Author Archives: jansu

The Fault in Our Stars

The title of the book is The Fault in Our stars which is John Green`s best known novel, published in 2012. Protagonist and narrator is sixteen-year- old girl Hazel Grace who is suffering from a lung cancer.  Main antagonists are Augustus Waters the boy with whom she falls in love, Hazel`s solicitous Mon and Dad, blind friend Isaac and Peter Van Houten who has written Hazel`s favourite book.

The plot summary: Hazel`s parents demand her to attend a support group where she meets Augustus and they fall in love with each other. Turns out Augustus had a cancer too, Osteosarcoma but he is now cancer free after having his leg amputated.  All of a sudden cancer returns and spreads everywhere.                                                                                                 The book did evoke all kind of feelings. I felt sympathy, was angry, smiled, cried and laughed.

By nature Hazel is friendly, shy, maybe a bit introverted, outspoken and a real fighter. At any rate I liked her a lot because she didn’t give up and cared about her friends and family. In the beginning of the book she was a kind of depressed but owing to her parents she anyway went to support group although she didn’t want to. About Augustus I cant say anything bad. He was that kind of boy every girl dream about, charming, complaisant, fun, sweet and just perfect. He bought Hazel flowers, took her to the restaurant, called her and spoke so lovely with her. ” Oh, I wouldn’t mind Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart be broken by you” Peter Van Houten was rude alcoholic. At some point I understand him, his daughter died when she was six. But you can`t blame all the people, it wasn’t their fault. Isaac was blind because of his eye cancer and his girlfriend left him after he became blind.  On second thoughts no one had a happy ending in the book. Probably that would have been stupid if everybody just had healed. That is not the reality only few of cancer patients survive. The book was very instructive and I´m happy I read it. It made me think about the life and how you really should enjoy about it while you still can. I wonder if there is life after death. On one hand I don’t think so but on the other hand I don’t either think that the person just disappears…

I wasn´t sure would that be an interesting book after reading the first chapter. At first it didn´t seem all that compelling but after I had read about four chapters I started to like it. The story advanced quickly occasionally. It could proceed like, first they were in America and in the next chapter in Amsterdam. Since the book´s genre is young adult novel the language is the language that teenagers use. There were also a lot of medicine vocabulary which was challenging to understand. All in all the books was easy to follow and it is a pity that it ended. I enjoyed reading it and in my opinion reading in English was groovy and of course rewarding. I learned new words and it was different in a nice way. At first it was a little bit difficult and unusual but then I just got used to it. At the moment I can´t wait to see the movie!

Atmosphere were quite casual. There were a lot of joking although the theme was about sick teenagers but the book wasn’t  too harsh in a way. My favourite part was when Hazel, her Mom and Augustus travelled to Amsterdam to see Van Houten ( Hazel wanted answers about the end of her favourite book). In Amsterdam Hazel did at last dare to show her feelings. Hazel: ” I fell in love the way you fall asleep; slowly and then all at once.” She didn’t want to fall in love because she calls herself a grenade, one day she will explore and hurts everyone around her. ” I’m like a grenade, Mom, at some point I will blow up and I would like to minimize casualties.” Nevertheless she couldn’t  help falling for Augustus and takes a risk.

In my opinion the purpose was to show that even people with cancer can still love and be loved. Their life is hard but at any rate they want to do the same things that normal people do. I think that the people whose life is not perfect ( no ones life is really but I mean the healthiness and family…) are able to appreciate even the small things in life better than those who have ”a good life”. I think everyone should see the bright things in life. But people usually learn to really value something when they know how it feels to lose it. Like in supporting group was said: ”living our best life today.” Sometimes we have to stop and think about what do we have not just about what we don´t . ” The world is not a wish-granting factory.”

I would recommend the books for those who like the love stories ( not just with happy endings) and real life stories. I liked that this story could really be true. I have read and watched many fiction stories recently so it was nice to read something different. The end of the book was a little bit unexpectable and sad. When I started to read the book I thought that it would end differently. It must be yourself to decided what will happen to remaining characters. But still it wasn´t too shocking and during the book there was clues that helped you to decide what will happen to everyone else.

After all I just would like to say that the book is totally worth reading!

 

 

 

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The Carrie Diaries

The Carrie Diaries is an American television series, ”Sex and the city” prequel. Also based on Bushnells book. It follows 16-year-old Carrie, in year 1984,  who is in her junior year of high school and gets new internship in New York. As well her developing and experiencing new things before she becomes that popular Carrie from Sex and The City. Carrie lives with her occassionally overprotective and loving dad and her little sister Dorrit with whom she is struggling. They have for real sensitive relationship. Dorrit is pretty much Carrie`s opposite.  Their mom passed away and they have to ”start new life” without mom.

My friend was very exited about this show and recommended it for me. It didn´t run on  TV anymore and I couldn´t find episodes with subtitles so I wasn´t sure whether watch it or not. But then I decided to try and really loved it. I don´t often watch series or TV but this was so good that I had to watch at least one episode every day. There are two seasons of this show and it didn´t take so long to watch them all.

Carrie is friendly, curly-haired, lovely and she loves fashion. I really liked her personality and how she growed during the show. She had the same problems as the normal teenagers so it was interesting to follow her life and find out how she solves the problems. Carrie did care about the other people too and she was always there for her best friends Maggie, Walt and Mouse.Her sister Dorrit had  become difficult after their mothers death. Carrie had to, alongside with her father, took over the same things as her mom has done, like cooking, organizing… I personally liked the thanks giving episode where Carrie tried to make turkey by following her mothers old recip. Everything went wrong but Carrie tried to stay calm and in a good mood. In my opinnion the show was fun to watch and some scenes were absolutely hilarious.

The show also gets the twentieth century details mostly right. The clothes were colourful and gorgerous (they could also be worn nowadays ), hair was big, the cars and the music. However sometimes I forgot that it was year 1984 and it was a little bit weird and at the same time nice that they didn´t have iPones and all that modern stuff. There were landlines and in my opinnion it is cool to watch how people lived earlier, though it wasn´t so long time ago, but still it is stunning how many things have changed.

At the same time as there are all this issues going on, Carrie is falling hard for Sebastian. The new kid who is new for everyone else but Carrie who knows him from swimming club. Sebastian is handsome, sweet, complaisant and kind. Their relationship is really complicated. When everything starts going perfectly there is something or someone who ruin it. Toward the end in episode two, when they finally move in together they notice that their aims are not so similar as they assumed and Carrie startsto think maybe they are not so perfect couple. I was a little bit dissapointed when they didn´t stay together and their goodbye in last episode was so sad…

All in all I can say that the series were teachful, which could be predictable because it tells about teenagers, realistic and I just liked all the colours, cafes, the actors and ofcouse New York. There were also many good quotes. Here are some examples: ” Who am I supposed to be again? Just be yourself. But who am I?”   ” Sometimes to chase after your future, you have to stop running and plant yourself in one place. Take a stand and fight for what you want. And know that even after the darkest of night, the dawn will come. And you will find a Place where you don´t have to hide. A Place to call home. ”   ” I love you so much my heart hurt. Is that what love is supposed to feel like? Pain?

At the end I would like to say that series were totally worth watching. I really enjoyed every single episode. It taught me how important the friends and family really are. Happiness is something that doesn´t feel the same if you heve nobody to share it with. Parents are always here supporting you but you have to learn to do decisions by yourself. Ofcource they can give good advices but eventually you are the one who are charge with your own life. I would recommend the Carrie diaries for those who like girly and fun series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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