"the fault in our stars" / 24 before 25

one of the items on my 24 before 25 list is:

2. read 12 books

i finished my first one during my trip to toronto!

the first book i read was "the fault in our stars" by john green. you can find your own copy on amazon.

i had heard some hype about this book, and danielle from sometimes sweet, which is one of my favorite blogs, even posted about reading it at one point.

without giving too much away, this book is the love story of a young couple who are both struggling in different ways with having or having had cancer. even with their ailments, they are still able to have some parentally-supervised adventures and even some intimate moments ;)

i had told my friend veronica that i was reading this book, and i told her that i would let her borrow it when i was finished. veronica is an avid reader and has read the hunger games books and the girl with the dragon tattoo series. for some reason, i kept thinking "what would veronica think" while i was going through this book. and to be honest, reading it with that mind-set made me view the book as pretty juvenile. or at least the first half of it was juvenile, in my opinion. obviously the subject matter is pretty mature - i mean, how can a book about people with cancer be juvenile? i just felt the way it was written and the way that the characters' relationships were developed made it a young-adult book. being a full-fledged adult, i don't know that i enjoyed those aspects so much. keep in mind, the main characters are 16 and 17 years old, so it's not like the writing didn't suit their situations, but think about the hunger games series - those are teenagers, and i didn't feel as though those books were juvenile by any means.

that being said, i definitely enjoyed the last portion of the book much more than the first half. it's kind of a double-edged sword, because the last half of the book is only meaningful because of the history you get from the first half, but if i could have inherently known the backstory and only read the last half of the book, i probably would have. i finished the book while on a plane, and i swear i almost burst out in sobs because the end is so sad and endearing. the end of the book was worth getting through the first part of it, for sure.

i would classify this book as an easy read but with more depth than your typical pleasure book. so if that's what you're looking for, i would recommend this book to you.

so what's going to be my next book? you'll have to check back and find out :)