The Fault In Our Stars

This morning, I exchanged a yellow slip of paper for a small package containing John Green's latest novel, The Fault In Our Stars.

It took me 13 hours to finish it.

I used to devour every book I was able to get my hands on, and read intensely in this focused, starved way. As I grew older and was exposed to more literature, I learned to take my time in reading. I had "school books" and magazines and I realized that chapters could be stopping points and bookmarks would hold the place for more than the few minutes it takes to eat dinner. I had a life outside of turning the next page.

Every once in a while, though, I get a book that reminds me of why I was that child that would curl up uncomfortably in the windowsill to read using the last glimmers of Alaskan twilight, since it was after lights out and according to my parents, I was asleep.

The Fault In Our Stars is one of those books. It is filled with John Green's humor and style. It has an interesting plot, and the well-written characters in this book add to the long list of Fictional People I Would Want To Be Friends With.

Anything John Green writes will at least be mediocre-good, just because he's an excellent writer (I'd read his grocery lists). What makes this book special, though, is the way it expresses very real parts of very real life. It acknowledges the clichés without falling victim to them. It finds the line between poignancy and cheesiness.

I don't have cancer. I don't have people near to me that are suffering from the terminal illnesses that are the plot of The Fault In Our Stars. So I can't know this for sure, but I believe that this book depicts, at least emotionally, the effects of Cancer (Capital C) and its presence in life pretty well.  I like that it diverts from the "Constant Stoic Graceful Cancer Fighter" stereotype while still allowing its characters their share of virtues and strengths. I like that Hazel's relationship with her parents is not bad, and not a problem in her story. I like the lack of ambiguity in the ending, and that it ends in a full sentence. I like the title, and that the title is from a quote, and it actually fits into the book's themes without pulling the book out of shape.

Basically, you'll want to read this.

(Oh, and in case you were wondering...Mine is signed in BLUE SHARPIE. Which was only signed on 2.96% of the 150,000 books signed total. So that means this book is one of roughly...4,440 books signed in Blue Sharpie. Woo!!)