Abandoned by Booklikes

There are so many things about this book that just exhausted me from beginning to end which is why I gave it half a star. At first, I gave it one star because I thought that Green's description of Amsterdam was fantastic. However, that in the end was not enough to pull this book up when I thought about the lack of in depth characters, the horribleness of two of the characters, the absurdity and also totally telegraphed plot and ending. I honestly am going to be baffled forever on why this book rated so high on the 100 books you must read list.

I compare this book to Dawson's Creek for many reasons. The main one really is though is that for a while there this show was super popular with many in my age group. I mean watching Joey be secretly in love with Dawson while Dawson was dating Jen had all of my friends and I in fits for at least two years. I mean who cared that the teens on the show acted/spoke at least 10 years past their age group. Who cared that towards the end the entire cast except for the character of Jack I think had all hooked up/kissed one another.


I loved that show, until I didn't. This show came on when I was 18, full of hormones and though that everything it was showcasing was so romantic and wonderful. By the time it went off the air in 2003 I had started to skip tons of episodes and when watching just fast forwarding past boring dialogue/characters. I had outgrown Dawson's Creek. Something that I thought was absolutely fantastic at the age of 18 was boring and repetitive and just plain dumb at times when I was 23. I think that many teens may look back at this book similarly when they are adults and have that whole what was I thinking thought along with at least I have outgrown stuff like this.

Told in the first person, we begin this story with sixteen year old Hazel Lancaster clumsily introducing herself as a Cancer kid. Hazel has thyroid cancer which has spread to her lungs and though she is on some medication that has seemed to stop the progress of the cancer/tumors she knows that she is dealing with a situation in the end that she won't win. Hazel's mother makes her go to a support group and there she ends up meeting seventeen year old Augustus (Gus) Waters. Gus had osteosarcoma that ended up causing him to lose one leg and is now an amputee. Hazel is drawn to Gus since he is the hottest boy she has ever seen and the two develop a friendship.

I feel like I could write a thesis paper about Hazel. Hazel at first glance and honestly throughout this book was sarcastic, nasty, and just plain rude depending on the circumstances.

For example, Hazel is nasty towards her parents, even after she acknowledges that her parents are broke or at least not doing well financially because of her medications, hospital visits, surgeries, etc. Then a chapter later is dismissing any thoughts of their concerns with her disparagingly saying they are just parents. Another case was dealing with Gus's friend from group, Issac. Hazel rudely refers to him as blind to herself and brings up Isaac's now ex girlfriend Monica whenever she enters a room by saying, I am not your ex girlfriend Monica.

Hazel is clumsily set up as a very smart intelligent teenager that loves to read. However, you quickly find out that she is obsessed with one particular novel called "An Imperial Affliction" and has written the author, Peter Van Houten at least a dozen times prior to the beginning of the book. Frankly I see Hazel's obsession with this story as the main problem with her character. Green shows time and time again that Hazel is focused on just herself and her needs that she comes across as selfish most of the time. Do I think that it's good that Green didn't portray a cancer stricken teenagers as some font of wisdom with goodness shining through and through? Yes.

Cancer hits everyone from every socio-economic class. And cancer does not automatically make you a "good" person. However, I am going to say that I think he swung too hard the other way by not making Hazel a really balanced person.

With the aggravation of Hazel's character we have the added character of Gus as well. Gus is just as bad as Hazel. He, just like, sees that his parents are just these "tools" that are there to be humored for the most part. More than anything, once Gus is introduced all I could keep thinking is oh my goodness this guy could beat Dawson Leery in most annoying teen guy ever.

Gus and his words aged him up past the point of believabilty for a teenage boy. He didn't speak like a typical teen and every time this character opened his mouth he completely took me out of the story. I was too busy laughing to myself that he sounded like Dawson to really pay him any mind.

That said, even the secondary characters don't hold up that well. I imagine though it may be because we have Hazel giving her thought about people along with painfully written dialogue. You don't get much of a sense of Hazel's parents besides them being saints for putting up with her and the way she talks to them sometimes. Gus's parents are portrayed as being religious and unsophisticated.

Probably one of the characters that I hated reading about was Issac though. You would think I would feel sympathetic to him due to what happens to him. But I thought he was selfish and immature just like Hazel and Gus. Isaac is another person that I feel like I could write a paper about.

Mild spoiler alert:
Isaac is already blind in one eye, but has to have a surgery that will render him blind in both eyes. His girlfriend Monica breaks up with him. Is it nice that she did this? No. But she, just like him is a teenager, and I am sure realizes that she doesn't have the coping mechanism to deal with something like this at her age. What really gets me is that Gus was in a relationship with a girl who he wanted to break up with, but stayed with because she had cancer. So in the end what is the lesson here? Stay with people even when you no longer want to? That them having cancer means you're own needs come second/third? The whole scene where this trio eggs Monica's car was outrageous.
End mild spoiler.

The character of Peter Van Houten was a hot mess of a joke. I refuse to even get into that here because I want this review to be done already.

Leaving behind the plot/characters we can go to the writing and flow which were not great. I already mention that the way that Green wrote the voices of Hazel and Gus were not realistic teen voices. And the way the played into each other back and forth was not cute in my eyes, just them reinforcing their overall jerkiness about how they were both somehow superior to everyone around them. The dialogue with certain other characters was just as awful too.

The flow was really bad to the point of distraction. The book stopped and started in fits and it was a struggle in the end to just finish the book.

The setting of Indianapolis was not utilized very well at all. You can excuse that by saying that Hazel is ill so of course she does not get to see the city for all that it is, but her character often dismisses the entire town. When the story moves to Amsterdam it finally in my eyes came alive. You have Hazel and Gus's fascination with the city and the description of the place by Green was wonderfully done.

The ending was not a surprise and when it came I was glad to be done. I would not recommend this book unless you have it on a reading list like I did.