Review: Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story by David Levithan

Publisher: Penguin
Published: March 17, 2015
Pages: 208
Source: Gifted from Penguin Canada
Rating: 3.5 Stars

It’s Tiny Cooper’s turn in the spotlight in this companion novel to New York Times bestseller Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
Jazz hands at the ready! Tiny Cooper (“the world’s largest person who is also really, really gay”) stole readers’ hearts when he was introduced to the world in the New York Times bestselling book Will Grayson, Will Grayson, co-authored by John Green and David Levithan. Now Tiny finally gets to tell his story—from his fabulous birth and childhood to his quest for true love and his infamous parade of ex-boyfriends—the way he always intended: as a musical! Filled with honesty, humor, and “big, lively, belty” musical numbers, the novel is told through the full script of the musical first introduced in Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

In short: Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story by David Levithan is a brilliant musical script that would be highly entertaining as a musical theatre performance.

If you've read Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan then odds are, you fell in love with Tiny Cooper. The not-so-tiny Tiny Cooper is the link between the two Will Graysons of the novel and acts as a bit of a life coach for the two Wills as they struggle to find their truths and gain the confidence in their selves that Tiny already has in leaps and bounds. Unlike most LGBT teen characters, Tiny already knows who he is and is happy and proud to be big and gay. Hold Me Closer is Tiny's life story in musical form.

I'm kind of in awe that the musical that we only saw glimpses of in Will Grayson, Will Grayson has been completely fleshed out here in Hold Me Closer in multiple acts and scenes, and full musical numbers and soliloquies by David Levithan. I mean, of course I knew he was a very talented and prolific novelist who writes great characters and very quotable prose, but who knew that he had the ability to write a consummate musical production, complete with music index and stage directions in his wheelhouse? I should have known better because David Levithan has yet to disappoint me.

Impressive as this complete musical theatre script is, musicals are meant to be seen as a performance, not read without any melody. Perhaps someone with more musical talent than I could fill in the gaps and add tunes to the lyrics of the songs, but I was left simply to read it. I have no doubt however, that Hold Me Closer would make for a brilliant audiobook or a highly entertaining musical theatre performance! Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story is not only amusing, but I think also very inspiring. I recommend it, but I also highly recommend reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson first!

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The Great John Green Read of 2014

Some background: I've been a fan of the vlogbrothers since 2007 (a nerdfighter, if you will), and yet somehow in all that time I have never read any of John Green's books. I don't think I even have a good reason why not. It's true that I am not a massive fan of contemporary, but I have been known to read it and enjoy it from time to time, so that's not it. I guess I just... never got around to it. But finally FINALLY I was able to make the time in my reading schedule. And I knew I wanted to read them back-to-back, in chronological order, to get the full John Green Experience. Thus became what I have dubbed, The Great John Green Read of 2014.

I read all five of John Green's novels (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, Will Grayson, Will Grayson [with David Levithan], and The Fault in Our Stars) in a two week period (I have not read the short story that he wrote for the anthology, Let It Snow; maybe another time). First thoughts? I loved them all!! Was there any doubt? Maybe a little bit because as I mentioned earlier, contemporary isn't my strong suit. But I really and truly did enjoy his books and the experience of reading them back-to-back on the whole. They were all very memorable and meaningful in their own way.

None of his novels stand out in my mind as head over heels better than the others. I had been sort of expecting John Green's writing to get better and better with each book, but I thought his writing was strong since the beginning and I thought all five novels were pretty on par with each other. If pressed, I would probably say The Fault in Our Stars was my favourite though. I adored many of John Green's characters and many will endure in my memory, but I would say Hazel and Augustus were my favourites of the lot (with maybe the exception of Tiny Cooper from Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and so that is why The Fault in Our Stars edges out the rest.

Besides his characters, the other main strength of John Green's novels has got to be their thoughtfulness, as illuminated by some truly brilliant quotes and passages. It's not very often that I read books that make me THINK like these novels did. Actually, I really cannot think of the last time I read a book that was so thought-provoking. A book that had me stuck in my head for hours, pondering profoundly these truths that were laid out so prudently. Normally, I read to escape. But in this experience I learned the value in reading for meditation. It was enlightening and I liked it.

I guess the only slight issue that I had with John Green's writing is that the characters weren't always believably adolescent. Real life teenagers do not talk like they do in John Green's books. The vast majority of adults don't talk like that either, for that matter. But I guess if you're going to be writing a novel in which the characters contemplate the meaning of life and have existential crises and whatnot, then you're going to need to have some pretty intellectual and enlightened characters. So I can let it slide mostly.

Overall, The Great John Green Read of 2014 was a complete success and my only regret is that it was over too quickly and who knows when we'll get the next novel from John Green. Though I have always claimed to be a fan of John Green, I feel like I can now say that I am a legit fan of his books, his writing, his characters, and his thoughtfulness. I'm also super stoked to see The Fault in Our Stars movie, which I am cautiously hopeful will be a good adaptation! So I'm curious: how many of John Green's books have you read and which is your favourite?