Nitty Gritty
Hazel has thyroid cancer that's metastasized into her lungs. She meets Augustus (Gus) who has osteosarcoma and a prosthetic leg at a cancer support group for teenagers. They begin to fall in love and embark on a remarkable journey to find answers for the big questions they might not have time to answer.
Touchy Feely
This book: be still my heart. I really can't say enough wonderful things about this book. I heeded Jennifer Hubert's advice to read it slowly, to savor it. It's the kind of book (for me at least) like Harry Potter, wherein I can only read it for the first time once, and I'm subsequently jealous of everyone else who hasn't read it yet. I've always been a big fan of John Green, but I had forgotten how much I liked his books and his person in general. Now I've been trust head-over-heels back into Nerdfighteria. He writes for my favorite kind of teenager: the proud-to-be-nerdy, wise-cracking, grammatically-correct, philosopher-referencing kind. Green mixes sweet romance and piercing grief, travelogue and family drama, philosophy and shoot-em-up video games into a book that I read a month ago and still haven't stopped thinking about. This is Green's best book, and probably one of the best book that will come out in 2012. Every student I've given it to has read it quickly, given it five stars on Goodreads, and just generally loved it.
Nerdy Bits
Hazel and Gus travel to Amsterdam to meet Hazel's favorite author. The descriptions of the city make it come alive (Green lived there while writing TFiOS). One scene in particular stands out to me. One night in Amsterdam, Hazel and Gus are eating at a fancy restaurant along a canal. The leaves are blowing off the trees and I imagine it looks something like this. Gorg!
Other tidbits about TFiOS
- The release date was moved to January 10 from May. I didn't realize the significance of that date until I reread Looking for Alaska.
- The original title of the book was The Sequel. The current title comes from Julius Caesar: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings." (I, ii, 140-141).
- The book is dedicated to Esther Grace Earl, who helped run a Nerdfighter Tumblr and died of cancer in 2010. A foundation, This Star Won't Go Out, exists to help families in the Boston area affected by cancer.
Full Coverage
The cover is designed by Rodrigo Corral, who's designed such books as The Glass Castle, The Marriage Plot, and Super Sad True Love Story. So he's what they call a "big deal" in the biz. I think it's iconic and the colors just make me want to wear it. If you see one with a yellow sticker, then you've stumbled upon one of the 150,000 first printing copies signed by the man himself (and even rarer are the Hanklerfish and Yeti copies).
Dewey Love
I can't think of a particular non-fiction book to pair this with (other than a travel guide to Amsterdam), but for extra credit, watch any and/or all of the Vlogbrothers videos on YouTube. DFTBA!
Inspirational Moment
Final Thoughts
This might be one of my favorite YA books of all time. I hope this thing wins the Printz, the movie wins a bunch of Oscars, and that one day John and Hank Green will win the Nobel Peace Prize for P4A. Then I will be satisfied. Maybe.
The first time I read through the book I was so blown away. I finished it with this kind of fantastic empty feeling in my chest that only comes from reading a book that is written with such a real and honest voice. This book may on its surface be a fantastic story about two-star crossed lovers, but at its core it is so, so much more. I highly recommend it to anyone, and don’t be afraid because it seems to be a book about cancer. I’m not saying that cancer doesn’t play a major role. I would just say that its more about the side effects of dying.
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