latest read: turtles all the way down

John Green's earlier bestseller, The Fault in Our Stars, did not impress me. So I had second thoughts when picking up this book. Nonetheless, I did and I was not disappointed.
I like the way it is written and to a certain degree, can relate to the inner voice of the main character who is suffering extreme OCD. The story line itself is pretty simple but the intertwining of characters is what is interesting with this book to me.
Ultimately, it is a story about relationship - between fathers and sons, mother and daughter, between friends and also between a boy and a girl.

latest read: the fault in our stars

 A student of mine gave me this book as a gift. It is one of the books that caught my attention while browsing in the bookstore. Lucky I didn't purchase it then.

The premise is very simple: boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy tackles girl, girl falls in love with boy. 

A typical story that happens possibly everyday with abundance. 

The twist here is that boy and girl are children with cancer.

So yeah, the story revolves around how they see the world from their perspective as children with death staring them in their face for the rest of their lives.

The writing is pretty good and there are some parts of the book that made me cry. 

I mean, to read about death and the effect on those left behind would touch me regardless if they have cancer or not. 

As far as the story goes, I don't get why this book received so much attention and accolades. It's a good book, yes, a very sad one, yes, but to me, I think the praises are just blown out of proportion. 

I think playing the cancer card was what made book receive all that attention, not what the book actually is. 

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