Review: The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

By: Andrea

★★★★★
Goodreads summary:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind

Ok, so to start of I'm going to admit it once and for all... I CRIED. All through the last, let's say 20% of the book or so (I read it on my Kindle). It was incredibly sad, and I've read "cancer books" and like Hazel say in the book, "they suck". This is not the typical cancer book, I can assure you. Nothing that you expect to happen does, and in the end you're left with a typhoon of emotions travelling through you.

I found this novel extremely realistic, at how things happen in life that you can't change or stop. When the book ended, I didn't even notice it had ended... I wish there was more. I wanted their love to have more time to develop, just more time to live for both of them...What I think is the point of it all is that there's always time for love. No matter how long you have, what Hazel and Augustus shared was unique an true love... even if it didn't last as long as they wished.

I loved that John wrote the book from a 16-year-old girl's perspective... outstandingly well-written. The obsessing over a book in the story (Hazel and Gus's to An Imperial Affliction) made me relate to them so much, and I loved how the end of the book had a lot to do with AIA. I wanted to email John Green and ask what happened to Hazel, etc., just like Hazel wanted to email Peter Van Houten. And yet, at the same time, I thought I wouldn't have wanted the book to end any other way.

It was amazing how much Hazel and Gus's situations in life was much more different to mine, and yet I related to them in ways I never had to any other characters... It felt like their feelings were completely normal to me, like a true teenager being described in a few hundred pages. It was one of those books that I want basically everyone to read. I read Looking for Alaska a few weeks ago, and I told a few people about it. However, The Fault in Our Stars is a book I want EVERY SINGLE PERSON to read. I've been telling everyone I know– non-stop– to read it, as soon as possible.

Overall, it's a great book and older kids, teens and adults will devour this book. You can't ignore this book.

Buy it now:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble

Trailer:

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Review: Looking for Alaska, by John Green

by: Andrea

 

Summary from Goodreads:

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps. 
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

So this was the first book I read by John Green, apart from his story in the Christmas book with Maureen Johnson and all those I read a while ago. I'd heard so much about this book that when I found it on sale at Barnes & Noble it was the first I chose.

I absolutely loved it. It made me cry, for one, which if you have read my previous reviews, hadn't happened before. Ever. What surprised me was that it made my cry in the middle of the book! Pudge is a ver unique character that I fell in love with, and he was easy to relate to. It seemed like whatever he felt I felt. It was inspiring, and it made you think about life, seriously. Like with his teacher, the assignments he gives, them, it's like he's giving them to you, too.

It was relatable because John Green didn't write about usual, cliché teenagers. He gave them the mature personality, that at the same time is new to many things (smoking, sex, etc.) so Pudge matured and learned everything he had to learn while we did, too. 

Honestly, I loved Alaska. She seemed as someone who I'd like to talk to for hours. 

I recommend this book a lot, mainly because you don't expect anything that happens to the characters. I need to read the rest of John Green's books and I will do that soon.

And remember, to keep looking for the Great Perhaps! :')

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