Thumbs up for The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Young adult.
I would not have gotten snookered into reading this just by its presence on every single “best of the year” list, if not for the fact that it is also by the genius pen of John Green. If you can read this book and not cry, then – …no, you can’t. Unless you’re Vulcan, it’s not possible. The Fault in our Stars is a love story about two teens who meet at a cancer support group, so what do you expect? Of course (as should be fairly obvious if you’re a regular reader of this blog) I prefer “funny” to “tearjerker” any day of the week. The thing is, John Green is funny, and wise, and nerdy, and deliciously literate, so I do not regret reading this even if I was exhausted the next day because I stayed up till 2am turning pages as fast as I could and sniveling like some teenager with a Nicholas Sparks romance. In short: It’s brilliant. But read at your own risk.
“I am,” he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”
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