Hazel's diagnosis has been terminal from the beginning but a miracle drug has bought her a few more years. She is depressed and obsessed by a book titled The Imperial Affliction about a teen girl with cancer that ends mid sentence. One day she meets the very hot Augustus Waters at Cancer Kid Support Group. Gus has lost a leg to cancer but the odds of surviving his particular kind of cancer are pretty good, 80% to be exact. They connect. Deeply. Gus "spends" his Genie Foundation special wish on a trip for the two of them (and Hazel's mother) to Amsterdam to meet the author of The Imperial Affliction. They hope to find out what happened to the characters in the book after it ended. Was the Dutch Tulip Man good or a con man? Did he marry Anna's mother? What happened to Sisyphus the Hamster?
I know of no other book like this one. This book was especially meaningful to me because I have a niece who was diagnosed with cancer her sophomore year of college. She underwent a full year of horrible chemo and radiation. I am happy to report that she has been NEC (no evidence of cancer) for 2 years. John Green is one of her favorite authors. She told me about this book last summer pre-publication. He announced on the Internet that he would sign all 150,000 copies of the first print run of the book (the library copy I read is signed).
This is an incredible book. The dialogue is trademark John Green: intelligent, quick witted, and irreverent. John Green is a young author who is incredibly hip. He won the Prinz Award for Looking for Alaska and his other books (Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson) are popular and have also won awards.
This book is for older teens. Only a brief introduction would be needed - something similar to the first paragraph. For many readers all you would need to say is "new book by John Green".
Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. Dutton, 2012. Prinz Award 2013? Got my vote.
4 comments:
I read John Green's "Looking for Alaska" and I'm now interested in reading the rest of his work, including this one. I really love the sophisticated young adult voice he seems to use in his novels. I love that he signed all those copies of the book, and I noticed that when the books came in to be sold at my Barnes and Noble store.
I have seen this book on the shelves and wanted to read it. I have not yet read anything by John Green, and I realize I am missing out on some great literary works.
I to have experienced friends and family members going through similar battles. John Green taking the time to sign that many copies of this book shows how much he believes in his work and the strength of his words.
I need to read a John Green book. This may be the one. Sounds pretty interesting.
I've been wanting to read this book for a while! I love John Green, and my cooperating librarian last quarter said it was a really wonderful book.
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