{Review} The Fault in our Stars by John Green

The Fault In Our Stars
by John Green
Pages: 313
Release Date: January 10, 2012
by Dutton Books (an imprint of Penguin)

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Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

As a complete book, it isn’t hard to find the right word to describe this story: phenomenal.  But it is hard to describe the little details that made this book phenomenal.  But I’ll try.  The writing, I have to mention right off, was beautiful.  John Green is an amazing writer, and you immediately get sucked into any of his books.  The whole story was just beautiful, if not heartbreaking.  I loved the way the romance grew, I loved the way that Hazel and Augustus talked to each other, I loved the way they made jokes and talked about the universe and had intelligent conversations.  I just loved the book.  It’s those little things that made this book as amazing as it was.  And, even though I spent literally thirty minutes, while I was reading, sobbing, actually sobbing, this book was amazing.  The way the romance grew, and the way the story line flowed and made the book an adventure for Augustus and Hazel was just beautiful.  And heartbreaking.

These characters were the reason I loved this book.  Even though cancer had ruined both of their lives, they remained strong.  Augustus was awesome.  He was so funny and adorable and cute and smart and loving and caring…and gosh just perfect.  The way he treated Hazel and the way they really loved each other was so beautiful to read about.  Hazel was a great main character because she was actually more affected by cancer than he was, in my opinion.  She remained strong and defiant and she was a really intelligent main character.  The ending of this book killed me.

At times I actually found it very hard to write this review because I was thinking of the book and all that happened in it and I know it sounds so cheesy but I almost started to cry several times.  It took me a while to write this review, and I don’t think it does the book justice, but I hope I got across how amazing I thought it was.  I’m actually kind of dreading the movie coming out because I think seeing this book will be worse than reading it, emotion wise.

5 stars

{Review} Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska
by John Green
Pages: 231
Release Date: December 26, 2006
by Speak (an imprint of Penguin)

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Before: Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.
After: Nothing is ever the same.

This was the first book by John Green that I’ve ever read, and I wasn’t sure what to expect…but it definitely wasn’t what happened in this book!  This book was dark, entertaining, emotionally scarring…and kind of awesome.  First off, John Green’s writing is absolutely beautiful.  The way he described the characters and the setting was just amazing, and the story line flowed perfectly.  I honestly thought I had this whole book figured out, and I thought I knew how it would end…but I was so wrong.  So, so, so wrong.  I couldn’t believe that ending.  [SPOILER: When he was counting down the numbers till some day the whole book I was expecting it to be when Pudge would tell Alaska that he loved her, not when she would die.  That completely threw me, and gosh it was sad. ]

This book has some really awesome characters.  One thing that I think YA lacks is really flawed, messed up characters.  Like in Silver Linings Playbook, Pat and Tiffany are so messed up, but they’re two of my all-time favorite characters.  This book had some really messed up characters, and it was hard to read about them, but I enjoyed it, if that makes sense.  Pudge was a good main character, and he really developed over the course of the story, turning from a weak, anti-social loner to a stronger, has-3-best-friends kind of guy.  Alaska I really liked.  She was strong, she was confident…but she was also crazy, and even though I thought that, I really appreciated her as a character.  The Colonel was a big part of the book as well, and I really loved his character.  He was a good, strong supporting character who had his own issues, and made the book very interesting.

I was very impressed with this book, and I know that John Green is a very popular author, so I will definitely be reading his other books.  But seriously, if all his book are as heartbreaking as this one…I’m going to need some therapy.

3 stars