It all started in March of 2012. Here's the honest story of how I received this book. I knew nothing about it other than it had A.) a pretty cover B.) a cool name and C.) the employee's of Powell's seemed to like it (they wrote a little blurb about how good it was on a notecard beneath the book), so I bought it.
I also think it's important to note here that before purchasing this book I knew nothing about the author John Green--a fact that still blows my mind by the way, since I watch his YouTube channel religiously (I'll get into more details about him later.).
So, during Spring Break (or rather the weekend before finals) of 2012 I few out to New York City to visit my mom who was working there. However, instead of studying for finals I explored the city, ate ridiculously scrumptious chinese food, drank hot chocolate in the airport, and read anything other than my lecture notes.
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| Um, yes Tom I am, but in this case crying is an understatement. |
Two books tagged along with me to NYC that weekend: Legend and The Fault in Our Stars. I finished Legend first and then started TFIOS on the plane back to Portland, which was a five hour flight and wow...
Let's just say that I was quite the sight on the plane that night. I went from laughing out loud to squealing with delight to full blown ugly-sobbing.
Luckily I had the whole row to myself.
Confession:
- I'm a slow reader. Like the fastest book I've ever read was The Hunger Games and I read that in 2 days. TFIOS, on the other hand? Yeah, devoured that in 5 freaking hours.
- I like The Fault in Our Stars just a tiny bit more than The Hunger Games Trilogy, which may sound crazy to y'all because I'm pretty damn obsessed when it comes to THG (Mockingjay plays a small part in that, but that's another story...).
- While driving back home from the airport that night (it was nearly midnight) I almost crashed the car due to my uncontrollable sobbing.
- It took me a couple of weeks to recover.
Now why did this book affect me so much?
Great question!
First of all, it is very well written; it's a fantastic story with three-dimensional characters and amazing quotes that will continue to touch my soul and keep me pondering throughout life. Secondly, it was incredibly relatable (Not because I'm familiar with cancer, but because I've definitely spent a fair share of my teenage life in hospitals and I understand the isolation and frustration it brings, also the list about qualities of a good nurse is spot on. Additionally, Hazel's relationship with her parents is a lot like mine and unlike anything I've ever read in other YA books; parents are often absent or awful in the YA books I've read.). And lastly: Augustus Waters.
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| Need I say more? |
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
1.)"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly and then all at once."
2.) "My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations."
3.) "Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book."
4.) "There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You have me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."
5.) "The world is not a wish-granting factory."
6.) "Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you."
7.) "That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt."
8.) "'Lonely, Vaguely Pedophiliac Swing Set Seeks the Butts of Children,' I said."
9.) "Okay."
10.) "'It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.'"
Whew! That was difficult. I basically wanted to type out the whole book for you because it's all brilliantly written. Every word. Beautiful.
After I read the book. I wanted more! I did some research on John Green (told you, I'd get back to him) and basically my life was changed forever... again that is.
Why?
Well, I'd never really invested time watching YouTube videos for any other reason than movie trailers and cat videos. Before TFIOS I knew nothing about "vlogging" (video blogging).
I quickly discovered that John is a famous YouTuber; he and his brother Hank are known as the Vlogbrothers. Famous for the saying: Don't Forget to Be Awesome!
Oh gosh, where do I begin?
If y'all haven't heard of them... Please, for your own sake, go check them out... NOW! The rest of you understand why I am struggling to explain what they do because they do so much.
Here is a video that explains Nerdfighteria.
Because of John and Hank I can proudly call myself a Nerd. These two are all about encouraging intellectualism and community service and just decreasing "World Suck."
Also, since they both majored in different subjects during college and work on multiple different projects I was inspired to change my major from English to Psychology (mainly because studying just English literature was really boring to me in comparison to Psychology and I wrongly assumed I had an obligation to major in it since I aspired to be a writer); I realized that it's ok to have several different passions. In fact, it's preferred. It's important to live out a well-rounded life. Additionally, I discovered that I freaking love science! Especially Neuroscience and Forensics!
Without the Vlogbrothers I wouldn't have known about:
- Crash Course
- The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
- Emma Approved
- Frankenstein MD
- Minute Physics
- The Art Assignment
And, honestly, many others, those were just the first I could think of off the top of my head.
Seriously, if you haven't already, check them out! They're fantastic.
Here are some of my favorite videos from them:
- What To Do With Your Life (John).
- We're All Scared (Hank).
Ok, so I sort of went off on a little bit of a tangent there, but that's okay because it's part of the story of my relationship with this book.
Onto the film.
I believe that this book was one of the fastest book to film adaptations to happen.
