I'm going to kickstart this by saying that this book was in my top 5 least favourite books of 2019. So if you're looking for a review to convince yourself to read this, or you're reading the review because you enjoyed the book then this isn't going to be what you want.
Will Grayson Will Grayson is all about two teenage boys with the same exact name who meet by chance. The book is written from both their perspectives: one is a gay teen who is struggling with a tricky home life and a lot of teen angst, whilst the other is a well-off boy who is navigating being a little unpopular at school with his gay best friend Tiny.
When the pair meet each other, they affect each others lives in ways they could never expect, and the book tells a story of teenage love and the importance of friendship.
I really loved the premise of this book, which is why it wasn't a one star read, HOWEVER, I really couldn't get onboard with the execution of it. There is a lot of internalised homophobia in the character of the Will that is gay. There's a whole amount of rage at being gay and in particular, being gay and being in love with a fat boy. The fatphobia in this book went hand in hand with other issues and there were whole passages of text where Will was talking about how disgusted he was in himself for liking someone fat and the other Will saw himself as being very self-sacrificing for having a fat, gay friend. The language was really quite awful and damaging in my opinion and has really put me off reading either of the authors' books for a while.
I gave this two stars because the story was a good idea and I enjoyed some parts of it, but I was really shocked by a lot of the language used.
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