{my thoughts} – This book was amazing. It was nothing short of amazing. Hazel is a teen girl that’s life is highly dependent on experimental drugs and an oxygen tank. Her mother and father worry she is too use to being home and is too depressed so they send her off to a support group for other teenagers in her situation. She attends this support group and meets Gus. Gus is the secondary character in this book and the two off them make for a beautiful story. I laughed, I teared up and I nearly cried. I don’t think anyone could honestly read this book and not like it!

The only thing I am not pleased about is that it doesn’t give any answers as to what becomes of Hazel at the end of the book. It sort of stops leaving you wonder the rest. Other then that I could read it over and over again and still enjoy it just as much as the first time I had read it! It was just that wonderful to me. I highly recommend this book. ( )

{my thoughts} – This book was amazing. It was nothing short of amazing. Hazel is a teen girl that’s life is highly dependent on experimental drugs and an oxygen tank. Her mother and father worry she is too use to being home and is too depressed so they send her off to a support group for other teenagers in her situation. She attends this support group and meets Gus. Gus is the secondary character in this book and the two off them make for a beautiful story. I laughed, I teared up and I nearly cried. I don’t think anyone could honestly read this book and not like it!

The only thing I am not pleased about is that it doesn’t give any answers as to what becomes of Hazel at the end of the book. It sort of stops leaving you wonder the rest. Other then that I could read it over and over again and still enjoy it just as much as the first time I had read it! It was just that wonderful to me. I highly recommend this book. ( )

This is my first time doing a review like this. I'm breaking the book down into different areas and rating each one out of five stars.

POV: First person past tense. The narrator is Hazel Grace Lancaster, a terminally ill teenager.
Plot: **** It wasn't a mystery or anything but it didn't pretend to be. Straightforward but not boring.
Characters: ***^ (3.5) They were believable and reasonably interesting.
Style: **** John Green is a pleasure to read. I love that he makes us laugh out loud and sob just as hard. This man. There's not much place for foreshadowing (except the physical pain Augustus experienced when his body was made of cancer) or symbolism, but his writing it very effective.
Setting: **** Contemporary Indiana. Where else would you set a romance between cancer kids? Not bad.
Vocabulary: ***** Seriously. I felt like my mom should underline the words and make me look them up in the dictionary and copy the definitions into a notebook. Hamartia, anyone?
Appropriateness: ** Unfortunately, this book contains a lot of swearing. For some reason, swearing in narration bothers me far more than swearing in dialogue does. A character swearing adds depth to them. A narrator swearing makes it a foul book. G.d. and b.s. are used with great frequency. The f-word and p-word as well as other obscenities make a few appearances. In addition to issues with language, there is THE SCENE (Hazel and Augustus make love in a hotel room- not explicit but still worth mentioning) and other sexual references. Parents might want to preview this book before letting their kids read it.
Themes: ***** This story tells us that love can really, really hurt, but it's still worth it. This theme is also communicated clearly.
(A not on appropriateness and themes. For me, the themes came through stronger than the inappropriate material did, making it a good book for me to read. Others children and teens might not experience the same thing. It takes discretion.)
Overall enjoyment: **** Beautiful book. It made me laugh, it made me cry.
Quotability ***** "Pain demands to be felt" "Sometimes you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelicial zeal..." "You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you" and numerous other stand-alone gems hidden in the pages and paragraphs. ( )

Das Schicksal ist ein mieser Verräter ♦ John Green | Rezension

Die Prosa ist so exquisit, dass sie fast ungerecht ist, und sie hat mir das Herz herausgerissen. Ich weinte, ich lächelte und ich klammerte mich an mein geschundenes Herz, welches immer wieder mitfühlend brach.



Das Schicksal ist ein mieser Verräter ♦ John Green

Meinung

In Das Schicksal ist ein mieser Verräter ist Hazel Lancaster, eine schwerkranke Sechzehnjährige mit Lungenkrebs im Endstadium, die Hauptfigur. Das Leben ist so schon herausfordernd genug, aber der Krebs hebt es auf eine ganz andere Stufe. Jeden Tag kämpft Hazel gegen ihr tragisches Schicksal an, bis sie auf Augustus Waters, eine weitere junge sterbende Seele, trifft. Plötzlich kann sich das Leben in den letzten Tagen und Stunden vor dem Tod überraschend zum Guten wenden.
Aber auch zum Schlechten.

Die meisten Bücher lese ich nicht nur mit den Augen, sondern auch mit dem Herzen. Oftmals geht das auch gut, aber manchmal ist es mit Risiken verbunden.
Ich hatte des Öfteren ein sehr mulmiges Gefühl im Magen, während ich durch die Seiten blätterte. Teils dachte ich, dass ich beim Lesen des unvorstellbar qualvollen Leidens selbst sterbe. Wahrscheinlich bin ich dies auch ein bisschen.
Trotz all der Qualen kommt Das Schicksal ist ein mieser Verräter mit großartigen Momente daher – diese sind zwar rar, aber unglaublich intensiv – welche das Buch sehr, sehr lohnenswert machen.


Fazit

★★★★★

Das Schicksal ist ein mieser Verräter ist eine grausame Geschichte, die zweifellos fast alle LeserInnen in ständigen Tränen und mit einem hohen Taschentuchverbrauch zurücklassen wird.
Extrem berührend, oft sehr erhebend und motivierend, mit einem Anteil an humor- und liebevollen Momenten. Atemberaubend herzzerreißend. Es gibt so viele denkwürdige Zitate und Momente, die jeder für sich selbst entdecken sollte. Sehr empfehlenswert. Ein Meisterwerk für junge Erwachsene, aber auch jene darüber hinaus.


This review was first posted at The Art of Reading. ( )

For a story about death (usually on my "avoid" list), I admit this one has charm and personality. ( )