Posts tagged ‘john green’

January 19, 2012

Book Review #5 – The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

SourcePersonal (signed!) copy
Finished: 1/15/12
Rating: 10 out of 10
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 336
Published: 2012
Challenges: 2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge, What’s in a Name 5 (“A book with something you’d see in the sky in the title”)

Synopsis (from the Book Description): Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Overall Impression: There are about a million blog reviews of this highly anticipated new release, and every single one of them I have read has been overwhelmingly positive. The reviews speak of Green’s uncanny ability to craft a cancer story that isn’t really about cancer, how he builds characters full of so much presence,  and how it is nearly impossible not to fall head over heels in love with nearly all the characters in the book (yes, Hazel and Augustus, but also their parents — oh, Hazels dad just about brought me to my knees — and their close friend Isaac). All these things are so true. I felt like Hazel and Augustus (and Isaac) are the teenagers that we all want teenagers to be (minus the cancer part…and maybe the having sex part). They are thoughtful, they are grateful, they are determined, they are strong, they create clever Venn diagrams. They read books, they understand loss, pain, and anger, they love their parents. But they also play video games and watch America’s Next Top Model, so we know that they are actual real teenagers. I think this is what made this such a great novel for me — Green’s characters were some of the most memorable teenagers I’ve read in a long time. I felt like it was a privilege to know them.

Positives: Really, it’s one of the best YA novels I’ve ever read. Yes, it’s a tear-jerker (come on, it’s kids with cancer…), but really, it’s incredibly hopeful.

Negatives: A bit of the dialogue suffers from Dawson’s-Creek-itis (I actually had to look up a couple words), and every once in a while the plot feels a bit contrived. These are tiny negatives. Ignore them. Read this book.

Other books I’ve read by John Green: An Abundance of Katherines (review)

Other blogger opinions:

Avid Reader’s Musings: “…he turns a story about cancer, death and the desire to be remembered into one about living and first love and favorite novels.”

For Love and Books: “In fact, this may be one of my top ten books of all time. I cannot say how much I loved it.”

KellyVision: “There are not enough superlatives for this, or for Hazel and Augustus or for any of the other characters in this book.

February 23, 2011

Book Review: #13 – An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Read: For the Literary Goddesses book club
Source
: Sacramento Library
Finished: 2/11/11
Rating: 8 out of 10
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 256
Originally Published: 2006

Synopsis (from Booklist): Green follows his Printz-winning Looking for Alaska (2005) with another sharp, intelligent story, this one full of mathematical problems, historical references, word puzzles, and footnotes. Colin Singleton believes he is a washed-up child prodigy. A graduating valedictorian with a talent for creating anagrams, he fears he’ll never do anything to classify him as a genius. To make matters worse, he has just been dumped by his most recent girlfriend (all of them have been named Katherine), and he’s inconsolable. What better time for a road trip! The idea behind the book is that everyone’s story counts, and what Colin’s contributes to the world, no matter how small it may seem to him, will, indeed, matter.

Overall Impression: This was the second selection for my Literary Goddesses online book club. After giving Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List a big bucket of MEH (review), An Abundance of Katherines came like a breath of fresh air. There are a lot of things I thoroughly enjoyed about this book — the snappy dialogue, the useful-and-funny-and-somehow-not-at-all-annoying footnotes, the hilarious best friend, and the moral of the story — accomplishments do not determine meaning, relationships determine meaning.

Instead of rehashing it all here, you can read our discussion, including my deeper musings at our shared blog:

Chapters 1-5
Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15
Chapters 16-end

Positives: Made math cute and fun (a feat I heretofore thought impossible), witty dialogue…all in all, quite funny and charming.

Negatives: A bit of it felt contrived, like a handful of the characters (TOC, Hollis, etc.) were caricatures of real people. And what geeky, socially awkward 18-year-old has dated NINETEEN girls, much less them all named Katherine?

Other books I’ve read by John Green: none

Other blogger opinions:

Jen (As Told by Jen): “As with Alaska and Towns, I identified rather scarily well with both his male protagonist, Colin Singleton, and The Girl.”

Kelly (KellyVision): “According to the Q&A with the author in the back of the book, this has been optioned for a movie.  I hope that ends up happening, because I fell so in love with these characters.”

An Adventure in Reading: “I love the math in the book, including an appendix to further explain the theorem. More math!”

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