The Fault in Our Stars: Book Review

Summary:

Hazel Grace has more or less accepted her short life -- dying of terminal cancer at the age of sixteen, she spends her days peacefully watching America's Next Top Model and rereading her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. She might have continued this way if not for Augustus Waters, a boy she meets at cancer support group whose life becomes irrevocably entwined with Hazel's in ways that are both wonderful and painful.

Overview:

Without spoilers I can tell you that this a masterfully written book that made me both laugh and cry. In John Green's typical style, he captures the perfect tragic comedy. Although, I'd have to warn anyone who's lost someone to cancer that this book will be both cathartic and terrible--like rubbing alcohol onto an open wound. This is not, however, the fault of the book. As the title clearly states, it's the fault of our stars that might make this book more difficult for some than others. Yet, in spite of the dark places it took me, I couldn't put it down--probably because it took me to good places too, places where even mostly unremembered, short lives matter.

I'd give this book 9 / 10 stars * * * * * * * * *

Personal Experience:

I got to see John Green on tour for this book. Unfortunately, I hadn't had time to read the book, yet. But since he tries to avoid spoilers on tours, this might have been for the best. If you don't already know, John Green has an excellent YouTube channel with his brother called, the vlogbrothers. So this was really just a vlogbrothers tour in disguised as a book tour. This means there was lots of fun dancing and singing in addition to talking about literature. It's largely due to his online fan following that he's a best-selling author, so I doubt his publishers mind the strangely unrelated additions to his tour. He was always a good author, but the vlogs helped his notoriety exponentially.

Here's their awesome tour bus.

Here's me in front of the bus. I know, you can all barely contain your excitement. You know that in all your lives you'll never see another vehicle full of this much awesome. Not even the Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile or the Red Bull Car. I've ruined vehicular excitement forever.

Behind me you see Hank Green (in the black shirt) and John Green (in the green shirt). My book was signed by John and a lovely Hanklerfish was drawn by Hank, based on one of his songs. My shirt is also a vlogbrothers shirt based on a song about people who love giraffes who love giraffes.

*

*

*

*

*

Spoilers:

I think John Green hits a very interesting theme of how it might ruin some of our heroes if we met them. There's also the point that you do not have to be a good person to create something good, and sometimes our interpretations of things are more important than the artist's.

I've met a couple of my favorite authors (John Green and Neil Gaiman), and it was excellent. However, I admit others of my favorite authors I'm actually not sure I would like to meet. Like Peter Van Houten, I think they created something beautiful, but I am not sure I would like them as people or that they would like me.

I sensed throughout the books that Hazel wasn't going to find the answers she sought from Van Houten. Still, this sense did not dull my compulsion to find out what she did find. I was less interested in Van Houten than I was in Hazel's development, and I think that's as it should have been.

John Green did an excellent job writing from the perspective of a sixteen year old girl. Augustus and Issac's characters were also very real--the type of well-crafted character you can almost see and touch. I felt there was more distance with the parents and the part where Hazel's father tells her he thinks the universe wants to be noticed sounded very literary for a man who had just proclaimed his lack of literary skills. But it didn't bother me that much because, for the most part, there's so much truth in this story. Like Hazel, I don't feel the need to be remembered. I think our lives can be important without us being important outside those who love us, and I'm glad John wrote this beautiful ode to life.

Books I Still Need to Read

I'm reading much slower than I used to read so I've decided to record my wish list of books to here so I can remember and anyone interested can know what I'll be reading:

Snuff by Terry Pratchett
I am currently working on this book and about halfway through if not a little more.







The Fault in Our Stars by John Green






Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan








Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory







Mastiff by Tamora Pierce







The Goblin War by Hilari Bell







Triumph by Carolyn Jessop







Changes by Mercedes Lackey

Info Thursday
The Last King of France

So due to John Green's terrific recap of the French Revolution (the first video of which is posted below) I was spurred to look up the last actual King of France. Because French history gets really murky, confusing, and bloody between 1792-1870. Basically Kings get killed, people revolt, they try to set up alternate governments, those fail, more people get killed, and then, before you know it, everyone's shouting--"Vive le Roi!"

So the last man to call himself King was Louis-Phillipe I, but the last monarch of France was Emperor Napoleon III. And, let's face it, an Emperor is just a King on steroids.

What I was shocked to discover is there are STILL people who are pretenders to the French throne. I mean, even if it was restored, seems like it wouldn't be the safest gig. Don't they know what happened to those other guys?



Sources:
John Green--as many times as he's been listed here it's probably safe to say I learn a lot from John Green. Although, I already knew a lot about the French Revolution, he rekindled my interest.

Wikipedia--but I'm reasonably confident it's true as they're simple facts and not conspiracy theories.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson:

Book and Audiobook Review

Summary

Will Grayson is a teen in Evanston, IL whose non-confrontational personality is often challenged by his larger than life friend, Tiny Cooper. Will Grayson is a teen in Naperville, IL who has no friends. Happenstance cause these two to meet one night in Chicago and their colliding paths cause them to share more than just their names.

Overview (No spoilers)

What I really liked about this book was that it was a marked departure from John Green's usual romantic themes. It deals in romance, but more importantly, it's a treatise on friendship: what it is, what it means, and what a true friend will do for another. It's not that I haven't loved the romances Green has written, but this was a refreshing change not just to him but also for YA books in general which, much as I adore them, I will confess often rank romantic love far above friendship. As for Levithal's character, I've never read anything else by him, so I can't compare, but I did like his character in the end. Though I'll note that I hated him in the beginning. It wasn't that I couldn't relate, since though it constantly shames me to admit it, it really wasn't that long ago that I was a teen. But the anger and angst of the age are not things I miss. However, the character's need to use his anger to distance people because of his own fear that he wasn't worthy of affection struck a more universal cord with me.

Audiobook (Mild spoilers)

Only after listening to the audio did I glance at the text and realize that Naperville Will's sections were written in textspeak grammar which, no doubt, would have driven me nuts to read since I can't even abide textspeak when someone is texting me. That combined with his angst-ridden character might have made me give up earlier if I hadn't been listening. I also was impressed that they sang the songs and the ex-boyfriend song cracked me up when the guy sang "I don't have to you you why." Something about the tone mixed with the words was what made it funny. And it was a good choice for them to alternate readers, of course. I'm guessing Evanston Will's reader sang the songs but honestly I don't know for certain. Overall, they were both excellent voice actors that were able to emphasize feelings I may not have felt from a straight reading of the text.

Dream Journal #4

I had a dream that I and some other nerdfighters went to John's house to help him demolish his moldy basement walls. I was apparently very good at demolishing walls in my dream, but this may have had something to do with the fact that they were far flimsier than real walls. There were also walls behind the walls. Then John painted the new walls green and put jungle themed wallpaper on them.