This book is everywhere now. I see it in every bookstore window, every time I go to Target, and everyone is reading it online. So when I got it as a Valentine's Day gift, I knew I had to read it. It took all of one 4 hour sitting to finish it. I didn't want it to end!
It is wonderful, tragic, and filled with so much life and love. John Green sure knows how to pull at your heartstrings. I am now adding some of his other books to my must read list. In all books narrated by cancer patients, this book made me so sad. Not because you feel bad for the main character, Hazel, but because you want her to be healthy so badly. You want her to be able to be loved by someone and for someone to love her. There is a quote on the back that sums the whole book. It says that this book will break your heart, and then put it back together again. What a true statement! The main characters, Hazel and Augustus, meet and fall in love in a cancer support group. Augustus is in remission and Hazel is at a stand still. Her cancer is not getting worse but it is not getting better either.
This is essentially a book for teenagers, but the dialogue is way beyond their years. The love these two share in this book is magical, the time they spent together is just the same. But it was not portrayed as being perfect. Far from it actually. They did not see eye to eye very often. This book is so real, so raw, and so very teenager like. At one point, a friend throws trophies around the room in anger. That seems like the typical emotional response from a teenager. I loved that nothing was sugar coated.
The writing was beautiful, the story was beautiful, and the characters were beautiful. You will cry, laugh, and cry some more.
