1. Before anyone throws tomatoes at me, I know who John Green is and his awesome Youtube videos bringing enlightenment to the world.
2. The target aud1. Before anyone throws tomatoes at me, I know who John Green is and his awesome Youtube videos bringing enlightenment to the world.
2. The target audience for this book is a teenage one, and primarily a female one. I am neither of those.
First off, "Hazel Waters" is a terrible name. in fact both their names sound clunky and artificial to me. Also the dialogue is way too snappy. If i hadn't already watched a handful of his videos i wouldn't be so aware of this, but having done so i am aware of Green's sense of humor and therefore every character in the book sounds exactly like him to me. None of the characters stood out, none of them seemed organic and real to me. Neither did their love story. They fell in love, she was attracted to him, but nothing beyond that. I didn't buy it. I guess it's because they're teenagers. Something about being a teenager makes everything REAL, and BIGGER THAN LIFE. You don't just fall in love, you FALL THROUGH THE UNIVERSE.
now i'm typing like John Green. Anyway, i don't mean to rip the man's work apart. I like him, honestly i do. and I think there's good stuff in here. In fact, a lot of the book could have easily fallen into Nicholas Spark's overly sentimental zone, causing me to roll my eyes in annoyance. But it almost never happened here, even though I felt like the book was being watered down to reach a lowest common denominator. Green does ride the ways of sentiment, but on par with something a reasonable reader would expect from a plot such as this in a romance/YA setting. Beyond all my criticisms the guy is a fun writer, he's very smart and clever and that is a strength but to me I feel like he's drenched the novel in it to try and make you like the characters more. it's easier to like characters that make you laugh. Also easier to feel sorry for them.
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