I'm going to need some time to collect my thoughts on this book. Why? Because it is very confusing.

Before reading the book or watching the movie, I thought this was a book about cancer. It is not. It is a book about two teenagers with cancer, that fall in love with one another, so it's basically a love story. I always avoided love stories before, because they are so sappy and predictable they usually make me sigh and roll my eyes. This book did that too, but not particularly because of those reasons.

I had to struggle through the first hundred pages or so. Hazel is a very defeatist snob that somehow manages to both worry about everyone around her and look down on humanity and existence as a whole. Augustus on the other hand is a very idealistic snob that somehow manages to over-think everything and still not loose his idealistic world view.

Why do I call them snobs? Because I have no reason to believe that there are people on this earth that talk like they do. At least not without having to think long and hard about the proper way to phrase it. The book seems to write this down to the kids 'Having Cancer' and them reading a lot. However, I read a lot and though I'm happy to not have anything as horrific as cancer happen to me, I've had my fair share of life being a dick. But hope as I may, this has not yet helped me in any way to have "thoughts like stars", constellations or no.

But even though they talk like they have their own personal team of writers at hand to convert their teenage talk, they somehow managed to get stuck with sayings like "Pain demands to be felt" and "Life is not a wish-granting factory". Well, thank you, Captain Obvious.

And then there's Peter Van Houten, who is an alcoholic (ex?)writer that somehow manages to 1. be a total asshole 2. deliver important lines for both characters and readers to think upon 3. sound like a total snob about it even though he was so drunk I could almost smell it.

I'm not even going to talk about the kissing scene in the Anne Frank house. It was just too weird. Why are they kissing? Why do people gather around and applaud? Just what? I can't even.

Based on this, you'd think I hate the book, but that's what's so confusing to me, because I actually liked this book quite a bit. In many ways, the posh language and the unlikely metaphors actually managed to enhance the story a great deal and provide many a reader (including me) with some food for thought.

In the end, I think the problem with this book is that people go into it thinking to get a story about real people, or at least fictional people that could have been real. However, I think Hazel and Augustus should not be thought of as real people (they aren't after all), not even as characters in a story, but rather as a way for the storyteller to convey his story to his readers. Then, all that is left to judge is the story itself, and though it suffered from some of the standard love story crap I think this is one of the most beautifully written stories I've read in a while. Whether or not it is a good story, however, I cannot say. I only know I enjoyed it.