Hold Me Closer

Starred review from January 12, 2015
Tiny Cooper, the memorable best friend from Levithan and John Green’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson, gets his own star turn in this companion volume, which contains the script and lyrics of the autobiographical musical he wrote and staged in the original novel. With stage directions from Tiny (“Like myself, this musical is meant to be loud and spectacular”) and the lyrics to 25 ballads and showstoppers, the show opens (à la Matilda) with Tiny’s birth: “He should not be wearing a diaper. Instead, the person who emerges should be the large, stylish Tiny Cooper that you will see for the next two acts.” The musical charts the course of Tiny’s life as the “big-boned and happily gay” child of wonderful, football-loving parents and his quest for true love (“Mama and Papa didn’t know/ they were lighting the lamp/ the moment they sent me/ to Starstruck Drama Camp”). Though billed as a “musical novel,” there is no sheet music yet written for Tiny’s magnum opus. Levithan is hoping for a crowd-sourced soundtrack, encouraging amateur and professional composers to put music to his words. Broadway, are you listening? Ages 14–up.

January 15, 2015
Finally, Tiny Cooper gets his own story: the musical. Semifresh (four years later) off the heels of his uber-gay and hilarious collaboration with John Green, Will Grayson Will Grayson (2010), Levithan bites the bullet and pens the actual musical script that his 16-year-old large-and-in-charge gay hero created as a centerpiece for the original novel. Tiny's coming-of-age musical includes his loving parents, his BFF Phil Wrayson (a cautiously disguised straight Will Grayson), a lesbian babysitter named Lynda, the ghost of Oscar Wilde and 18 ex-boyfriends-including the second Will Grayson. There are Barbra Streisand and Idina Menzel references. There are potentially naughty locker-room tableaux. There are debunked stereotypes in the form of song ("OH! What a Big Gay Baby"). There are multiple moments in the spotlight, including solos and addresses to the audience, where Tiny will have readers falling out of their chairs laughing. It's probably wrong to call this a novel since it's written as a script complete with acts, dialogue, musical verse and staging instructions, but whatever it is, it's just as downright ridiculous as its precursor. Shy readers should be warned: Don't read this in a public place unless you're very comfortable chortling out loud. It's big. It's gay. It's outrageous and hilarious. (Fiction. 12-18)

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Starred review from March 1, 2015

Gr 10 Up-Written as a two-act musical complete with stage directions and 25 provocatively titled songs, such as "The Ballad of the Lesbian Babysitter" and "Summer of Gay," this companion to John Green and Levithan's award-winning Will Grayson, Will Grayson (Dutton, 2010) shines a spotlight on the larger-than-life Tiny Cooper, who was born "big-boned and happily gay." Accepted by his supportive parents, Tiny suffers no angst over his sexual orientation, despite having to contend with schoolmate bullies and a homophobic coach. Phil, his straight BFF, offers advice through Tiny's unsuccessful relationships with 18 different boyfriends, helping him eventually to realize that love is painful but worth it. Replete with laugh-out-loud one-liners ("sort of like a gay dance club has opened on Sesame Street"), in-your-face language (faggot and the invented term dickstracting), and showcasing Will and Tiny's "onstage" kiss, this edgy, au courant novel tackles a potentially difficult subject head-on, while giving sound, if liberal, counsel on sexual issues for gays and straights alike. Its solid story line and realistic, "colorful" dialogue will appeal to high school readers. VERDICT A welcome addition to progressive library collections, this unapologetic gem will encourage teens' discussion of a sensitive topic and potentially broaden their understanding of the meaning of "tolerance."-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, formerly at LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* He's baaack: Tiny Cooper, the larger-than-life costar of Levithan and John Green's Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010), claims center stage in the former's latest, whichaccording to its title pageis a musical in novel form (or, a novel in musical form). Either way, the book is presented as being a two-act script for Tiny's epic autobiographical musical, Hold Me Closer. Act 1 charts his childhood and struggle to come out to his family and friends, who are less than surprised by the revelation, seeing how Tiny is, as his friend Will once put it, the world's gayest person who is really, really large. With an outsize personality to match his physicality, Tiny is flamboyant and fabulous and, as we learn in act 2, also a hopeless romantic, to the tune of having fallen in love 18 times. (And, yes, all 18 of his exes put in an appearance.) The action is propelled by 25 songs with such titles as The Ballad of the Lesbian Babysitter, Oh! What a Big Gay Baby, and Summer of Gay. This is all as much fun as it sounds, though it has a serious side in its sober examination of the nature of love. Levithan has turned in another star turn with a book that is witty, wise, and well worthy of an encore.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A new Levithan is big news, but add to it the sheen of being a John Greenrelated sequel and this ought to evaporate from shelves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2015
As fans of Will Grayson, Will Grayson (rev. 5/10), Levithan's collaboration with John Green, will recall, Tiny Cooper -- friend to one Will and romantic interest of the other -- writes and directs a musical about his life. Now, that musical is its own book -- "a musical in novel form (Or, a novel in musical form)" -- starring Tiny as main character, with supporting players "Phil Wrayson" and others, thinly veiled, from the previous book. The text appears as theater dialogue, with extensive stage directions written by the highly self-aware protagonist ("The key thing here is thatTiny has no idea what he's talking aboutHe hasn't thought about sex much. He's eight"). This is not meant to be a masterpiece of musical theater, though the jokes are genuinely funny and the lyrics obviously written by someone who owns more than a few original-cast recordings (here's one of the song titles: "Oh! What a Big Gay Baby!"). Rather, we're watching a young librettist figure himself out, sometimes preaching and sometimes pipe-dreaming (the stage directions demand Anne Hathaway for a minor role in the movie version). The previous novel's stars are truly supporting cast here; the gay, overweight best friend has become the gay, overweight, further-developed main character. Tiny's production is perhaps of most interest to Will Grayson fans, but it's also able to stand on its own as a story of coming out, looking (and looking and looking) for love, and valuing and trusting one's friends. shoshana flax

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)