Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

From Goodreads,

"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."

Goodreads - Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Awards:

• Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award Nominee for Best Young Adult Novel (2010)
• The Inky Awards Nominee for Silver Inky (2010)
• The Inky Awards Shortlist for Silver Inky (2010)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2010)
• Odyssey Award Nominee (2011)
• Milwaukee County Teen Book Award (2011)
• Stonewall Book Award Nominee for Children's and Young Adult Literature (2011)
• Children's Choice Book Award for Teen Choice Book of the Year (2011)
• Lincoln Award Nominee (2013)

A few years ago I read the wonderful book The Fault in our Stars by John Green.  I kind of fell in love like everyone else did.  Suddenly it was like John Green was on the forefront of young adult books when a sudden flood of his work hit shelves.  I quickly devoured Paper Towns and John Green quickly moved his way up my favorite authors list.  So while scouring Scholastic for books I found this book by John Green and purchased it.  However, once I sat down to read the book I realized that the name David Levithan was familiar too.  That's when I realized that he wrote Boy Meets Boy.  My excitement for this book went down a little because I absolutely hated the writing style in the book Boy Meets Boy.  Nonetheless I started reading the book in hopes I could find a middle ground in this book written by one author I enjoyed and by one I didn't.  

This book is told by two boys, both named Will Grayson.  One Will Grayson lives a life in the shadow of his best friend Tiny, while the other Will Grayson is struggling with depression and trying to keep his sexuality a secret.  Their stories alternate chapters until they cross paths for a brief moment in time.  This brief moment that will intertwine their friends and stories in ways they never imagined.

Favorite Quote from Will Grayson, Will Grayson:

"I think about how much depends upon a best friend.  When you wake up in the morning you swing your legs out of bed and you put your feet on the ground and you stand up.  You don't scoot to the edge of the bed and look down to make sure the floor is there.  The floor is always there.  Until it's not."

One of my favorite things about this book was the whole theme of friendship, and I honestly think that is why I loved the quote above so much.  Both Will Graysons in this book had to endure some kind of hardship with their friends.  For one Will Grayson he was constantly living in the shadow of his gay best friend Tiny.  He actually didn't classify him as his best friend because they just happened to be friends who were stuck together.  But things changed and he lost his best friend Tiny.  He then had the quote I mentioned above about how friend are always there.  And then there was the other Will Grayson who was burned by one of his friends when she pretended to be someone else online.  Over time he realized that he needed to somewhat mend things with her and move on from that part in life.  But the events that happened led him to a new friend and a new relationship.  Either way the message of the importance of friends was huge in this book.  I think that many of us take our friends for granted.  My best friend lives eight hours away from me in Austin.  We have had our fair share of fights over the phone.  And almost immediately I feel horrible for whatever has happened because I know that I took advantage of our friendship.  I do know that no matter the distance or events happening in life, that she will always have my back.  I know this is true because she called me from Europe when my dog passed away.  She talked with me for an extended period of time to make sure I was okay and had calmed down from the hyperventilating crying state she had first found me in.  Friends are everything in life.  You can have lots of them surrounding you, but you have to have one that you call a best friend.  Find him or her and never let them go.

While I loved the ties of friendship in this book, I really didn't like the way the book was written in an alternating format.  The even chapters were told by one Will Grayson and the odd chapters were told in lowercase by the depressed Will Grayson.  This made it easy to distinguish who was telling which part of the story.  John Green wrote from the perspective of the Will Grayson who was friends with Tiny, while David Levithan wrote from the lowercase perspective of Will Grayson.  I really hated having to bounce between two writing styles.  Thus far I have enjoyed works written by John Green, but I haven't enjoyed work by David Levithan.  I find his work dull and boring and it was no different in his chapters in this book.  I just didn't like jumping between the two opposite writing styles.  I felt like I was on a roller coaster that was a constant up and down.  I honestly could have read just John Green's chapters of this book and been completely satisfied.

All in all I enjoyed the friendship theme in this book, but really disliked how it was written.  I have come to accept I am not a fan of David Levithan's work.  I can't love all authors and their work.  I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.  This is definitely a young adult book and will be enjoyed by fans of John Green or David Levithan.