It was not sad at all, well it was a bit sad, but not heartbreaking-sobbing sad. More like depressing but hilarious at the same time.

I was afraid it was going to be a sad romance story about someone dying. I'm not saying I don't like these, but since The Fault in Our Stars, I've seen way too much of it and it's becoming a bit too repetitive. That's why I really loved this book. If you expect crying, let me tell you it's not going to happen. The only tears you'll have is because you're laughing too hard.

The formatting was a really interesting part of the book that made it unique in a way (there are screenplay exerpts inside). It was really provocative as well and I liked that. The characters were not likable and I liked that as well. They were not awful either, but you just don't really care about these jackasses. At least, that's what happened to me.

I read it pretty quickly and I enjoyed it.

This book  is what I wanted The Fault in Our Stars to be. It's infinitely superior in pretty much every way. No insta-love, no pompous, maudlin speeches that no real teen would ever utter in seriousness, no hot guys being forgiven for creepy staring because they're hot, and no kissing in Anne Frank's house. This book treats terminal illness like the unromantic destroyer of lives that it is, yet at the same time manages to be hilarious. And thoughtful. And sort of deep while appearing to be shallow. It's kind of brilliant.

Greg Gaines is a human being, and not of the idealized-for-fiction variety. He thinks he's chubby and unattractive and wants nothing more than to not draw attention to himself. He also thinks he's a jackass, displaying a self-awareness that's both endearing and frustrating as he recognizes his jackass behavior but is powerless to stop it. He feels real and about as regular as a teenage guy can get, and that all by itself would put this book so far out of TFIOS's league that if TFIOS went supernova this book wouldn't see the explosion for a berjillion years at least.

And then there's the story itself, which feels so true to life that readers young and old will be able to relate to it on multiple levels. I couldn't read this book in bed while my husband was sleeping because it made me laugh too hard. I saw so much of myself in Greg, which in itself is an amazing feat of literary awesomeness. How much could a real 37-yr-old woman and a fictional 17-yr-old boy have in common? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Except for the boob fetish. I definitely haven't got one of those.

If you're sensitive about language, fair warning: there is quite a bit of swearing, almost to the point of feeling gratuitous (IMO). And there were bonus giggles for me every time a Jewish character said "Jesus!" I am so easily amused sometimes.

Well... that was weird.

So have you read The Fault in Our Stars? This is the opposite.

This book is what appears to be basically a parody of The Fault in Our Stars, or at least a YA book of the cancer variety.

As a parody it does the exact opposite of everything including:
- a shallow main character who is self-aware, but only of how stupid everything is including himself
- supporting characters who are not well-developed and appear two dimensional and stereotypical because of the selfish main character's lack of insight into describing them
- a very relaxed tone that tries to be more funny than endearing
- very little plot development
- no meaningful message or depth into human interactions

So I was really between 2 and 3 stars on this. The problem with spoofs and parodies is you kind of set yourself up for a funny, yet not very interesting book. I bumped my rating to 3 stars for style points. Andrews has a very interesting and possibly "creative" style, although as noted in the book, "Just because something is weird and hard to understand doesn't mean it's creative." (281). Andrews uses a style that incorporates usual book text, script format, and various lists and bullets points to tell the story.

Also, the writing style is very realistic to a high-schooler. The writing is casual and often tries to be humorous. It is a very laid back book and Greg is very aware of what is going on inside himself. He is not afraid to tell you what a failure he is. And sometimes he tries so hard to be funny and likable and ends of saying completely weird things that are kind of funny, but not polished enough to feel like they were scripted moments. The humor is weird, yet realistic.

While Greg himself is self-aware, I think the book is a little too self-aware at times, which takes away from its readability. Greg constantly writes about how bad the book is and how he hasn't learned anything, which made it easy-to-understand, but not all that enjoyable to read. I wanted to "see" the events, rather than just read what Greg didn't learn from them. This also makes it very clear that Greg is pretty much a superficial jerk and while he will admit it in written form, it does not make it any less unlikable to read. The ignorance of other people's emotions and the invalidating perception of their thoughts and experiences, mixed with his creepy fixation on appearances (his own and others) and likability, led to an annoying narrator who was very unlikable. This idea is called out in the book, but again specifically stating does not make it anymore interesting.

So while this book succeeds as a parody, it is not a very readable one. The story, while realistic, is not very satisfying. A good fit for readers who do not like traditional YA books.

When I heard that this is going to be turned into a movie showing this September, I scrambled to read this. Also, it was in my TBR for a long time now, so.. two birds with one stone.

Having read TFIOS, which I liked, I was prepared to have a dose of reality. While TFIOS was good, I agree that it painted teenagers in a very mature way which was a little unbelievable.

However, although this is closer to reality, this is not my brand of humor. I was in a perpetual state of Excessive Modesty Mode.

Nothing is stupider and more ineffective than Excessive Modesty Mode. It is a mode in which you show that you’re modest by arguing with someone who is trying to compliment you.

Instead of just focusing on the story, I would get commentaries from Greg of how his book sucks and how you would do better by finding him and smashing the book on his head for making you read his crappy writing. It seems to me that he's trash talking himself and he wants someone to contradict him and tell him that his book is not bad, in fact, it was great. It was exhausting.

The moments I like best are the ones when he is interacting with anybody than his own thoughts. Scenes with Rachel, and Earl, and his Mom, and Madison, and..basically anyone. Just don't leave him alone is fine with me.

And with Earl's upbringing you would think the Greg would fare better than him, but no. Earl is still much, much better than him. For one, it did not take a dying girl for him to realize that he needs to deal with his shit first before he could help his family.

"I’m surrounded by family members doing stupid shit. I used a think I had to do shit for them. I still wanna do shit for them. But you gotta live your own life. You gotta take care a your own shit before you get started doing things for errybody else."

"They got shit to figure out before I can help em. I love my mama, but she has problems that I can’t help her with. I love my brothers, but they need to figure they shit out before I can help em. Otherwise they just gonna drag me down."

Earl is really the most interesting person in here. And seriously said to Greg what I've been wanting to say,

"God damn I’m sick and fucking tired a watchin you treat this girl like she some kind of, some kinda burden, when she the closest thing you fucking have to a motherfucking friend and she about to die on top of that. You know that, right? You dumb motherfucker. She home now cuz she about to die. That girl lyin there on her goddamn deathbed and you come to my house all whinin and cryin and shit about some irrelevant bullshit. I want . . . to kick your ass. You hear me? I want . . . to beat the fuck out of you right now."

It took me awhile to write this review and I'm glad I did. I had time to ponder on Rachel's death and on the book's epilogue. The more I think about Rachel, the more that I am saddened about her death. I guess, this what it really feels like to lose someone, especially when she lost all the will to live and fight her sickness. It kinda turned up some ugly emotions from me, too. Oftentimes, life can make no sense.

3 stars