"Okay?"
"Okay."
"You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I am grateful."
"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."
"That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt."
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If you were able to name the book from which those quotes were from, I'm impressed. The book is The Fault in our Stars, by John Green, which I read the other day. Well, not the whole thing. I'll get there.
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Basically, Hazel is a girl who has been diagnosed with a terminal lunch cancer and a thyroid cancer, stage IV since she was thirteen. She goes to a kind of rehab group, where a bunch of kids from 12-17 years old meet up to talk about their cancer and some such. One day this kid named Isaac--he has a rare eye cancer, one eye is glass and he has a girlfriend--brings another boy with him named Augustus Waters, an osteosarcoma survivor with a leg and a half. Sparks fly, and Hazel and Augustus (Gus) are soon exchanging books. An Imperial Affliction is Hazel's favourite, and she gives it to Gus to read. They both love it. The book literally ends mid sentence, and they are both intrigued to how it ends, and so they set off on a quest to find the author, now residing in Amsterdam.
That's about as far as I got. A big reason was because sickness books made me depressed, more than usual. The writing was fantastic, sucking emotions away. In short, John Green is brilliant. But having known multiple people (some close to me) having suffered through cancer. He doesn't lighten the subject. He really brings a sadness and a heaviness to carrying the burden of cancer. But there were some things I didn't like and that didn't sit well with me.
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Because of the whole, "We might die, so let's live life as it comes," soon turned into fooling around and having sex. Nothing was explicit but definitely was implied. It was a little disturbing and didn't sit well with me. The whole, "We're dying so let's have sex!" was disturbing and just plain weird. There was a bit of language too.
There were some very quotable parts of the book. Isaac and his girlfriend always say, "Always," in response to each other, as a promise that no matter what happens, they'll stay together. (**Spoiler**, because of his cancer, Isaac goes blind and so his girlfriend broke up with him, breaking his heart.). Gus and Hazel use "Okay," as their "Always", so it's put up everywhere in relation to the book.
In conclusion, the book was very well written, but it was disturbing enough that after the first mention of sex, I knew the book couldn't get much better, and with sickness books, there's always a relapse, and someone always dies. If the book was so well written that it was making me feel sad just from reading it, then when said character dies (no spoilers!), it couldn't be much better, especially-- alright, I'll stop. Bottom line, well written but to me, it wasn't worth it.
Three out of Five stars.
Disclaimer: No one asked me to do this. It's out of my own will. :)
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