Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Title: The Fault in Our Stars [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: John Green [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Published: January 10th, 2012 by Dutton Books
Format: Hardcover; 313 pages.
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Completely Contemp Challenge

You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice.

Did you know that there are, chemically speaking, two different stages of love? The first stage, the one where you’re falling and all dopey and basically unable to function because you can’t think of anything but that other person is the result of a chemical cocktail of adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin pouring through your brain. The second stage, the one where you’re committed and stay together potentially for life is because of two other chemicals, vasopressin and oxytocin. These are the ones that really bond you together, but the fact is, once you’re getting the vasopressin and oxytocin, you don’t get so much of the adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin. And that, my friends, is probably the biggest reason that I (and quite probably you) love to read about falling in love. It gives me a bit of those chemicals (and feelings) back. That’s why after reading a book I love, I often can’t sleep, and I usually have a lot of energy. And I love it!

But here’s the thing. Reading can also make you feel not-so-good feelings that you don’t like and want to avoid like the plague. That, my friends, is why I did not really want to read The Fault in Our Stars. I drug my feet…a lot. Even while reading. A book that could have easily been read in one sitting, I read a third of, put down for two days, then read chapter by chapter for some time, getting up and doing something else constantly to try to keep myself from getting too involved. This behavior continued for about 2/3 of the book.  I knew what was coming, and I dreaded it. I kind of Monnicad this book. I didn’t want to get hurt, so I pushed it away, but it hurt anyway. But it also felt pretty good, falling in love with Augustus Waters.

This book doesn’t really need another review at this point (heck, I didn’t even bother to post a summary, please click the GoodReads link if you need one). Many/most of you have already read it, and to my knowledge, everyone’s loved it, so it seems silly to go on and on, and yet I’m not sure I can resist fawning a little. So here it goes:

I love Augustus. I love that he pushes this perfect boundary between being pushy and just plain attentive. I love that he doesn’t try to kiss Hazel, or call her too much, and I love that he reads her favorite book first thing, and really thinks about it.

I love that Hazel has a hard time standing much, and Augustus has a hard time sitting. Something about that whispers “star-crossed lovers” in your ear and breaks your heart.

I love that Hazel and Augustus both have wonderful families. Families who care about them and support them, and even hover a little, but the kids don’t resent them for it. They love them for it. There need to be more families like this in books (and maybe in real life).

I love that this book manages to include poetry that wasn’t at all cheesy, and did not once make me gag.

I love that this book made me laugh a lot more than it made me cry. I agree with Hazel and Augustus (and with Mr. John Green), you have a choice how to tell sad stories, and the funny choice? That’s the best one.

And I like my choices.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: This was my second John Green, and I’m not going to lie, I am glad it wasn’t my first.  If it was my first, I’d probably think “wonderful book, but I’m not signing up for that again”.  Luckily, I remain very excited to read his other books, and plan on listening to the audio of Looking for Alaska somewhat soonish.  This guy’s made himself a must-read.

Recommended for:  The next time anyone says something degrading about the quality or value of YA lit, I’m going to slap them with The Fault in Our Stars and just dare them not to feel all the things.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  Only 2.25 tissues used! <—Unsure if this is a bragging point, or a sign that I am well and truly dead inside.

Get a second opinion:
The Readventurer
G Reads
Chachic’s Book Nook
Good Books and Good Wine (Audio)
Book Harbinger

Review: The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

Title: The Probability of Miracles [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Wendy Wunder[Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Magical Realism
Published: December 8th, 2011 by Razorbill
Format: Hardcover; 357 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: Completely Contemp Challenge.

Cam is running out of time, and running out of options.  She’s spent the past seven years in and out of hospitals, undergoing treatments and tests, and finally the medical world has declared there’s nothing more to be done.  Her mother refuses to believe this and begins pushing Cam to try all sorts of treatments--herbs, acupuncture, and most ridiculous of all, moving to Promise, Maine.  Promise is apparently known for miracles, so Cam, her mom, and her sister Perry pack up and head out, hoping for a miracle of their own.  Perry and their mother seem to see the miraculous in all things, whereas Cam can only see the coincidence.  Though maybe, it’s the coincidences that matter.  With one summer to complete her flamingo list, Cam learns to reach out, love, and live with Promise and hope.

This book took its sweet time worming its way into my heart.  In the beginning, I found myself as cynical as Cam, though not identifying with her.  She annoyed me a bit at times, as she’s fairly judgey, and while I am equally judgey, it’s not about the same things and thus I judged her.  Does that even make sense?  Meh.  Cam has closed off her heart to possibilities and hope, knowing that she has a finite amount of time left to live.  As the town of Promise and its inhabitants slowly pried open Cam’s cynical heart and infused her with life, The Probability of Miracles did the same for me.  I was so resistant to this book, I’m not sure why, but it completely won me over by the end and left me feeling oddly comforted.

I loved the multicultural aspects of this book, and found they made Cam more accessible.  Her family is an array of culture; her mother is Italian, her father was Somoan, her little sister’s father was Norwegian, and her mother’s boyfriend is Japanese.  At one point Asher (yes, of course there’s a boy *wink*) comments that Cam doesn’t live her culture, she performs it, and I found this to be one of the most beautiful sentiments of the book.  It seems incredibly cheesy but fitting that Cam and her sister essentially grew up at Disney World.  How sweet is that?  Can you imagine?  Childhood me is fuming with jealousy.  Adult me still hates Florida and thinks it is a 90’s time-warp, but still...  