Go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong.
Ok wow, I could make this post really, really long with all my thoughts about the movie, but I'm going to try to make it as short as possible.
Bullet points always help with making things shorter, so let's do that. Ok, so this is how my thoughts went as the film went into pre-production:
- TFIOS is being made into a movie: Yay!
- The screenwriters from 500 Days of Summer are adapting it: Yay!
- Wyck Godfrey is producing it: Yay!
- Josh Boone is directing it: Well, um, who's that?
- He recently wrote and directed Stuck in Love: Ok, I'll watch it.
- Thoughts: Loved Stuck in Love, so glad he is directing it!
- Nat Wolff is going to be in it: Yay!
- Shailene Woodley is going to be Hazel: Say what?
- What's the problem: Nooo! She can't! She's already in Divergent. She can't be in two huge YA adaptions. That's like Kristen Stewart playing both Bella and Katniss. Huge taboo!
- Ansel Elgort is going to be Augustus: Who's that? He's certainly cute.
- He's playing Tris's brother Caleb in Divergent: No! That's so, so weird! No!
- John Green really, really, really likes the casting choices: Ok, fine, I'll calm down and give them a chance.
It was really cool because while they were filming John Green would do his regular weekly videos on Tuesdays like he always does, but because he was spending so much time on set he filmed adventures with the cast and crew and it was absolutely perfect! Like I was freaking out!
In case you haven't watched any of these aforementioned videos, here they are:
Then the trailer was released into the world...
...and I sort of freaked out. Click here to watch the ridiculously embarrassing video of my reaction.
It seemed like it took forever for it to finally come out, but once it did it was awesome!
Well, actually the first showing kind of sucked because it was a midnight release and there was a bunch of screaming 12-year-olds I desperately wanted to strangle because they just wouldn't shut the heck up! It's a freaking movie, I know Augustus Waters is like really attractive and all, but you have to be quiet when he talks. Can't go objectifying him girls! No double standards while I'm around.
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| Me during the screening: Them 12-yr-olds need to SHUT UP! |
Then a minute before the movie ended (and it has a beautiful ending by the way) our projection cut out. Yep. It went completely black and it took 30 (that's right) 30 minutes for them to start it back up again. It kind of lost it's impact at that point. During our long wait, all these girls kept taking selfies of themselves in the theatre and all the flashes from their phones were burning my eyeballs out (slight exaggeration there), so I started photo-bombing people's photos like no other. Haha! I'm super mature. Oh well...
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| My photo-bombing face. |
So, anyhow, the movie theatre gave us a free ticket for our troubles and we saw it again the following day.
And yes, I cried.
A lot.
Snot may have ran down my nose too.
There were definitely some scenes that really hit home for me because they reminded me of my high school years when I was in and out of the hospital.
Thoughts on the film:
- The acting was stellar, except for that one moment when Hazel tells Gus it sucks not being able to breathe, yet she sounds more than capable of breathing, like there isn't a slight wheeze or anything. That part annoys the heck out of me!
- Love, love, love Ansel as Augustus. He nailed that part!
- Even though, I didn't like the aforementioned scene I thought Shailene did a killer job (no pun intended) as Hazel. My favorite scene of her's was when she's in her backyard on the phone with Augustus and struggles for a response. We've all had those moments. And her painful hesitation is beautiful. I also love, love, love the scene about infinities. She nailed it!
- There were times when the actors didn't look sick enough and like I know they can do this because I saw what they did for Bella Swan in Breaking Dawn Part 1.
- Also there is this one part when Young Hazel should be in an incredible amount of pain, but like she's smiling and looks fine. What? Ok, that's the rest of my critics.
- Loved the soundtrack.
- Loved the cinematography.
- Loved how they showed the texting.
Ok, is this post done yet?
Possibly.
Do you have any last words?
Yes.
What?
I think, if you love the book as much as I do, you should definitely purchase the audiobook because it is beautifully preformed and the story comes to life in a different way. Also, I'm a stickler when it comes to audiobook actors, but I really like Kate Rudd. Before falling asleep at night, I'll often listen to TFIOS on my iPod. It's lovely experiencing the story over and over again.
Also, now because of Shailene Woodley I love drinking Yerba Mate tea. In fact, that's all I drink at the PSU library. So much better than coffee. I have to put honey in it though otherwise it's too bitter!
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| Yerba Mate. |
I, honestly, think that's it.
That's my relationship with The Fault in Our Stars.
How about you? I'd love to hear your story!
Blog to you later!
Love,
MandersP.S.
Click here to read my relationship with the Twilight Saga!
