I’ve kept you in suspense long enough, I suppose, who is the
mystery recommender? Why, it’s my
brother! I didn’t even know he read
young adult novels, until one day I spotted a book with, of all things, a
teenage girl on the cover.
I asked him about it, and he told me about the author John
Green. The book I saw, An Abundance
of Katherines, started me in on a fantastic style of writing for the young
adult audience.
John Green really seems to get how kids talk. Unlike, say, Diablo Cody, who insists on
making the verbiage completely insane—it’s almost as though she’s purposely
alienating older audiences—John Green’s characters talk like they actually have
a firm grasp on the English language and it’s rules. This isn’t to say they all talk terribly
obnoxiously formal, but there are very few made up words, and slang that does
find its way in is understandable.
John Green’s latest book, The Fault in Our Stars, is
a book about cancer. More specifically,
it’s a book about kids with cancer.
Unlike many books in the ‘I’m dying’ genre, the book does not beat
around the bush. Cancer sucks, and the
main character, sixteen year-old Hazel, isn’t shy to let you know. She, however, also wants you to know that
just because you have cancer, doesn’t mean you stop being.
In this book, cancer happens, and it happens a lot. But in spite of all that, in spite of the surgeries,
the oxygen tanks, and the doctor’s visits, Hazel’s worldview is changed when
she meets Augustus, or Gus. Fortunately,
it’s not only in the way you think. But
I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll leave it at that.
The Fault in Our Stars was a great book. If you have read any John Green books
previously, you will like this one. The ‘I’m
dying’ genre turned you off in the past?
Give this one a try, as the take it has is wholly different from most of
what you’ll read.
Rating: 5/5 Oxygen tanks
Next week: The Unidentified, by Rae Mariz
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