Physically, Cam describes herself as ‘cancerexic’ and speaks negatively towards super skinny body types.  I know, some girls can’t help being skinny, but some starve themselves to be that way and I love seeing a positive image towards feeding oneself!  She was formerly heavier, and now keeps her hair cut short ignoring stereotypes that come with her chosen style.  Finally, Cam’s relationships with the other women in her family, her mother, her grandma, and her sister are enviable and strong whether she knows it or not, and the connections she makes in Promise show her to have a warm and welcoming heart she thought she’d closed long ago.

What initially seemed like it was going to be the next screenplay for a Hallmark Movie Channel special (okay, yes, I do watch a lot of those at Christmas and enjoy them), turned out to be a deeply moving book that blurred the lines between optimism and cynicism.  It’s about having something be about something other than a sickness when that sickness is all you have, and that is everything.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  This was a lovely debut, and I would certainly read more from Wendy Wunder...preferably if it’s not about cancer.

Recommended for:  Cynics, optimists, hula dancers.  You can read the first 5 chapters of The Probability of Miracles here!

Real life repercussions of reading this book: Riptide Rush really is the best flavor of Gatorade!  Gotta get me some of that...

Get a second opinion:
Good Books and Good Wine (Audio)
Hobbitsies
Tripping Over Books

Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Title: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Jesse Andrews [Website]
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Published: March 1st, 2012 by Amulet Books
Format: Kindle edition.
Source: ARC from publisher via NetGalley.
Challenge: Completely Contemp Challenge.

Greg has managed to make it to his senior year in high school hanging on the periphery of every group.  Sure, he has no friends, but he also has no enemies trying to destroy his life either.  Until Rachel, the girl he almost-kind-of dated in Hebrew school, but hasn’t talked to since, gets cancer and his mother insists they hang out.  His hanging out with Rachel starts to change his position in high school, as does her discovery of his underground movie making hobby with his friend Earl.

What started out as a laugh out loud funny book, manage to lose my interest, humor, and attention entirely by its end.  It might just be me, but when a book is self-effacing to the point of continually telling you how much it sucks and why you should be reading something else, eventually I start to believe it.  Here’s just a couple of the many examples:

I do actually want to say one other thing before we get started with this horrifyingly inane book.  You may have already figured out that it’s about a girl who had cancer.  So there’s a chance you’re thinking, “Awesome!  This is going to be a wise and insightful story about love and death and growing up.  It is probably going to make me cry literally the entire time.  I am so fired up right now.”  If that is an accurate representation of your thoughts, you should probably try to smush this book into a garbage disposal and then run away.  Because here’s the thing: I learned absolutely nothing from Rachel’s leukemia.  In fact, I probably became stupider about life because of the whole thing.

I can’t believe you’re still reading this.  You should smack yourself in the face a couple of times right now, just to complete the outstandingly stupid experience that is this book.

Maybe you should think about switching to a different book.  Even to, like, an owner’s manual to a refrigerator or something.  That would be more heartwarming than this.

The first time was funny, but by the end I was thinking ‘why yes, I would rather be reading an owner’s manual to a refrigerator atm’.  I suppose this is in part because we did just get a new refrigerator and I’m excited about water magically appearing strait from the door in the way it has at my parents house for as long as I can remember, but part of it had to be that I really got over Me and Earl and the Dying Girl before it was through.

Our narrator, Greg, is your classic pudgy, pasty, awkwardly funny Jewish kid.  He had me laughing out loud a lot for the first quarter or so of the book.  However, after that, it started to feel like he was just trying too hard.  At everything.  Greg wants so badly for everyone to like him that he goes to great lengths to never be friends with anyone.  He tries so hard to make people laugh that he’ll run any bit that gets a chuckle into the ground.  By the end, the only humor I was actually gleaming was from Earl, who wasn’t even trying to be funny (and therefore was).  Greg was well aware of his flaws, he spent pages degrading himself and demolishing his self-worth over his self-centered attitude and lack of empathy.  Earl at one point goes off about the people in his life that he’d love to help, but the unfortunate reality is that you can’t help people who won’t first help themselves.  He was right, but of course Greg doesn’t really get the point.  Sure, he tells you up front he learns nothing, there’s no touching moments, etc., I just suppose I should have taken him more seriously. It's not that I need every story to be emotionally touching, but I do need to like the characters I'm supposedly cheering for, or if I don't like the characters I like to have a compelling story. I didn't feel really keyed into the story or the characters, and was therefore disappointed.

I was hoping for a cancer book with more humor and less tears.  Did I get it?  Yes.  Just not to the extent that I was hoping.  The author included scenes written in script format, which was clever giving the movie-making premise of the book, as well as a number of lists both numbered and bulleted.  To me, I wish he’d stuck with one thing, or made it less mish-mash, as was it came across a bit gimicky.  I will say that I adored the paper artwork cover, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place.  

A lot of people will probably appreciate this book more than I did, but to me, this book was that kid that’s always hanging around trying way too hard to make everyone laugh and just making everything awkward because he’s not really that funny.  I never liked that kid much, and I didn’t really like this book much either.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  No thanks.  This wasn’t the worst thing I’ve read all year, but I was quite ready to be done.

Recommended for:  People who want a more humorous cancer book, people who enjoy books that play around with formatting.

Real life repercussions of reading this book:  One thing I did love about Greg?  Creative swearing!  I adore creative swearing (dicksmuggler, cockwagon, etc.), and really need to get on that more.