Will Grayson, Will Grayson: Chapters 9-12

by John Green, David Levithan
In this collaboration by popular novelists John Green and David Levithan, the lives of two teenagers named Will Grayson intersect unexpectedly.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1-4, Chapters 5-8, Chapters 9-12, Chapters 13-16, Chapters 17-20

Here are links to our lists for other books by John Green: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down

Here is a link to Every Day by David Levithan.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. therapist
    a person skilled in a particular type of care
    The kid gives me about an eighth of a smile and then turns back to Tiny, who—to be fair—is clearly the better therapist.
  2. contradictory
    not able to be true at the same time
    I'm still thinking about the tying of love and truth—and it makes me want to tell her the truth—the whole, contradictory truth—because otherwise, on some level, am I not that girl?
  3. convey
    serve as a means for expressing something
    I make a gesture that is intended to convey, "Hey, no hurry, talk as long as you'd like," and probably actually conveys, "Hey, look at me! I have spastic hands."
  4. epiphany
    a usually sudden insight, perception, or understanding of something
    "Like, do you believe that people's attitudes can change? One day you wake up and you realize something, you see something in a way that you never saw it before, and boom, epiphany. Something is different forever. Do you believe in that?"
  5. pretentious
    intended to attract notice and impress others
    She's cute and she's really smart in precisely the right slightly pretentious way, and there's a softness to her face that sharpens everything she says, and I like her, and it's not just that I should be honest with her; I want to.
  6. consistent
    in agreement or reliable
    She's right that she deserves someone consistent, and maybe I can't be that.
  7. fascinating
    capable of arousing and holding the attention
    "Honest Will and Regular Will are so fascinatingly different!"
  8. intersperse
    place between or among
    Sometimes I think, like, God, she's superhot and smart and kind of pretentious but the pretentiousness just makes me kind of want her, and then other times I think it's an amazingly bad idea, that dating you would be like a series of unnecessary root canals interspersed with occasional makeout sessions.
  9. tolerance
    willingness to respect the beliefs or practices of others
    SING & DANCE & CELEBRATE TOLERANCE IN THE MOST IMPORTANT MUSICAL OF OUR TIME.
  10. trauma
    an emotional wound or shock having long-lasting effects
    i am still in shock, i can't tell whether it's post-traumatic stress or post-stress trauma, whatever it is, a good part of my life has just been erased, and i have no desire to fill in the new blank, leave it empty, i say.
  11. negate
    deny the truth of
    he's playing the i've-had-it-worse game, which never works, because either the person says something that's not worse at all ('he wasn't a natural blond') or they say something that's so much worse that you feel like all your feelings are being completely negated
  12. sincerity
    the quality of being open and truthful
    the other will grayson heads off, leaving me with my new refrigerator-size companion, who's looking at me with such sincerity that i want to slap him.
  13. demolish
    humiliate or depress completely
    i am in a completely demolished state, my mind is having a heart attack, the last thing i need is for the fat lady to sing, but do i protest?
  14. repulsion
    intense aversion
    he's got super-smooth skin and really green eyes and everything is in, like, proportion, so i'm not feeling the repulsion i would expect to feel toward someone three times my size
  15. distorted
    so badly formed or out of shape as to be ugly
    it's basically this big reflective metal bean that you can walk under and see yourself all distorted
  16. genuine
    not pretended; sincerely felt or expressed
    usually it's hard at first to locate yourself in the reflection, but this time i know i'm the wavy twig standing next to the big blob of humanity, tiny giggles when he sees himself like that, a genuine, tee-hee-hee giggle
  17. pang
    a sudden sharp feeling
    i have this deep pang of jealousy, that o.w.g. has a friend like tiny
  18. obituary
    a notice of someone's death
    i can't imagine anyone ever writing a letter to the editor for me. i can't even imagine them giving a quote for my obituary.
  19. development
    a recent event that has relevance for the present situation
    so we stop and i can't help but think about isaac, and how even though this whole tiny thing is an interesting development, all-in-all things still suck in a tornado-destroyed-my-home kind of way.
