The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

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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.
 

I am struggling with writing a review of this book.  Don’t misunderstand my struggle.  I feel that this is probably John Green’s best book yet.  But to mention a single thing that happens in this book would be to spoil it for the reader.  On top of that the topic is so heavy that I am not sure what I can possibly say.

What can I say? I have never been faced with a terminal illness. I have never had someone immediately close to me face a battle that they may never win. A battle that takes away so much and gives nothing. My only knowledge lies in the loss of several family members that live thousands and thousands of miles away. So far away that I was not able be with them as they slowly (or quickly) succumbed to this horrendous disease. So far away that I have no clue what their immediate family and very close friends experienced on a daily basis. Sure I have lost loved ones to cancer but I cannot with any honesty say that I understand or know their struggle.

And this is where Mr. Green helped me as a reader. He gives us, the people that have not been irreparably damaged by this disease, a window to a world that we do not know. This story is about reality. There is no fantasy contained within the pages of this book. Mr. Green does not fill the reader with hope where there is none. What he does is describe the utter unfairness and hopelessness of this disease in a heartbreakingly beautiful way.

Although I am giving this book 5-stars I don’t know that I can recommend this to everyone. It is sad. It is heartbreaking. And according to some, it is a “cancer book”, which is a rather unsavory classification in the book world. I have never read any other novel about cancer so I can’t say if I feel this classification is correct. I personally read this book because the author is the brilliant John Green. But that being said this book is about cancer and its victims. This story IS emotional and may make you cry.  If this isn't the type of book for you then definitely skip it.  However, if you want to witness the genius that is John Green then open up The Fault in Our Stars.  I don't think you will be disappointed.

Nat

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

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When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska. (Taken from GoodReads)


After reading Looking for Alaska I was eager to continue my John Green education. Again, with the recommendation from Heidi at YABibliophile, I chose to read An Abundance of Katherines. Where Looking for Alaska was serious and thought-provoking, An Abundance of Katherines was full of hilarity and slapstick humor.

According to Colin Singleton, he is a washed up child prodigy that is smart enough to be a prodigy but never smart enough to be a genius. When his lazy but loyal best friend, Hassan finds him lying on the floor of his bedroom, mourning the break up with Katherine XIX, he convinces Colin that the only cure for his heartache is a summer road trip. So they head out in Colin’s crappy air condition-less car in search of an adventure that leads them to a town in the middle-of-nowhere (Gutshot), Tennessee. During their physical adventure, Colin also sets out on an emotional and mental challenge of creating and proving a theorem that will help boys and girls everywhere by predicting the future of their relationships.

This story was the perfect combination of smart and slapstick humor. Colin was so socially clueless and inept that you couldn’t help but shake your head at him. His love of anagrams won me over from the beginning (as did John Green’s dedication page – in which he dedicates his book to his wonderfully anagrammed wife). And as socially inept as Colin is, he still has a sense of humor that is so fantastically dry that you might miss it if you blink. Colin’s BFF, Hassan, is cheeky and profane. His irreverent attitude towards everything is reminiscent of the humor you will find in the movies American Pie and Van Wilder. Then there is Lindsey. The cute girl that is content with her small town and her simple dreams brings a much needed dose of normalcy to the story that balances everything out beautifully.

The book is full of mostly humorous foot notes used to explain things that those of us of average intelligence may not understand – definitions of words in Latin, German and French, historical trivia and the explanation of complicated theorems. Don’t worry, you don’t have to read the theorem footnotes….unless of course you are a math lover that wants to help Colin in the development of his Theorem. I found these footnotes to be highly amusing and they were a big part of why I enjoyed this book as much as I did.

In the end, I LOVED this book. It made me laugh more than any other YA book I have read so far which was very refreshing. I give this a solid 4 stars.



Nat

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

*****

Synopsis taken from Gayle Forman’s website:

It’s been three years since the devastating accident…three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard’s rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend.  When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night.  AS they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future – and each other.

Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

Wow. 

That was all I could say when I finished this sequel to If I Stay.  This book was just as emotionally charged as the first and completely leaves you breathless.

Just as in If I Stay, Gayle Forman brilliantly jumps between the present and the past to tell us how Adam and Mia have come to where they are now.  I can’t imagine anyone not loving Adam by the end of If I Stay.  Actually you like him so much that you are wondering when you start reading Where She Went, why the HECK did Mia leave him and why haven’t they spoken in three years? 

Through this story we learn how the tragedy in Mia’s story and then her abandonment has affected them both differently.  Some people grieve and move on any way they can and others get so stuck in their grief that they might explode any minute.  After 24 hours together, we learn who has learned to accept the events of the past and who still needs a holding hand to guide them to closure.

Although If I Stay really could have been a stand alone novel, this ended up being a beautiful ending to Adam and Mia’s story. 

Like most book lovers, I have read more books than I can count.  But even having read so many there are very few that I will read more than once.  There are even fewer that I will read more than twice.   If I Stay and Where She Went have made there way to the latter category.  These two books were so wonderful that I will be buying a second copy of each in the form of e-book so that I can always have them with me.  And my hard copies have already been added to a pile of books that I recommend to most friends. 

Nat

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

*****

Synopsis taken from Gayle Forman’s website:

On a day that started like any other…

Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices.  Then, in an instant, almost of that is taken from her.  Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the once decision she has left – the most important decision she’ll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

There isn’t much I can share about the plot without spoiling it.   

I will tell you that the characters in this book are so beautiful and so real.  Some are flawed more than others but none of them disproportionately so.  And their flaws are only meant to make them human not evil.  Each character in this book is introduced to us for one purpose.  And that is to prove to Mia that maybe she does have a reason to choose life over death.

While reading this all I could think about was my children and the people they have in their lives.  I really hope that we are providing them with a supportive family that they can always lean on.  I hope that they make friends that they love and love them back.  And more than anything, I hope my children always feel like they have something to live for whether we are there or not.

This book is an emotional ride.  You will find yourself laughing out loud one minute and then sobbing a few pages later.  I can’t recommend this one enough.

Nat