John Green
Published January 10, 2012 by Dutton Books (Penguin)
YA contemporary
5 stars
I'm sure you've all seen the many, many rave review of this book, and you don't need another one.
But that's not why I'm not writing a real review. I'm not writing one because I can't.
Oh, sure, I could tell you that there was Epic Crying, not the graceful kind where tears trail silently down your cheeks but the awkward kind where your face gets all blotchy and you stop being able to breathe through your nose and your skin gets dried out from all the salt. And then there was Laughing Too Hard to Breathe, which led to more crying. I could tell you about how Augustus and Hazel are sweet and special, how the writing matches Hazel perfectly, blah blah blah. That would be great, if it mattered.
Spoiler alert (don't worry, not really): it doesn't.
It doesn't matter because this book is far more than the sum of its parts, as nice as those parts are. Describing this book as good or bad would be as ridiculous as calling the whole of existence good or bad. Some things just are. They defy qualification.
This book is infinite, a sigularity compressing time and making the rest of the world disappear. It's also not long enough. It's awful and wonderful, hilarious and tragic, magical and painfully prosaic.
But most of all, it is. And it might, for a moment, remind you that you are too.
I have this book, but I haven;t read it. mostly because of all of the crying I know I will do. I loved this review, though!
ReplyDeleteWhy is it the books we love the most are the ones we have the most trouble talking about? I feel like we're here to talk about the books we love, so why don't we have the words for these amazing works? You basically summed up my feelings (which is what I tried to do with my review, and I'm pretty sure I failed miserably).
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, all that rambling to say you aren't alone. And I know exactly what you mean! :)
I agree that the writing matches Hazel really well. I'm glad you liked the book!
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty much the perfect review ("review", as the case may be) for this book. It's really unexplainable, unequivocal, absolutely impossible to attach a rating or justification for. It's everything and all parts as a whole.
ReplyDeletePerfect :)
Ashley Loves Books
You're not the last - I haven't read this yet. I know I need to read it but I'm afraid I'll use a case of tissues when I do.
ReplyDeleteMarlene Detierro (All Alaska Outdoors Fishing Lodge - Alaska Ptarmigan Hunting)