The Fault in Our Stars book review

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

Genre: teen, real life, cancer, young adult, love story

Release Date: January 10, 2012

Storyline: The storyline focuses on Hazel Grace Lancaster who has cancer. Her parents make her go to a cancer patients’ support group where she meets a boy named Augustus Waters. The two end up feeling a spark and this book follows their story.

Characters:

Hazel Grace is amazing! She is super smart and has a very quick wit. There is also this philosophical element to her that I completely enjoyed. I didn’t feel like she fell into any of the typical categories of female leads. She also makes a cool comparison between a dragon and one of her breathing machines which I laughed at.

Augustus is just perfect! He has this amazing humor and quick wit that makes it so easy to just fall in love with him.

Isaac (who doesn’t get a whole lot of face time in the story) had an amazing story going on. He could have really had a book all to himself. He is definitely a support character in this book though, but I was still connected to him and concerned for his well-being.

Her parents are handling the whole thing quite well. I’ve been reading a lot of books with horrible parents, so it was refreshing to see such amazing parents. They had their faults, but they are overall great parents.

Augustus’s family was nifty to read about, because their personalities seemed to be thought out rather than just random people in the background.

Peter Van Houten is quite an interesting character in the book. He provides a much needed contrast, and my feelings towards him definitely changed throughout the book to a very complicated mix. There is a moment in the book that he completed angered me by talking about characters within novels and just bashing connecting with characters from novels (that has to deal with the book lover within me though!).

Random Thoughts:

There a quite a lot of words that I did look up. It is definitely a higher level of comprehension kind of book. There is also a lot of philosophical discussion in the book so it is definitely more aimed towards people who enjoy a more thought provoking kind of book. (i.e. sobriquet, ontologically, hamartia)

The descriptions can get a little dry at times, but they are few of them within the book. It is almost like there was too much time spent on details that weren’t going to be sticking around for long.

I did read this book rather quickly. I enjoyed the pacing at the beginning of the book. I believe it was about chapter 15 that it felt like it randomly picked up speed and got weird. The weirdness doesn’t last long, because you get used to it quickly.

The plot of this book wasn't super predictable. My original guess for the plot actually ended up being wrong! There were some questions that I was left with at the end of the book that echoed the thoughts of Hazel about her favorite book.

The humor in this book is right up my alley; it is definitely on the darker side of things and quite sarcastic. The characters poke fun at their own conditions and illnesses. There are also some amazing quotes from the book such as: 

"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."

"The world is not a wish granting factory." 

"That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt."

I highly suggest this book, because I absolutely adored it! WARNING though, it will probably pull at those heart strings of yours and make you cry.

Overall, it was a lovely story, and I was definitely invested in the characters. On top of telling an amazingly gripping story, it makes you ponder about certain things like death and other philosophical things. I really wish I had read this book sooner!

If you'd like to read some thoughts written by the author, you should check out this site: Question about The Fault in Our Stars LINK. He writes some amazing stuff and I absolute loved reading more about his thoughts on his story.

Divergent (book) review

Divergent 

By Veronica Roth

Divergent is a teen fiction/young adult, dystopia, love story, with some action. It is also the first in the Divergent series. This book starts off a little slow (but picks up speed quickly!) with a girl named Beatrice. She and her brother are about to choose their faction. They can choose from Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. Each has a value that they live by: Candor is about truth and honesty; Abnegation is about selflessness; Dauntless is about courage; Amity is about nurturing and caring; and Erudite is about knowledge and learning. Beatrice changes factions from her birth faction, and this book is basically about the initiation process that Tris (as Beatrice chooses to be called) goes through.

The characters within this series were crazy, because I felt they were so unpredictable and didn’t fall into stereotypically actions. They are all quite different and have depth to them; it was like their backgrounds were actually thought through. I found myself being pleasantly surprised by the depth that the characters seemed to have. Though, I did find that I wasn’t as attached to the main character as I felt I should be. That might just have to do with me and not the writing involved with Beatrice, because I was able to connect with other characters. Four and Caleb are two characters that I’m excited to see more of in the future, because they both have this air of mystery to them.

