Review Time!!! The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, 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.

Going into it I knew that this book would make me cry. In fact I expected it. I was waiting for it. What I didn't realize, was how much this book would make me laugh.

I knew that this was a book was going to be a lot about death. I did not expect that it would show me so much about what it means to live.

The Fault in Our Stars tells the story of Hazel and Augustus, two teenagers with completely different kinds of cancer. Hazel walks around with an oxygen tank because her lungs are stupid. She is dying from her extremely rare form of cancer. Augustus is in remission from a highly curable form of cancer. (Curable, as in they cut off such and such limb in order to save you). They meet in a support group for cancer kids and that is where this story truly begins.

Even through some of the worst and most heart wrenching tears, this book made me smile so much. I loved it. I loved it. I FREAKING LOVED IT.  No other book in the Young Adult reading world is more hyped, but even with all of the incredibly high expectations I had before starting this book it still could not compare. I was, and am still so stunned by how amazing this book was. I did not disappoint me in any way. This book is even better than all the hype it gets online.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this book is how much a story about two dying teenagers could celebrate life, and love. It would have been so easy to simply captivate me with the story of two very lovely people falling in love, but it was so much more than that. Hazel and Augustus felt so real to me. John Green’s phenomenal writing made me feel such an unwavering connection to these two. It was amazing to see just how much he understood about people’s need to have closure and meaning in their lives.

This book broke my heart in more ways than I could possibly imagine, but we often forgive the things we love when they hurt us. Sometimes the pain is important in ways we cannot understand. Even when I would stop and sleep, I would dream of this book and it would break my heart all over again. That’s how I know that this is a book I will be reading again and again for years to come.

This is one of my favorite quotes from the novel. 

I know John says on his website that he spent about a decade writing this book, and once it was over he was so glad to be rid of it. Well, I would like to say thank you John. Thank-you for creating this story, these amazing characters for us to enjoy, for breaking my heart, making me laugh, for writing perhaps the saddest story I have ever read, and finally, thank-you for the Venn-diagrams.

If you haven’t read this book then just start it. Trust me you will not regret it. 

Comment below and let me know what you think of this novel! :)

YouTube will be deleted!!

It's about 2:30am and I casually decide to open up YouTube, a normal teenage act. I notice the upper left hand corner has a trophy on it saying that YouTube has a message for me. I get just a tad bit excited.. 

                Omg, YouTube is telling me something...

So I click it, and proceed to watch this video.

WHAT?! NO!!!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I HAVEN'T CAUGHT UP WITH ALL THE VLOGBROTHERS VIDEOS YET!! MY VIDEOS! I'M JUST STARTING! *nearly faints and runs to Google*

Now, in my complete desperation I ask Google if this could possibly be true. Google, of course, leads me to this kind soul who promptly reminds me what a complete idiot I am...

Happy April Fools Day Guys...

In other news, did you hear about Google Nose? 

Review Time!! Unwind by Neal Shusterman

From Goodreads

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

I went partially insane buying books these last two weeks guys. This is just one of the books I picked up, but at is point I think it’s going to be a favorite for January. I rated Unwind 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I was so blown away by this book. Neal Shusterman uses some intense social issues such as abortion rights, and social responsibility to create the society of Unwind. The protagonist, Conner, lives in a world where parents have the choice to Unwind their children anywhere between 13 and 18 years of age. Unwinding is basically a complete organ donation. Every part of an Unwind is saved and used for people who need them after accidents, due to disease, or birth defects.

The Good:

This was one of the most original story concepts that I have read in a while. I was completely freaked out by the idea of unwinding. I found myself thinking about every bad thing I had ever done and wondering if I was at risk of being unwound. I loved how Shusterman touched on many issues through the different reasons people chose to have their child unwind. His belief about Americas social welfare system is one of the many subjects touched about in this book. Besides uwinding the other law that has come into effect in this future world is Storking. This means that if a baby is left on your doorstep and you did not see who did it then it is now your legal responsibility. One particularly tragic flaw in this storking system is illustrated by Conner, the main character, but I won’t ruin it for you.

If you’re like me, then you see a movie in your head when you read a book like this and boy did I get scared sometimes. During one particularly important scene towards the end of the Harvest Camp scenes I found myself so disturbed that I literally had to put the book down for a day and just think happy thoughts.

The Bad:

The history of this future society does slowly make its way into this book but I do wish that it would have come sooner. Most of what you find out about the war and how unwinding and storking came to be is very vague. I was especially disappointed by the explanation of how the two sides of the war came to agree on this crazy unwinding idea. It just could not have been that simple and I would love a whole book on just the history of this world because I am left with an insatiable curiosity!!

Overall:

In the end guys this is a 5 star book for me even with a few minor let downs here and there. I would completely recommend this book to anyone looking for a really engrossing read. I will say though that some of the emotions brought on by this book and some of the questions it evokes can get a bit mature. Definitely recommend this  for anyone of unwinding age and above.