Last year, I read Everything is Tuberculosis and came away feeling dumber for having read the book. Of course, I'd forgotten that the year before that, I'd bought The Fault in Our Stars during a kindle sale, and had actually read a couple of chapters of it and really enjoyed the voice of the author, and so came back and finished it.
Oh wow. The Fault in Our Stars is sensitive, well-written, well plotted, and emotionally touching in every way Everything is Tuberculosis is not. The story revolves around a cancer victim, Hazel Grace, whose diagnosis was a death sentence partially stayed through a fictional miracle drug. At a support group, she meets Augustus Waters, and the two fall in love.
I don't want to say too much about the novel --- the dialogue is smart, funny, and very characteristic of young adult novels, with that wry sarcasm you hear a lot. That makes everything feel real. The characters rib each other and angst about first world problems --- but because they have cancer or have had cancer you're more than happy to forgive them their foibles. Even the one asshat character has had a member of his family die from cancer.
Finally, after reading this book, the rave reviews for Everything is Tuberculosis makes sense. Cancer for these fictional characters is incurable. People in the book die from cancer. But John Green keeps making the remark in Everything is Tuberculosis that it is curable, we just need to spend money, and it's the inequity in the world humans have set up for themselves that makes Tuberculosis victims die from it. Clearly the heaps of praise for his non fiction comes from people who read and remember The Fault in Our Stars.
I still think Green's non-fiction made me dumber for having read it, but I'm now willing to forgive him that book since this book was so good.
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