The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

Newly released novel sparks interest in all things Green

If any Nerdfighters are reading this column – and I really hope you are – you know exactly what I’m going to be writing about.

For those of you who are still unaware of your nerdfighterness – and trust me, if you’re taking the time to read a newspaper, you most definitely are a Nerdfighter – please pick up the newly released young adult novel, “The Fault in our Stars” by John Green, before you continue reading. You will not be disappointed.

And for those of you who are unaware of what exactly a nerdfighter is, it’s simply a person who is 1) made of awesome and 2) dedicated to reducing worldsuck. And worldsuck is exactly what it sounds like: the things in the world that suck, such as war and poverty and cancer, which brings us back to “The Fault in our Stars.”

TFIOS, as it is affectionately referred to by the thousands of fans that have been awaiting its release for more than eight months, is built around the lives of a teenage boy, Augustus Waters, and girl, Hazel Grace Lancaster, who happen to have cancer.

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But before you write it off completely, please know that this is not one of those I-can’t-see-through-my-tears-because-of-all-the-cancer books. It’s more like one of those I’ve-never-read-anything-like-this-before-and-oh-my-God-I-just-can’t-stop-reading kind of books.

I’ve always been a sucker for the pangs of teenage romance, but Green has honestly blown me away with this book. And that’s saying something, because his first novel, “Looking for Alaska,” had me in tears – a huge accomplishment just ask my friends.

But I digress. Green has a Youtube channel with his brother, Hank Green, on which they alternate posting videos twice a week. They’ll talk about anything and everything, but mainly they discuss nerdy things like presidential candidates and how to start saving your money at a young age so you can be filthy rich when you’re older. Also, giraffes – I don’t want to get into the graphic details of that one.

I first discovered John Green’s books through the brothers’ Youtube channel, which was introduced to me by a friend. You could say I was instantly hooked. So I decided to try reading one of his books.

I can’t lie – I didn’t expect him to be much of an author. I was still in this weird stage where I believed that the young adult genre was somehow “less” than regular fiction. Thankfully, I no longer believe that misconception. Needless to say, though, I adored the book.

I kind of went on with my life for a while, until the hype over TFIOS really started rising. Green decided to spice things up by promising to sign the entire first printing of the novel – that’s 150,000 books. And he really did it.

Once the novel was only a few weeks away from being released, I picked up one of Green’s other books, “Paper Towns.” It was really good. It was no “Looking for Alaska,” in my opinion, but it was still much better than most of the other young adult novels I’ve read.

Now that I’m reading TFIOS, though, I honestly don’t think enough superlatives exist in this world to adequately bestow my love. It is everything I was hoping it would be and 10 times more, and it was definitely worth all the hype.

Now, I haven’t finished it yet, so please don’t go giving me any spoilers. But if you haven’t read it, consider the fact that I have just spent an entire column gushing over it. It could be worth a read.

KELLY MORELAND

[email protected]

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