Summer Reads #1 The Fault in Our Stars

Warning: There will be spoilers. If you haven't read this book by John Green go read it and then come back. 

First of all, I loved this book. I'm also that person who has a strange fascination with cancer books. I love them. I love reading the depressing stories of cancer patients doomed to a tragic ending (of course only fictional... enjoying reading them if they were non-fiction would be a bit f***ed up).

I approached this book knowing there was bound to be a tragic ending, ie: knowing I shouldn't get too attached to any of the characters, but I did it anyways.

Hazel and Gus both have such real and comical voices that were easy to identify with. I found half of their conversations to be conversations I would have with a friend or a guy that I was falling for. It was beautiful. THEN, one of the things that brings them together is a tragic cancer novel... it was like my life, in a story. Minus the boy thing, because no guy is falling in love with me because of a book..

You get to the support group, and all I could do was laugh at the part when they were saying how someone should tell Jesus it's dangerous to hold a bunch of dying cancer kids in his literal heart... I laughed out loud several times... but then you meet Gus, who had a "touch" of cancer but was doing fine. RED LIGHT.. I knew it. Right there. He was going to die.

But damn this book. I was in love with his character. I was in love with the romance between him and Hazel. I was in love with the story. Going overseas and meeting the author of a book that left you wondering, only to be disappointed, then having cancer suck the life out of you, but not enough that you can't humorously have your friends write eulogies and then EDIT YOUR OWN EULOGY..I was simultaneously laughing and crying.

But then he died. He died, and she found a quest: to find the ending Gus wrote for her. And finally, the end to the quest being something completely different. He returned to the asshole author who crushed her dreams to ask him to write something for her, a eulogy, something that would remain in this world long after she would, something that would reflect her beauty... MORE TEARS.

Also, I just really loved how the word Okay was their word. The smiles and giggles it provoked. Again, more tears.

This book. It was beautiful. I was so impressed by it's ability to suck me in even with my intense hesitations about letting myself fall into it. Congratulations John Greene, for making my first read of the summer impossible to surpass.

The movie comes out in a few weeks, and I'm eager to see how they do with it.

Next on my list: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

A Bookworm English Major Happy to be Reading for Fun.