and then it just grabbed me by my tearducts...

And is it because cancer is such a horrific beast? Because of Esther Earl? Because John is amazing and that his book contains this phrase: "As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once." ? The Fault in our Stars is thoughtful, funny, poignant...all of those rawther empty blurbish words. And then some.

Hazel was the most wonderful narrator - dragging my weeping form through the pages with her sucky lungs and introducing me to Augustus and Isaac and all their spectacular and particular parents. And they were all so eloquent, and so wise. So eloquent and wise and honest.

I finished the book within the last hour and therefore am evangelical and red-eyed about it, with no distance or perspective - but isn't it fantastic when a book actually, literally moves you so much?* I shall celebrate it! I raise my stars to you!

*And I don't mean literally displaced me (har! in joke!), just literally moved my eyeballs to water. Melina Marchetta's On the Jellicoe Road is another, and JD Salinger's story For Esmé - With Love and Squalor.