Under The Mountain

I wasn't sure what to expect from Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Secret clones? Same name romance? More hipster references than I could keep up with? Thankfully it was none of these things and actually turned out to be very sweet, gay, romance that I was completely rooting for throughout the story.

I'm not David Levithan's biggest fan, just to get that out of the way. I've read of his books now and each time I do feel like he's trying to be deep and philosophical and it just doesn't work for me. I know immediately that his Will was the angry one. Probably because I can't see John Green forcing us to read half a book in lower caps, which took some getting used to.

I loved John Green's Will. His section's characters seemed better developed and more memorable, particularly Jane and Tiny Cooper. Oh, how I loved Tiny Cooper. It would be hard not to love a large, sassy, gay man which a penchant for bursting into song. I could completely understand why John's Will found Tiny frustrating though, he did have a habit of only thinking about himself.

Both boys are going through the same thing, despite having different lives - struggling through high school and relationships, both romantic and not. Somehow, despite the darker humour coming off of Levithan's Will, the book was very positive and happy and easy to read. And funny! It did take me 50 pages to really get into it but after that I was hooked. This book is definitely the best one of David Levithan's I've read so far and I highly recommend it. Plus - no vague hipster references!