My Reaction to Perception-ed Teenage Romance.

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To be honest, The Fault In Our Stars was categorized as shallow and teenagery romance in my mind. (look at all the attention it's getting on tumblr) I happened to pick it up after Jack Howard's tweet about the movie "lacking something". I wanted to check out the movie (and see if I can find the missing thing) however landing with the book (pdf to be exact) instead. Despite all the negative perception I had on the book, I can't help crying my eyes out nearing the end of the book. And it's saying something cause it has been 2 years since I have literally cried.

The story line isn't much different from the normal love story you'd pick up from the shelves. John Green cleverly mixed in all the tragic stories from the century (Cancer, Anne Frank...) so that at any one point it may touch the heart of some unwary reader. Also his use of smart language and welly phrased phrases give the book a twist towards a seemingly deeper content and more sophistication. And I would like to conclude that it is the seemingly philosophical phrases which grasped so many teen readers' hearts. Don't get me wrong, I do like his style of writing, it's just the plot that I have higher expectations in.

To me, the point where it got in phase with my experiences is where [Spoiler alert] Gus told Hazel he was ill. [/Spoiler alert] I still remembered the time at the Peak where he sat me down, held my hands, knelt before me and told me that he has to go abroad.
I remembered very well about all the surprises that he gave me, the times where we tried to make everything better that nothing could be any worse.
The tears brought back the memory of the tears that I had shed because of him, the hot salty tears making tracks on my face and then running through them in warm pulses.
And after everything ended, that hug which just lasted a few seconds too long.

I don't like reading romantic novels because I don't like to feel sad for characters and scenes that are not real. But I guess it is just a way for us to feel our own tragedies again, to reawaken the memory that was left there to be forgotten.

I'd say, after all this book did what it was here for, to give me a heartbreak, a bit of leisure reading and understanding of the current teenage world.

Go heal your souls: Tuesdays with Morrie.