weekend read: The Fault in Our Stars

Lovelovelove this book.

John Green is an amazing writer and I feel slighted that I’m just now learning this.  Also, really thankful my friend Jess passed this book on to me.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green features a sixteen-year-old girl, Hazel, who is dying of cancer.  She meets a fellow cancer kid, Augustus, who turns her world upside down.  Their conversations, their interactions, their families, all of it felt so real, so true, and so heartbreaking.

John Green lives in Indianapolis (where I live) and he based this story in and around our city.  Augustus goes to North Central, a real high school on the north side of town.  The characters visit Holliday Park and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, drive down real roads that I’ve driven down, and shop at a local mall.  Even the occasional diss towards my hometown makes it in there.  This didn’t make or break the story for me, but it was an added bonus to feel that not only were these characters real, but I could run into them at any moment.

While you know going into it that if everyone you meet has some sort of cancer, there’s going to be death.  You still don’t expect it, want it, or realize it’s happening until you’re too wrapped up in the story to be prepared (as if you can ever be prepared for death, even in a book). 

I love the dialogue in this book.  It was so snappy and real.  This wasn’t like reading a book, it was more like being a fly on the wall in a really interesting life.  And I wept openly in my classroom when the ending arrived.  It was definitely one of my finer moments molding youth.  Especially when my assistant principal walked in.  Teacher of the year.

John Green is all over the internets–he has a large following on his vlogbrothers youtube channel, has a fun blog, tweets (@therealjohngreen) and has a cool club called Nerdfighters.  I think I want to be his friend.  And since he lives in my city, I might just stalk him make that happen.