Fic Gre (Reviewing "The Fault in Our Stars")

It ended in snot and tears my friends, but what a glorious, heart-wrenching piece of work it was. There are now THREE books/series that make me sob uncontrollably as I finish them:  1) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 2) His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, AND NOW 3) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Read the summary at the link to Goodreads. I'm not going summarize it in this blog post.

I immediately knew I had to read this book when the TITLE of the freakin' book was straight outta Shakespeare. I've always loved quoting Shakespeare's Caesar, saying "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings", and how perfectly did John Green work the quote into the novel? PERFECTLY. No really. I'm still a little shell shocked by this book 24-hours after completing it, and I do NOT know how to talk out loud about it yet without getting a little teary. Evidence of a good book that really caused a great deal of TRUE catharsis? Walking into the bedroom with the book to get ready for bed after finishing, being kinda weepy, and then having one's husband ask, "Are you okay?" and only having the response of full-out open weeping while saying multiple times "It's so sad and so beautiful" through a plethora of snot and tears while holding the book to one's chest.

My husband pulled me to him and laughed. Apparently great emotional distress over the lives of fictional characters is a laughing matter.

I was so filled with the book and processing it that I didn't sleep well. I ended up reading another book from 10:45 pm to 1:45 am in order to actually calm myself enough emotionally to sleep. Do all books affect me so? Definitely not. But the books that made me do so before (and EVERY time I read them) are listed above. I've had profound endings I love (see the last book of Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, for example), but only a few books have made me crazy weepy and emotional. John Green's book is now one of them.

Five Defects:

1. The book really isn't as accessible as I'd like it to be. You need to really GET metaphor, GET nuance, GET the super high-brow vocabulary. This book definitely isn't an "any reader" book. It's for the brainy kids (SORRY!). I wish it was more accessible for more readers.
2. Does the vocab and intelligence of this book sometimes (RARELY) interfere with storytelling? Once in a very little while, but it is a point to make. Green balances it well, but there are a few instances where I wish they could have dropped a joke or two.
3. This book WILL offend someone. Just warning you. It's also one of my reasons for LOVING this book, but for some it will be a defect.
4. DON'T read the last 1/3 of this book in public. You risk crying uncontrollably and looking a fool. As a fellow SLIS student mentioned, it was awkward reading the end of this book at the service desk. Don't do it. I was lucky enough to be in the privacy of my own home with only my hubby to witness my breakdown. (I really have been lucky with these books... I always finish them in relative "aloneness" with someone close enough to hug afterwords). Read the first part wherever, leave the last 1/3 for home.
5. Why does it end like that? WHY???? Okay, I know why. It's a cancer book, people. But really? John Green? You're killing me.

Five Delights:

1. This book WILL offend someone. It has cursing, it has sex, it has death, it has 'violence' and destruction of property. It has groping and inappropriate topics. AND IT'S OKAY! Granted, I'm REALLY open minded, but I think that the REALNESS of this book will hit home for teens.
2. It is FILLED with black humor and INTELLIGENT sarcasm. I grew up with an oncology nurse for a mother; I was always taught that death and dying, while tragic and definitely very personal and serious at times, should always be treated with a side of laughter. Yes, we tell jokes at funerals. Yes, we've joked with a family friend passing from cancer about the sheer amount of puke he could heave after a chemo treatment. It's kinda how I grew up and I LOVE that Green fills the novel with this light-hearted fare. Without it, the book would be awful and depressing. With it, it shines.
3. I love how it has a "sex scene" without actually writing a sex scene... and the freakin' Venn diagram afterwords! Thank you for an absolutely GORGEOUS handling of sex in a teen novel, John Green. As an adult reader, I really appreciated it.
4. The metaphor, the poetry, the use of literary devices throughout. The story is great, but the prose is marvelous. I'm so wrapped up in it. It's so full of marvelous quotes and poetry. Simply amazing.
5. I KNEW how it was going to end, but I couldn't stop reading. Green does a fantastic job of writing some of the saddest subject matter EVER - it's a cancer book, people. But it's not the "magically I'm cured" type of cancer book, it's the true nitty gritty cancer book. Thank you for that, especially thank you for a book that an audience LIVING the book will appreciate.