The font in this book bothered from the moment I opened the book, because it was quite large. I feel like the book could have been smaller if they had changed the font size. But compositionally, it was quite nice. It wasn’t quite a poetic type read, but it did read like someone’s thoughts. There were certain moments that had quite large words that just felt rather out of place. Some examples are proselytizing and dissension. I did find a good chunk of the book didn’t really have any breaks in it which made it difficult to put done; it really felt like a day that was never going to end, because it is just event after event.

There are a few negative things that I didn’t like about this book (but not enough to stop reading the series!). I found a few moments to feel a little jumpy, but I credit that to the fast pace for the majority of the book. Some of the scenery that is described was a little hard to follow, but not so much that I felt lost. It just didn’t come to life for me like some of the other books that I’ve read. While the characters in the series were rather unpredictable with their behavior, I figured out the plot to the book quite early on. The final thing that bothered me is that it seems like things get crazy really quickly towards the end; it just seemed to elevate too quickly almost like going from 0 to 100 in under a second. The braking from that same 100 felt too quick as well so it left the ending feel rushed and anticlimactic.

Overall, I wasn’t as connected to the characters like I was with other series (like say Harry Potter), but there is so many things hinted at with the story that I’m hopefully the sequels will keep getting better. So I do think it is worth a read if you like a plot with a little bit of action, mystery, and a philosophical feel. The main thing the book left me thinking about was if I had to personify one quality (much like the different factions within the book) which one do I think is the key to a better life. Not to think too highly of myself, but I found myself leaning towards the Divergent triad of Erudite, Dauntless, and Abnegation. (Also side note: faction names were thought out well! Don’t believe me; look them up in a thesaurus after you learn about them!)

Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater review

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Forever is a fantasy, werewolf, teen fiction, drama, and love story. It is the third of a trilogy called Wolves of Mercy Falls. This book picks up rather oddly following the character Shelby (which is the one and only time the story is told from her point of view), and it was very confusing to me. Eventually the scene does make sense though. There is a slight gap in time that is probably at least a month or so. The story is still told from the viewpoints of Sam, Grace, Isabel, and Cole.

The change in each character is definitely more visible in this book, and it really hits you how much they’ve grown. They are still at the core themselves, but each has grown in other facets greatly. This book definitely made me care more about Isabel and Cole than Sam and Grace. It felt weird to not be more connected with the main characters. Not that I wanted them to die, but I definitely wanted Cole and Isabel to live and be happy.

The composition wasn’t as great as the other books; there were random moments that just didn’t read as nicely as other parts did. It aired on the side of feeling sloppy and quickly thrown together as well. This book also randomly decided to up its vocabulary level and I had to look up a one or two words, but their meaning were easy to pick up from their context. There was also a lot more angst and tension within this storyline, and I liked that part of it. But I was left feeling like I wanted more things to happen. The storyline isn't overall action filled with stuff; it is definitely more talk and people looking longingly into the distance.It is quite unlike a lot of other werewolf and fantasy books, there isn’t a like rivalry between two groups (i.e. werewolves versus vampires).

Overall, this isn’t one of my favorite series. There is also a somewhat anti-climactic ending; I was left wanting like an epilogue or something. As well as feeling a little soft on the ending, I did find that with the level of angst in this book there wasn’t enough big events. So it really left me wanting more things happening. There was a moment towards the end of the book that I had to completely like disassociate with, because it was so dark and hard to read. It wasn’t like a bad dark though; the events really give the book like a deeper feel. I'd probably give the series as a whole like a 6 or 7, because I liked parts of it and did enjoy reading it. I just wish there was more!

Side Note: the book does have red font which I quite like.

You can get it here:

Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls)

Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2)

Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3)