will grayson, will grayson: repetition & texting filler

Every year, at the end of the school year, I load up on summer reading books from my school library in attempt to get in touch with the latest YA lit. Sometimes I find some wonderful reads and sometimes I find myself attempting to poke my eyes out rather than finish a weak book.

I guess I found another eye-poker. It seems like I've been on a blah-book run lately and I apologize as much as anyone. However, I'm hoping to spare future readers from my mistakes; so, live and learn. With that said, will grayson, will grayson by John Green and David Levithan should be put at the bottom of anyone's reading list. I've tried to read John Green's work before and got so bored I put it down as well (An Abundance of Katherines). This work, with David Levithan's help (author of Boy Meets Boy- which was OK and super short), also fell flat. My main complaint: I just couldn't connect with the characters. I felt no compassion for them and I didn't feel as if they were really encountering conflicts that made me want to continue to read. I felt that Green and Levithan were so focused on describing how often the characters used their computers and cell phones for IMing or texting that they forgot to focus on the story.

The story is told from two perspectives: two young adults both named Will Grayson, who both live in the Chicago area. The two young men happen to meet one another because of a fake blind date. One man is straight and the other is gay. Both are trying to find their ways in new, pseudo relationships. After 210 out of the 305 pages I just simply gave up out of boredom. I just didn't feel like I was going to learn anything from the characters- which is an automatic way to turn me off. I didn't feel like I really learned anything about Chicago or Chicagoans, and I didn't feel like I learned anything more about being a gay teen (or being a straight teen for that matter). Instead, I felt like there was an unnecessary abundance of lyrics for Tiny's musical and lovey-dovey boys reasssurring one another in order to build self esteem. I feel that I'm doing myself and the reader an injustice because by my description it could appear that there's actually substance to the book, but please don't be fooled; it's simply authors trying to imitate teen life with pithy one liners. I feel that this book is an insult to the teens I know and work with. Their feelings are real and are compelling. Their struggles are gut-wrenching and difficult. It's time some authors started to respect and reflect that.

All I can say is that this book makes me miss reading Suzanne Woods Fisher (The Search, The Waiting, etc.) and Alexie Sherman (The Almost True Story of a Part time Indian) because they know how to describe emotions and tie these emotions to compelling conflicts.