I read this because I loved the movie 'Matilda.'

Mara does not hold back. She lets the reader know, through anecdotes, her experiences in her industry and the way they effected her life, relationships, and sense of identity.

The characters here are underdeveloped and shallow to a point that reading this story becomes difficult because I just kept rolling my eyes.

Anecdotes! No real sense of plot! The focus is on the relationships between the characters, but it is meandering to a fault.

This story was magical for me as a child, rereading it as an adult dimmed the magic a little but I still love it just the same.

I love the way Roald Dahl gives Matilda the gift of books and intelligence and doesn't make her shy away from it. It's a virtue, it's a power. And I think that's important for children to understand, for anyone to understand.

If you're looking for a story about travel, new love, trying to find yourself, and inevitable conflict along the way look no further.

This one is fluffy and light and sweet.

I've read this in countless lecture halls and survey classes for my college major.

Each time, the symbolism is beaten into me that it comes to the forefront of my brain just by reading the title.

Interesting piece to analyze.

I don't know what I expected out of this book, but I'm walking away from it in a daze.

I wasn't disappointed by it, but it isn't one I feel like raving about either. It was real, and not-cookie-cutter, and the narration was kind of inconsistent?

I've seen people compare it to The Fault in Our Stars but it is NOTHING like TFIOS (other than one kind-of main character happens to have cancer) so ignore those comparisons altogether. This was not filled with existential metaphors and this was not a love story. This was just a story. I felt like Greg (the narrator) was personally telling it to me, and I felt like listening to him.

So while I personally don't believe this book lived up to the hype surrounding it, I know for a fact that I have never read anything like it before. And just for that reason alone, it's worth the read.

2017-review to follow once I gather my thoughts




2012- The Fault In Our Stars by John Green is flawless to me.
Green did a fantastic job writing a cancer book that didn't seem so much like a book about cancer. I have read this book at least 18 times, and I always come out of it with something different. Between Hazel Grace Lancaster (the protagonist and narrator) and her views on life and death and love, and Augustus Waters and all of his incredible insights. Cover to cover this book is absolutely perfect to me, it's my favorite book right now. I'm sure it will always be my favorite because it has helped me through a tough time in my adolescent years (although nothing like having cancer or losing someone to cancer...being a teenager and getting treated like a child while being expected to act like an adult is relatable to all of us)
I recommend this book to every person who is able to read.
Much different from any of John Greens other books, though not in a bad way. He's a great, talented, author.
Thank you for this gem John Green, really.