Play Book Tag discussion

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green

Summary:
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.

My thoughts:
I have had this book for so long and put off reading it for just as long. I really enjoyed the writing style of John Green, but once his books started to be recreations of the same characters, it didn’t seem unique to me anymore.

I am relieved to say that these characters are not copies of characters of his previous books I had read. They are different for this author but in the same breath, they remind me of the characters in Grasshopper Jungle a little bit (a slightly more PG version with no sci-fi) with a twist of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

It was hard to keep the two Wills separate especially when I stopped reading in the middle of a chapter and tried to go back to it. I feel like if you just keep on reading, eventually they will become more distinguishable from each other.

How some of the characters were addressed was a little odd. Jane was described as a “pick-me-girl” which is bothersome because it doesn’t make you quirky if you hang out with boys for friends and go to bands’ concerts that aren't well known. I also didn't like the constant references to Tiny’s weight. They just weren’t necessary. The character also had no depth. Tiny was very stereotypical and cliched.

All in all, it was refreshing to see the author try a different direction, however it didn’t deliver as well as I was hoping it would.