When sixteen year old Miles Halter leaves his home to go to a boarding school in Birmingham, Alabama he had no idea how his life would change.  He left a minor life in Florida, one that had little friends and little significance…. Miles own words.  He first meets his roommate Chip who what he lacks in statute he makes up for in attitude.  Instantly Miles is dubbed the nickname “Pudge” even though he is quite the opposite and Chip asks to be called The Colonel,  .  While things seem to be off to a good start in Miles, errr… Pudge’s new adventure, he was unprepared to meet Chips, best friend Alaska Young. 

Alaska is a free spirit, she is smart, beautiful, witty and reckless.  She has books everywhere called her life books, the books she hopes to read in her life time.  She smokes on campus which is strictly taboo, and drinks in her room long after lights out.  Miles is instantly infatuated with all that she is. 

That was 136 days before….

Why I wanted to read/listen to this book:  If you read me, you know I am on a John Green binge.  After my heart exploded listening to The Fault In Our Stars, I joined a John Green “in my mind” fan club.  I am so enjoying his writing and honestly, I am devouring his writing through audio because oh my gosh…. they are good.  REALLY GOOD.

In Looking For Alaska, Miles is looking for something more.  He is a huge fan of “famous last words” and wants to make sure his own life has some sort of significance worthy of his own last words. 

I am stopping here to say, I really like Miles.  He is just the level of geek that I can appreciate because I am one too.  He is looking for the meaning of his life, in fact, due to an assignment he is given by a teacher regarding the after life, this is a small background theme in the book, so small and smoke screen like, you can easily miss that it is there at all.

Anyhoo…. as much as I enjoyed Miles/Pudge’s straight-laced life…. I just as much enjoyed Alaska’s free will “lets try anything” attitude.  I think… some of both live in me. 

As you may have picked up, our story starts out 136 days before.  You may be wondering “before what?” and that… I can not share as that is really a huge part of the story… as the book counts down, you can have a sense of the foreboding… what are we counting down to.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  What happens at day 0?  Is there an after?  That is the beauty of John Green.

I loved this book on audio.  The narration by Jeff Woodman was good…. really good and captures the teen voices well. 

I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time shutting it off as I wondered what would happen and where do they go from there?  I highly count this read/audio as gush worthy and recommend if you have not yet experienced the greatness of John Green please do so soon so you can gush with me…. we will chat on-line, drink coffee or iced tea and gush Green!  😀

Amazon Rating

Goodreads review

Audible.com (listen to a sample here)

Will Grayson has been best friends with “Tiny” Cooper since 5th grade.  They make for an odd friendship. For one thing, Tiny is anything but Tiny.  Tipping close to 300 pounds, he is quite the opposite of his thin friend, Will.   Also, Tiny is gay.  Scratch that, Tiny describes himself as really, really gay.  And sings it out loud.  Really, he does.  Will, is not gay.   Now in high school, Will enjoys life as it comes to him, not really pursuing a girlfriend, life, can be complicated enough at this point without adding relationships to the mix.  That is… until recently… because now there is this girl, who he doesn’t want to like… doesn’t want to be in a relationship…but cant stop thinking about her.

Then, there is Will Grayson.  Not the Will Grayson, mentioned above.  This Will is also in high school.  He has a harder personality and not a lot of close friends.  He has a secret from everyone.  He likes a guy he met on line, Isaac. 

ISAAC  ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC…

It really is all Will (hence forth known as the “OWG” , other Will Grayson, thinks about, waiting for him to be on line, waiting to read what he will say… and one day he says the magic words…  “Let’s meet.”

A random change encounter puts both Will Grayson’s in the same place at the same time, and this encounter changes both of their lives forever.

Why did I want to read/listen to this book?  I am having an author crush on John Green.  After listening to The Fault In Our Stars ( SUPERB narration – highly recommended!)  I had to listen to another audio by him, and this one sounded like a really interesting one.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is told in alternating chapters by the two Will Grayson’s.  At first, this confused me on the audio as chapter two opened it took me a minute or two to realize that this rougher, angrier Will Grayson was not the gentle fun Will I had just met in the previous chapter.   After that, the book just flowed.

While I enjoyed the original Will, I think it is safe to say that Tiny is the adored character.  Obviously he is a really big guy.  And he is gay, so he is used to a little harder lifestyle, a little more jokes and cruelty than most.  But Tiny …. shines.  He doesn’t care what you think of him.  He knows he is BIG.  He knows he is gay.  And… he is about to write a musical about his life.

Yup.

Another beauty of listening to this in audio is yes, it does involve a musical and I am not sure how that translates on paper, but on audio…. it is not only all sorts of awesome, it is hilarious.   Narrated by Nick Podehl is a real treat to the ears.  (Nick also narrates The Knife Of Never Letting Go series, Wonder, and several Harlan Coben books).  I seriously not only fell in love with a sweet story, I laughed a lot, and received strange looks form my husband if he entered a room where my audio was cranking out a song about Tiny. 

Note that if the sound of a musical makes you scrunch up your nose like you smelled something bad, don’t worry – the musical is not all through the story.  It shows up towards the end and by that time you love these characters so much you want to see how they are going to pull this off.

I recommend Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  It is a 9th grade and up read and I think that is appropriate.  There is nothing in this book to cause a young reader alarm.  If anything, it may help them understand others better, and perhaps… even themselves. 

Purchased from audible.com