Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm kind of ashamed to give this book such a poor rating because, clearly, everybody else liked it. I wouldn't even have given it 2 stars if not for the fact that it made laugh a couple of times.
I think this book is SO not for me.
First off, I'm not quite sure why it's called Will Grayson, Will Grayson because, clearly again, this book is not about either Wills. It's about Tiny Cooper, a humongous, self-centered, selfish, loud and super clichéd gay guy. This guy is so self-centered that the plot of the book is basically about him staging a musical about himself. WTF? I thought it would be more about the two Graysons, interacting with each other but they are actually connected only through Tiny.
And, truth be said, I didn't like either of them. Will #1 (Green's) is a nerdy straight guy whose two main rules in life are: 1) don't care; and 2) shut up. I couldn't empathize. He's passive, subject to Tiny's whims and still he loves him. His romance with Jane felt contrived and popped out all of a sudden.
Will #2 (Levithan's) is even worse. He's gay, emo, chronically depressed, tormented by his parent's divorce and perpetually in a bad mood. He's kind of the worst case scenario for a teenager.
Both Wills ramble a lot, there's a lot of IM in the book and weird pointless conversations. Even the whole musical scene at the end was just plain silly. I don't really know who would care about a musical about Tiny Cooper's gay love life. I wouldn't and didn't. I kept thinking: maybe there's some weird symbolism I'm not getting here? I have no clue, I felt this book to be surreal at times. AND I don't really see how Will #2 managed to make other people with the same name go to a stupid musical in a couple of hours. Why would THEY care?

So, again, it might be this book might be better appreciated by real teenagers - not teen at heart like me -but truly, if not for some rather startlingly genius  passages like this:

"you know, how people say it's good luck if a bird shits on you? and people believe it! i just want to grab them and say, 'dude, don't you realize this whole superstition was made up because no one could think of anything else good to say to a person who'd just been shit upon?"

or this:

<3. you think that looks like  heart? if you do, it's only because you've never seen a scrotum.
(rofl? what? are you really rolling on the floor laughing? well, please stay down there a sec while I KICK YOUR ASS.)

this would book would have not got even that extra star from me. But, obviously, it must be me because check out the awards it got!
Sorry, Green and Levithan, you're just not my cup of tea.


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