oh i’ve finally finished reading. first of all i had quite a number of expectations because
1) a lot of my facebook friends are reading it, attempting to read it, or showing an interest with it
2) it looks like a chick flick (the cover at least), which i assume is easier to read and will not take up much of my time, plus i love reading flicks and finally
3) it’s turning into a movie, so i guess it must be something, eh?
after 200 pages i told you how i felt about it, how i was about to cry at what i could be reading in the future. in short, it was that compelling. BUT eventually i got bored, confused and i felt anxious about these dying kids pretending to be deep when in fact they’re as selfish as any non-sick kid out there. lol
it annoyed me how i cannot distinguish hazel from augustus, even though they’re not alike in terms of character, because they talk alike and use the same level of english, same construction, and same playful use of adjectives. it seemed like i was reading a monologue most of the time. it’s like i’m just reading off of the author’s head and not of their 2 independent thought clusters. it’s hard to follow who’s talking when i’m faced with just a series of open-close quotes with no he-said she-said. urgh. van houten also follows closely in this list of overly contrived characters. i mean, i get it, i get the difference between the characters but that’s only because it is described there that hazel is a girl, gus is a boy and van houten is an old fat guy. i had a hard time creating a mental profile of the characters based on how they converse. i hope you get my point.
i like discovering characters not as they are described narratively but rather as the author puts words into their mouths. and on that part, i was pretty disappointed.
i also didn’t like that they made out. as sick dying teenagers i thought they had a much deeper appreciation of love making. it felt unromantic when they did that. then again, that’s just my cultural point of view kicking in.
hmm, i’d say that for an attempt to turn a usually superficial first-person teenage flick about dying kids into a profound life-examining death rant, i’d give john green two thumbs up. except that i find it too trying-hard for 2 teenagers to talk too much metaphorical sense. i admire the overall thought of the book though, the depth in which it mirrors life and death in the tongues of 2 non-adults is impressive. plus, it’s a funny book considering how sensitive the topic is.
and finally, this isn’t a negative review (err maybe?)… more of a reaction against my preferences in plot+style balance. in any case this won’t hinder me from reading more of green’s works. hehe >:D