Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story

by David Levithan

Larger-than-life character Tiny Cooper, from the bestselling novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, finally tells his own story the only way he knows how - as a stupendous musical.

This is the full script of Hold Me Closer, the musical written by and staring Tiny Cooper, from the New York Times bestselling novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, written by David Levithan and John Green. Filled with humour, pain, and 'big, lively, belty' musical numbers, readers will finally learn the full story of Tiny Cooper from his birth and childhood to his quest for love and his infamous eighteen ex-boyfriends.

David Levithan is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels for young readers including Every Day, Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with John Green), Invisibility (with Andrea Cremer) and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (with Rachel Cohn), which was turned into a feature film. He's the editorial director of Scholastic Press, and has edited hundreds of books including the mega-hits The Hunger Games and Shiver. David lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

• ISBN10: 0141359374
• ISBN13: 9780141359373
• Publish Date: 17 March 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

"It's always easy to blame other people for holding you back. But sometimes, the only person holding you back is...well...you." (Tiny Cooper)

Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story is the musical script of Tiny Cooper's life. If you loved Tiny after reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson and wanted to see more of him, then Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story is the book for you. If you don't know who the hell Tiny is, I suggest that you read Will Grayson, Will Grayson before reading Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story.

Tiny, the director, producer and lead actor of Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story is huge, gay, loud and larger than life and his musical is just the same. The musical is happy, campy, humourous, sad at times, hopeful, unapologetic and entertaining. David Levithan knows how to write a musical script. I could easily see Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story being performed on some huge theater .

However, I wasn't invested in Tiny as a character. If I hadn't read Will Grayson, Will Grayson and had no idea who Tiny was, I wouldn't have cared much for Tiny and his musical. However, Tiny's personality shines through the explanations of each scene and the hilarious stage cues.

Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story is entertaining and fun to read, but once the last page is turned, it's forgettable.

"Fade to black. Or whatever color you like. If you can find a way to fade to pink or purple, please do." (Tiny Cooper)

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2015/04/hold-me-closer-tiny-cooper-story-by.html
Utterly fabulous, this gorgeous storyline is told in the form of a Broadway musical script, with none other than Tiny Cooper as the star. His larger than life sense of fun jumps off the page and leaves the reader feeling joyful and entertained. I loved the format, something I haven't seen in young adult before.

The thing about a spotlight is that you have to step into it. You have to get onto that stage. I haven't been ready for a lot of things, but from early on, I was ready for this.

Intelligent and creative, it tells Tiny's story in both song and the narrative, in what could only be described as fun, flirtatious and flamboyant. But beneath the musical, it also depicts the story of a boy who hopelessly wants to fall in love and feel his own self worth. Battling bullies who are threatened by his differences and learning to love who he is, the gentle giant with a heart to match.

It was glorious and so incredibly joyful. A feel good book for not only fans of Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Tiny himself, but those looking for a celebration of acceptance.

I have to believe we have enough songs in our hearts for endless musicals, about an endless number of things. And it's fun, every now and then, to let them out into the world.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Seeing as I absolutely loved Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan, I absolutely had to read Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story, Levithan's companion novel, this time featuring Tiny Cooper - but with a difference. This is the script for the play Tiny performs in Will Grayson, Will Grayson, where he gets to be the star. Sadly, I didn't love this as much.

Despite being a musical novel, through the directions, Tiny gives a more in-depth look into how he was feeling at each moment. However, it wasn't in-depth enough for me. I didn't feel I got to know Tiny any better than I did in WG, WG. I know it's a musical novel, but being a novel, even if in script form, I thought we'd still go deeper. But I guess the style doesn't really allow for that. Levithan's awesome writing style, with his beautiful way with words, doesn't get to shine as much, except in the stage directions.

We do get some really quirky songs, and on occasion some of the lyrics are quite touching, but in all they felt kind of cheesy - but seeing as this is Tiny's story, it was always going to be cheesy. Big and bold and in your face with a lot of glitter and sparkles. I'm a huge fan of musical theatre, and I loved some of the references made, and some of the songs I could actually almost hear as I was reading along. They didn't sound the same, but "Dude, You Couldn't Be Gayer", which is sun by Phil Wrayson and Tiny, really reminded me of "Thank Goodness" from Wicked, where Glinda sings about how she "couldn't be happier".

Despite not going as deep as I would like, and as funny as it could be with it's big, boldness, there were moments when Hold Me Closer was really quite moving. Towards the end, there are moments that overlap with WG, WG, and seeing those moments from Tiny's point of view, through the medium of song, it was really poignant. The songs get a little less cheesy, and a little more serious, and Tiny can be really quite emotional. It's really sweet, and yeah, I was moved.

However, I do think I would have preferred this to be an actual novel, and got into Tiny's head a little better, but saying that, that wouldn't be Tiny's story, that would be fitting Tiny's story into a shape they want, rather than what was really him. A musical novel is so Tiny, and probably the only way to tell it. It just wasn't something I could get into as much as I would have liked. But still, a quick, fun read, and getting to see those characters we fell in love with in WG, WG again is just awesome!

Thank you to Penguin for the review copy.