The Fault in our Stars by John Green

This was, quite possibly, the most evocative and heart-wrenching book that I have ever read. John Green has a unique way of taking a depressing situation like cancer and making you both sob and laugh at the same time [with very disgusting results - think about that gross, sobbing, snotting cry mixed with sporadic laughing and you'll start to see what I mean]. Now that it has been made into a movie, the book has been reviewed and reflected on from every possible angle, so if you've already read some of those you probably won't get anything new here (but feel free to read along anyway!).

Here, I'm going to ramble on a bit about how I came to read this book; if you're looking for the book review, scroll down to the bold header marked "book review"! Green has been one of my top three authors since I was first introduced to Looking for Alaska. After I read that, I read every single Green book I could get my hands on. I even scoured the vast realms of the internet to see what else I could find on Green (much like I did in the days of Harry Potter).  I quickly came to find that he and his brother, Hank, run a YouTube channel [Vlogbrothers] together and often discussed things I was interested in. When John announced on YouTube that he was writing a new book, and later announced that he would be going on tour to promote the new book, I knew I had to read it. On the Vlogbrothers channel, John even read the first chapter of the book weeks before it was to be released. I preordered a copy of the book [it came signed!!!!!!] and read it in about 2.5 hours. Over the course of my first foray through the novel, I laughed, I sobbed, I threw the book against the wall, and I shouted expletives towards Mr. Green for the emotional slalom he was running me though. Then I bought my ticket for the tour; I was able to hear Green talk about the book-writing process, his inspiration for the book, and he answered questions from the crowd [including one of mine!].

Enough about my book reading process, let's talk about the book itself. The Fault in Our Stars [TFioS for short] is a straight-up novel about a teenager with cancer who falls in love...with another teenager with cancer. Hold up, you say, this doesn't sound like it would be a great book...not even an "okay" book. In fact, it sounds like total anguish topped with a misery cherry. Why would I ever want to voluntarily read this? By the end of this book, while I did feel incredibly sad and frustrated with Green, I felt as though I had just experienced someone else's life for a few hours. Green spins a tale that winds you right up in it. His characters are dynamic and have a never ending stream of wit and humor coming from their mouths that serves to lighten the oppressive sadness of the novel. I don't want to write much more for fear of ruining such a fantastic book, so I will leave this with my whole-hearted encouragement to pick up the book and give it a chance to rip you to pieces.