The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Published by Dutton Juvenile
pages- 336
Release Date- Jan. 10, 2012
Genre- Realistic Fiction
(shelfari) (amazon) (goodreads)
rating- 4

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.


John Green's a long time favorite of mine, and i was super psyched when he announced on his YouTube channel vlogbrothers that he was going to come out with another one, this time from a girls perspective, and even cooler... He was signing every single pre-order.That's 150,000 books! (if your interested in this click here***)


The Fault in Our Stars was very different from John Greens other novels, the most apparent change being that the main protagonist is a female, and that when the book starts out, she is already recovering from the climax of her life: that startling night years ago when she lied on a hospital bed, with her parents hovering over her, chocking out their last goodbyes. Hazel survives, although at this time its not much of a life.  She sleepwalks through the motions, School work, sleep, ANTM marathons, support group, and of course, reading her favorite novel An Imperial Affliction (or AIA)

Finally one night, things the future starts to look up when a friend from her group introduces her to Augustus who has taken the place as my favorite John Green character.  He was funny and a beautiful match for haven. I liked their relationship, their witty  dialog and all the deep conversation kept me enthralled through out the entire novel. Especially the parts where Issac was present, I'm not really sure what it was about Issac, but every scene he was in quickly became my favorites.


The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the amount of time Hazel spends obsessing over Anna the main character in her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. what happened after the last page? what happened to Anna's mom? yes, I am aware that Anna in AIA and Hazel in TFIOS are basically the same person, just with different endings, and that you cannot confuse fiction with real life, you cant expect the characters to keep living past the last page. That a story really is just that. However, It's not really what I'm used to. That doesn't mean that i didn't like the book, just that it wasn't my favorite...


However, The Fault in Our Stars made me laugh and cry and think about how some infinities are larger then other infinities. It was a wonderful story that I would recommend to anyone.


Have a wonderful weekend,
Dana

Crossed by Ally Condie

Crossed by Ally Condie
Published by Dutton Juvinale
Pages- 367
Release date- Nov. 11 2011
Second book in the Matched  series
Genre- Dystopian
(shelfari) (goodreads) (amazon)
Rating- 2

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. 

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

 I quite liked match when I read it last year, despite the amount of dystopian overload that had been pushed my way at the time, I found that matched was creative, and although it was a familiar story, there was enough unique content to keep me wondering how events were going to fall out. The setting was interesting enough, and it reminded me a lot of The Giver. Matched was actually better then i thought it would be, the characters were independent and although they were at times needy, their intentions were usually good, and for the most part they were the ones who controlled the story. I finnished matched satisfied, and although there was no dying urge to immediatly read crossed, i kept my eye out for it.

Crossed was entirly diffrent. Its from both Cassia and Ky's povs and although all of matched was sort of setting up for crossed, the deliverince of the book was horrid. The begining was slow moving, and even after Cassia and Ky meet up, verry little happened after. I feel as if the novel is a place holder between Matched and the last one.

Of course some things happen, Three new characters are introduced, Vicks, Eli, And Indie. Vicks who has lasted as long in the work camps as Ky, and just wants to fish and return to the girl who he used to love, Eli is young and although there is really no reason to have him around other then the fact that Ky feels sorry for Eli, and takes him under his wing mainly because he looks like Cassia's brother, and Ky misses Cassia. Finally Indie, who covers for cassia and tries to help her find Ky, and wants more then anything to find and join the rebellion.

and although i liked all three and Ky certainly came out much stronger of a character in Crossed then Matched (where as Cassia turned into a vapid, ky crazed girl. or... was she always like that? ) Crossed lacked plot, and the end sort of depressed me.


although crossed just wasn't for me, ill still probably read the third book in the series... :]