Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story by David Levithan

Book Summary
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.

Flo's Review
Let the gushing begin! I have so much love for this book. So. Much. Love. It doesn't come as a surprise, because I absolutely loved Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Tiny was one of my favorite characters. So I was over-the-moon excited to find out the was getting his own book. (Note: I'm allowed to be almost overly dramatic in this review, because not only is it about a musical, it's about Tiny Cooper.) I started this knowing that it would make me chuckle and smile. It did both of those things. Mainly, I just wanted to be Tiny Cooper's BFF. I mean, Will Grayson is Tiny Cooper's BFF, but I want to be his BFF, too.

But then the more I read, the more other emotions surfaced. Everything hurt when I read the scenes about his relationship with (the other) Will Grayson. Tiny is an open book, so I knew everything he was feeling from reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but I forgot just how poignant it all was. This musical is full of fun, but it's also kind of deep. There are some great lessons from Lynda and the Ghost of Oscar Wilde. And Tiny, too, has some great, great insight that he includes in his stage directions. 

If you read and loved Will Grayson, Will Grayson, pick this book up immediately. It will remind you of everything you loved. If you haven't read Will Grayson, Will Grayson then I -- as stage director of this blog post -- instruct you to go get a hold of this book stat.

5 very enthusiastic sparkly stars!!