Reader,
I am traveling this week, so I anonymously contacted a friend of a friend of an old colleague of an acquaintance of the doorman who used to be my best (only) friend at the company, before the building mysteriously burned down. Her name is Ashley and she is a delightful person with a passion for reading (and from what I have been told, writing) excellent Young Adult fiction. While I am traveling, she agreed to be a guest reviewer on Spoilers. I've added a few comments, in italics. I hope she doesn't mind.
The below review is cross-posted to Ashley's blog. Thank you for your help, Ashley.
-A
Today’s book:
Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story by David Levithan
Tiny Cooper is anything but tiny. He’s big, loud, and incredibly, magnificently, proudly gay. You may know Tiny from another book with a title that features two names that aren’t his — Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (A wonderful book which I highly recommend. -A) — so I probably don’t need to explain this to you. However, on the off chance you picked up this book because there was so much gold, beautiful glitter on it and the words Musical Novel intrigued you, then let me help you.
As previously stated, Tiny is not in fact Tiny. He’s a big, loyal best friend, a complicated, loving teenage boy who possibly has too much love to give and who, we will learn, has no real grasp on how to give it. And I absolutely love him.
Hold Me Closer is, in fact, a musical novel. This term is confusing (my husband bought this book for me as a surprise and one of the first things he asked was, “How is it a musical?”), but not so much when you know the basis for Hold Me Closer, which was first introduced in Will Grasyon, Will Grayson. It’s a musical that Tiny works on throughout the book and the reader gets to see for most of the ending. It’s emotional and flashy according to Will Grayson, but we don’t get to see the whole thing.
Now, we do.
The story of Tiny Cooper is big and flashy. It starts from his birth (and fantastic numbers, “I Was Born this Way” and “Oh! What A Big Gay Baby!”) and shows us his family life (kind and supportive) and how he makes friends and deals with bullies and navigating teenage life. It’s full of heart and raw emotion and is incredibly, unabashedly funny. At first glance, someone might think this is a story about coming out, but I disagree. Tiny has been sure of himself for so long (even if he wouldn't say it or fully realize it) that I think the story is about how to place love and navigate this world as your own individual self. Tiny’s story just has a few more dance numbers and spot lights.
Hold Me Closer comes with a mish-mash of emotions that I think will pull at different people in different ways.
A musical theater lover will enjoy it for the pure scripted form and big numbers. They will hear the songs in their heads and delight in the stage directions that aren't so run-of-the-mill (like proposing to fade to pink instead of black and something called “baby disco sounds”). They’ll love the production of it, and the feeling of excitement they might get, especially if they are actors or stage hands or costume designers, of something new and brilliant that they get to be part of.
It’s a perfect picture of what we musical devotees believe – that the right song at the right time can stop all the clocks, and gently make you see the world in a new way. We believe this because we have felt it. We believe this because ultimately this is what we have to offer. Music. Words. Songs. A little light choreography.
A writer will enjoy how the process of writing is woven into the script — you should know that it is more or less a script — and how one wishes that, as a writer, one could do the same with every piece of work you put your heart and soul into. This script is raw and emotional and crazy and a lot of that comes from the stage directions that are embedded with Tiny’s notes. He’s not just writing this script so it can be played on the stage (although that is a huge part of it), he’s also doing this therapeutically. He’s telling us how things should look and how Tiny should feel at moments even though he (the writer) now knows the difference. He tells us how fun it is to write one part, and how hard another part is. He literally tells the reader how hard it is to put something down on paper:
"This is hard to write. Please know this is hard to write."
It’s almost staggering and definitely maddening, because as a writer, I can’t just tell you how hard something is, how emotionally charged I am while I sit and write, but Tiny gets the luxury in the stage notes and directions and thank God or whoever is out there watching, because it is beautiful.
Tiny Cooper and YA lovers will rejoice at the nostalgia that YA often gives us, and Tiny’s unabashed optimism and joy and loudness will definitely leave a mark on anyone who reads this book. Writers, musical theater lovers, teenagers, adults, anyone can get behind a story of growing up and loving stupidly. The beautiful part is, Tiny figures some things out through this masterpiece, but like life, not every single thing will work itself out and maybe it’s the big, gay dance and song numbers, but I think that’s [sings] ooooooOOoookaaaay!
Black out.
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