  20. vital
    urgently needed; absolutely necessary
    Tiny throws his hands up in the air and announces, "I can't change Gil Wrayson's name! It's thematically vital to the whole production."
  21. transformation
    a qualitative change
    His name has to be Wrayson. Say it slow. Ray-sin. Rays-in. It's a double meaning—Gil Wrayson is undergoing a transformation. And he has to let the rays of sunlight in—those rays of sunlight coming in the form of Tiny's songs—in order to become his true self—no longer a plum, but a sun-soaked raisin.
  22. perspective
    a way of regarding situations or topics
    "Wah-wah, Jane doesn't like me even though I don't like her. Wah-wah, Tiny named a character after me in his play. Like, there are people in the world with real problems, you know? You gotta keep it in perspective."
  23. orbit
    the path of a celestial body in its revolution about another
    I'm nothing but a bit character in the Tiny Cooper story, and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it except get jerked around until high school is over and I can finally escape his orbit, can finally stop being a moon of his fat planet.
  24. impotence
    the quality of lacking strength or power
    I'm just reveling in the glory of not having to hear the neediness and impotence of my own voice.
  25. intricacy
    the quality of having elaborately complex detail
    Apparently, having Tiny Cooper as your best-and-only friend does not leave you well-prepared for the intricacies of male socialization.
  26. embody
    represent, as of a character on stage
    "Somewhere down there, Grayson, there's someone who will have to look into your soul in order to properly embody you."
  27. rendition
    a performance of a musical composition or a dramatic role
    By Number 5, I'm wishing for a mediocre rendition of something inoffensive like "Over the Rainbow," and I suspect Tiny is, too, from the way his peppy, "That was great! We'll get back to you." has devolved into a, "Thanks. Next?"
  28. apathetic
    showing little or no emotion or animation
    "I will base your character upon the attributes of the boulders on the lakeshore: silent, apathetic, and—considering how little they exercise—surprisingly chiseled."
  29. plead
    appeal or request earnestly
    Behind me, I hear Tiny dramatically plead, "Someone tell me it will be okay!"
  30. agony
    intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain
    me: look, mom, i'm totally gay, and i'd appreciate it if you could get the whole freakout over with now, because, yeah, we have the rest of our lives to deal with it, but the sooner we get through the agony part, the better
  31. spectacular
    sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect
    i'm looking at her face to see if she's holding things back, but it seems like it is what it is. which is pretty spectacular, all things considered.
  32. uncharted
    not yet surveyed or investigated
    we are in completely uncharted mother-son territory here, not just in this house — maybe in all of america.
  33. inspiration
    the act of arousing to a particular emotion or action
    tiny sends me a file of one of the songs from tiny dancer. he says he hopes it will give me inspiration
  34. creed
    any system of principles or beliefs
    Such kissing on the catwalks
    Such competition for the leads
    We fell in love so often and fully
    Across all races and sexualities and creeds .
  35. option
    one of a number of things from which only one can be chosen
    i am just going to pretend that she doesn't exist, because all the other options would get me expelled and/or arrested.
  36. benefit
    something that aids or promotes well-being
    she's crying now, and i don't care, the tears are for her own benefit, not mine, let her feel the pain her poetry desires.
  37. sorrow
    sadness associated with some wrong done or disappointment
    i build a wall of silence that no goth sorrow can climb.
  38. glare
    look at with a fixed or angry gaze
    i see a few people looking at me weird in school the next day, and i wonder if it would be possible to reconstruct the path the gossip took from derek or simon to the towering snot-nosed jock glaring at me.
  39. sarcasm
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
    maybe our friendship wasn't meant to last longer than a year, maybe the things that drew us together — doom, gloom, sarcasm — weren't meant to hold us together
  40. ambidextrous
    equally skillful with each hand
    gideon: so, yeah, i heard that you might be, you know . . .
    me: ambidextrous? a philatelist? homosexual?
Created on Tue Jan 05 10:53:57 EST 2016 (updated Tue Apr 17 10:19:41 EDT 2018)

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