woensdag 22 mei 2013

Review: The Fault in Our Stars - John Green


Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Published: January 10th 2012 by Dutton Books
Add It: Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble
Rating: 5 stars


Summary from goodreads: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, 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.

What I think: You will cry reading this book. It's not that I’m a fortuneteller and know these things; it's just a given fact that you can't read this book without crying. Myself, I bawled my eyes out. Started it somewhere during the evening and just needed to finish it, even though I had to get up early and had a full day, I read and read until 02.00 AM. Of course after that I just laid there in my bed crying and couldn't sleep for another hour. The book is really touching, heart wrenching and often very hilarious. 

All in all this is not, as Hazel might say; a Cancer Book. The cancer patients in there are not specifically smart or heroic. They are just people who don't want to be forgotten. The characters don't let their life be defined by their disease. The book doesn't hide the struggle they have with finding a good way of marking their footsteps on this planet. It also doesn't hide the puking and peeing and not being you anymore, cancer is a horrible disease and this book shows us what it can do to a person.

Before all the heartache unfolds, the book is full of sarcasm; not negative, but good sarcasm. It makes the characters real; they actually laugh this disease out in the face. They won't let this get them down! The many awfully good dialogues between characters seemed real, it feels like a conversation that someone could have in real life. These beautiful dialogues have awe-inspiring quotes (see end of this post for my favorite ones). 

Sometimes you read a book which can fill your heart with fundamental enthusiasm, and you are convinced that everyone and literally everyone should read this book. That's how I feel about this book, please read it and let me know what you think. 

Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.

I love you present tense.

You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.

As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep; slowly and then all at once. 

1 opmerking:

  1. I love this book so much. I cried so hard that my husband came into te room to check if everything was okay. :-)

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