I was introduced to this #1 New York Times Bestseller at some point last year, and since have developed a serious liking for John Green’s writing and am slowly but surely making my way through his books (where would be the fun if I read them all at once? Saying that, they’ll probably all be read by the end of this super long summer).
“Books are so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like betrayal.”
I absolutely adored the book, it tells the story of two teens falling in love, but it’s different to the other teen romance novels. I’m not usually one to read books or watch films for that matter, about terminal disease as it’s just really depressing and I don’t see the point in reading something like that that’s just going to get you down. So this was the first (and only one so far) I’d read and I was a little nervous, I’d heard comments about it and I knew it was going to be emotionally destroying or something to that effect, so I was a little skeptical to read it, but I was persuaded into doing so anyway.
“I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.”
I was pleasantly surprised. The way the story is written is so that it tries as much as possible not to focus on the underlying theme of cancer and illness, because that’s not the point. The point is that these people still want a ‘normal’ life as much as possible.
“That’s the thing about pain, it demands to be felt.”
At the end of the day the book tells us a beautifully tragic love story, and you know from the beginning and all the raving reviews that it’s not going to end happily, but as you read page after page you kind of forget about all that and you get lost completely in the story of Hazel and Augustus. Their love is young and magical, and the characters are unique. Augustus is very cheeky and charming, and he is written about in a way that makes you fall in love with him at the same time as Hazel does. You forget about their illnesses and you read along as if it’s any other romance story, the inevitable ending completely slips your mind at the time.
“Maybe ‘okay’ will be our always.”
It’s truly gripping, there’s no putting it down. And there’s no limit to how many times you can read it, I borrowed it from a friend the first time I read it but I had to buy my own copy so I could read it over and over. It’s not going to get old any time soon, and even though the whole story is engraved in my mind, I still find myself hopelessly rooting for Hazel and Gus’ love for each other – and in the moment, you really do forget about the tragedy of it all.
“You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to kill. A metaphor.”
Now, when I heard they were turning this amazing book into a movie, I couldn’t pretend not to be a little nervous for it. Movies create a wider audience, so in a way it’s almost a move to introduce even more people the story, however creating a movie from such a successful book with such a large, supportive fanbase is no easy task, especially if the idea to please the people who are already fans of the material, which generally it is. I followed the making of the movie on twitter where clips from the set were posted from the likes of John Green himself, who thankfully had a lot to do with how the movie went. When it’s put into the hands of other people completely new to the story, that’s where problems occur.
“My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.”
I went to see the first showing on the 19th, and was excited to see it but also nervous that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations of the book, but much to my delight – it did.
The casting was fantastic. First of all there’s Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort portraying the love of Hazel and Gus, and what an amazing job they did of it. Nat Wolff as Isaac was definitely a good choice, he fitted my vision of the character really well. Laura Dern playing Hazel’s mother was also a really great casting, she was perfect for the whole and that really came across. Another one that really stuck out as a really good choice was Mike Birbiglia as Patrick, the support group leader. He was wonderful, and although he wasn’t quite what I imagined Patrick to look like when I read the book, he was a really good choice and I really liked how he played the character. The rest of the cast was brilliant too, but those are the people I thought were really worth mentioning.
“I’m on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend.”
The story itself in terms of sequencing and scenes etc, was incredibly accurate to the book. Other than a slight change in the ending due to the absence of Hazel’s friend, Caitlin in the film (she didn’t really have a huge amount of relevance to the plot line, but she was the last piece of evidence of Hazel having a ‘normal’ life before things changed), everything else pretty much stayed exactly the same. There was one or two scenes missing but nothing really major. The only other differences I noticed were the fact that the eggs they throw at Monica’s car cost $5 instead or $4, and they didn’t drink out of Winnie the Pooh cups. Exactly. The changed details were that small, and I only noticed them because I’d spent the night before desperately trying to finish the book again before watching the movie.
Overall, I was very impressed with the movie. A mix of excellent casting and fantastic directing by Josh Boone, I think the movie will be just as successful as the book. I urge you all to go and see it and read the book.
“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”
Also, just a little note: don’t go to a first showing of a movie based on an incredibly popular YA fiction book, if you don’t want to be surrounded by fangirls. And sobbing before it’s even started because we know what happens. Just a little tip.
P.S. All the quotes within this post are taken from the book!
Dreams That Glitter xo 