Back of Book: 

Will Grayson meets Will Grayson. One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers are about to cross paths. From that moment on, their world will collide and lives intertwine.

It's not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chicago suburbanites Will Grayson and Will Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With a push from friends new and old - including the massive, and massively fabulous, Tiny Cooper, offensive lineman and musical theater auteur extraordinaire - Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history's most awesome high school musical.

Book Number: Stand Alone 

Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary | Romance | LGBTQIA+ 

Review: 🌟🌟 

When John Green and David Levithan team up to write a young adult novel about two boys by the name of Will Grayson and their obnoxiously gay friend Tiny Cooper, one should expect a chaotic ride full of teenage angst, young "love," and vulgar humor. 

I honestly don't know a good way to describe this book. It follows two teens by the name of Will Grayson (Green writes the nerdy one, while Levithan pens the angsty one) and their adventures with their outgoing friend, Tiny Cooper. Tiny is anything but little, and he is very, very gay. Tiny wants nothing more to stage a musical starring himself as the main character and there is no better topic than love. As the two Wills and Tiny sort out their complicated feelings, they become closer and closer to discovering themselves and defining what it means to be a true friend. 

When I first started this book, I thought I was going to hate it. Yes, I've been a fan of both Green and Levithan's work in the past, but jumping into this one felt like getting slapped in the face. Both of the Will's have an aggressive sense of humor and Levithan's Will is just so negative about everything. It wasn't pleasant for me to read the beginning and Levithan deciding not to capitalize anything really got on my nerves (until I got used to it). This book is also highly unrealistic in many ways, but as in a theater, one just has to suspend their disbelief. 

Honestly, I think I like the idea of this book more than I enjoyed reading it. Each author writing about a different Will and then mushing their ideas together is such an interesting writing experiment. The fact that the book is partly inspired by Levithan's friend David Leventhal and his roomate Jon Green is just great. Seriously, what a weird coincidence. 

My favorite parts of this book have to be when Green's Will is talking to Tiny about friendship as a whole. I loved his little monologue about how surface level romantic relationships are nothing on lifelong friendships. Sometimes, Green can take his vulgar characters and drop some really tender moments, which I really appreciate; Green can truly be eloquent when he wants to be. The other thing that really melted my heart was the last scene during the play. The overwhelming feeling of being supported was so real and I loved the emotions it evoked in me, despite the musical being quite. . . something. Beyond that, this book was pretty mid to me, due to the fact that I didn't heavily relate to either Will and I didn't find this book to be all that funny, just dramatic. 

Overall, I wasn't that impressed with "Will Grayson, Will Grayson." I think what Green and Levithan did is neat, but I don't want to give it extra kudos just because it is co-written. I must admit, these two author's writing styles blend wonderfully together and I would still recommend checking it out if you are a fan of either of their works. I didn't hate this one, but I didn't take much away from it either. It truly is another story about the importance of friendship. 

Back of Book: 

It’s Tiny Cooper’s turn in the spotlight in this companion novel to New York Times bestseller Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Jazz hands at the ready! Tiny Cooper (“the world’s largest person who is also really, really gay”) stole readers’ hearts when he was introduced to the world in the New York Times bestselling book Will Grayson, Will Grayson, co-authored by John Green and David Levithan. Now Tiny finally gets to tell his story—from his fabulous birth and childhood to his quest for true love and his infamous parade of ex-boyfriends—the way he always intended: as a musical! Filled with honesty, humor, and “big, lively, belty” musical numbers, the novel is told through the full script of the musical first introduced in Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Book Number: Companion 

Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary | Romance | LGBTQIA+ 

Review: ?