What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.
Wait, that's a different story about young people with cancer falling in love.
So, The Fault in Our Stars
. When I first heard that the newest John Green was about kids was cancer, I was pretty uninterested. I mean, really? Someone is gonna fall in love, someone is gonna die, I will cry. The main characters are all going to be wordy, insightful geeks. Then I read Amanda's review and I admit, she hooked me. I stalked the library, who still hasn't seen fit to get a copy. Then one day right after we got our tax return I saw a signed copy on the shelf at the local Wal-marts. With the Wal-mart discount, it was something like $12. I brought it home. (Mine is signed in blue ink, I see mention of the color of ink, but I have no idea why it matters. Someone tell me?) And it should be noted that I read this in one very long sitting on Friday while I was recovering from my turn with the Horrible Horkfest of 2012 and spent the entire day on the couch, so I read much of it in a fever haze. Hazel has terminal cancer. Augustus had cancer. They meet in Support Group, where they both enjoy a little bit of intelligent conversation and ever so gently making fun of the other people. In a surprisingly short time, they are spending all their time together, but Hazel is determined not to fall in love with him. Of course. How can you fall in love at all when it is a given that one of you is not going to make it? How can you be alive, with all that entails, and at the same time very definitely dying? Sounds horribly depressing, right? But if you've read Green, you know it's not. It's definitely sad, and I did cry, but the book itself is pretty good. It managed to somehow both laugh at cancer and respect it, which seems to be an awfully thin line to walk, but saved the book from being a sappy mess or outright cruel.
Ok, so giveaway. Do you know what that opening quote is from? Leave the answer in the comments and I'll pick a winner on Friday. Honor system here, don't cheat and google it and don't look at the other answers first. The prize? No idea! Something fun though.
