully embraces himself and his life with all the bad and the good things, he falls in and out of love, he doesn’t regret a move he makes, even if it pisses people massively off. So once again, John Green manages to built a character you just can’t help but love with all of your heart. He thrills the reader with his weird and crazy ideas (a musical based on his 17-year-old life – come on, if that isn’t crazy, then what is?), and, mostly, with his capacity for enthusiasm for all things that life has to offer. And I think everybody should have that kind of person in their life.

Last but not least, there’s the other Will Grayson to mention. When the reader is introduced to him, he is a young teenage boy who is gay but hasn’t got the courage to come out to neither his mom nor his environment, and is on the edge to commit suicide. Seriously, Will is practically the darkest person I have ever read about in John Green’s books. Even Margo Roth Spiegelman (in “Paper Towns”) or Alaska (in “Looking for Alaska”) aren’t THAT dark. It’s kind of depressing when you read about how lonely and without hope Will is – which is the saddest thing, because once you realize that, you realize that there are hundreds of thousands of teenagers out there who feel this exact same way, no matter for what reason, and it hits you right in the face without warning. But just as the “other” Will, this one goes through a change during the story, and that is mostly thanks to Tiny, even if their paths only cross through pure and cruel coincidence (if you decide to read this book, you’ll know what I mean by “cruel”). And in some way, this way of two destinies crossing each other is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever had the pleasure to read about.

From a certain point in the story, there are two strings of storyline, told by each of the two Will Graysons, before and after they meet. For me, it was a bit irritating at first, because the gay Will Grayson (that is my chosen adjective to succesfully differentiate them – without any intention of insulting whatsoever!) sets the capitalization rules out of order, and for someone who’s very srict about grammar – even in a foreign language, like for me as a german, – this can be weird at first. But the way gay Will tells his story helps the reader to get over that pretty quickly, and more so, somehow, his way of telling is making it easier to differentiate the two storylines.

The end of the story…I am not sure if I like it or not, and that’s probably the main reason why I am not sure what to think about the book. Once I realized that from a certain point in the story, it moves quickly towards the end, I got all excited and actually wasn’t able to put the book away anymore. I wanted to know if the plan that gay Will Grayson and his friend, Gideon, are working out, is going to success once it’s out in the open. And yes, maybe I am a helpless romantic after all, although I always say I despise love stories, but I was really hoping for a Happy End at that point. That two boys are running into the sunset with each other, holding hands and probably riding on unicorns (admit it, everybody had that kind of picture in their head at least once in their life).

Fact is: the story has an open ending. One that lets you have your own opinion on how gay Will’s plan succeeded, and if it’s a Happy End or not, or just some crappy thing that leaves you with more questions than you had at the beginning. Me, personally, I have no problem whatsoever with open endings. In fact, I absolutely love them. I have published 3 stories on here myself, all of which have an open ending for the reader to make up their own mind. And I think these kind of endings sometimes are the best ones an author can come up with – if they are written perfectly, still with that kind of suspense that lets you sigh and say “Oh come on, really? You can’t do that to me!” And “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” is not an exception of that. It’s not as amazing as maybe (for me) the ending of “Pet Sematary” by Stephen King – but then again, NOTHING beats THAT one, and anyways, it doesn’t matter. For how the story about the two Will Graysons and Tiny is told, it is the perfect ending and maybe the only one that matters. The reader doesn’t need to know whether there is a Happy End or not, that everyone lives happily ever after, because from the way the very last sentence is written down, you just know it. You just feel it (apart from the fact that the described musical that Tiny brings onto stage makes you want to pull your hair because you now want to see it for yourself so desperately even though you know it doesn’t even exist in real life).

And the most important thing: this book tells a lesson. A moral that tells the reader that sometimes, not feeling anything, not caring can be the thing that keeps you sane, but at the same time, can make you absolutely insane and keep you from all the good things life has to offer for you. And, most importantly, that tolerance is one damn important thing in this world out there, and that, no matter what the case, it doesn’t matter at all what others think of you or your friends – as long as you’re okay with yourself, and as long as you love yourself and the ones who love you.

What better lesson is there to learn from this book?

Thank you, John Green.