Day 5: Recommend a tear jerker
Today's theme for the challenge is tear jerkers! To be honest, I haven't read any story that made me cry. I have read some that were able to make me emotional and on a bad day, sob. But that was it. I am quite an emotional person and I cry easily but books just don't make me cry, I guess.
To wrap up loose ends, I picked up a book to recommend to you: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (I mean, who doesn't know this book?!)
The Fault In Our Stars is about a girl named Hazel Grace who was diagnosed with stage 4 thyroid cancer at the age of thirteen, but she has managed to live until now thanks to all the medicines. Her parents urge her to attend a weekly support group for children living with cancer - because Hazel can't leave the house bringing an oxygen tank all around. There is her first time meeting Augustus Waters (Gus), a former basketballer who lost his right leg to osteosarcoma (bone tumor). Gus is close friends with Isaac, who soon will be blind in order to remove cancer from his body. Augustus keeps his eyes on Hazel for quite some time - which makes her feel awkward being stared by such a good-looking boy. Apparently both of them feel attracted enough to each other that it doesn't take long for them to grow closer.
"I'm in love with you," he said quietly
"Augustus," I said.
"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you."
Hazel recommends her favourite book to Augustus, An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten, and so does Augustus. He recommends her his favourite, Prince of Dawn, a novelization of a video game. Both Hazel and Augustus become attached to An Imperial Affliction and are dying (you see what I did there? ;)) to know how the story really ends because the story is ended mid-sentence. Hazel's wish has always been to know what happened to the other characters, but her letters to Peter Van Houten never received an answer.
There is this foundation called Genie Foundation, which grants sick children one wish. As Hazel's wish was already used, Gus now uses his wish to go to Amsterdam to visit Peter Van Houten - with Hazel! Although Hazel's living a dream come true, her condition gets worse and it reminds her that cancer's still living in her. Her life can end anytime.
"That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt."
Both Hazel and Gus are expecting the worst and so they live their lives to the fullest, spending time with each other everytime. Although Hazel has always been familiar with goodbyes, this time seems so much harder...
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I mean, this book is just wow. I have enjoyed reading every page of this book and each one of them tore my heart apart with every single phrase. Admittedly I promise it was hard not to fall in love with Gus. And the only thing I was disappointed about is that An Imperial Affliction doesn't really exist </3 I mean John Green, can we just.. (╥_╥)
So this was my tear jerker recommendation for you, if you want to join the challenge, a picture with the complete questions is below.
Thanks for reading, x
Elizabeth
