John Green is a real bastard and I wish I could be more like him.

in Random Crap

Conversation with my husband:

Victor: Oh my God, I could hear you sobbing all the way on the other side of the house.  What’s wrong?

me:  This book.  It’s so.incredibly. sad.

Victor:  Seriously?  You’re crying over a book?

me:  It’s terrible and beautiful and perfect and I’m pretty sure I’m never going to stop crying.

Victor:  The Fault in Our Stars?  What the shit, Jenny?  It says it’s about terminal cancer patients in the very first sentence.  Why would you even read that?  You can’t watch Doctor Who without crying.

me:  No one with a soul can watch Doctor Who without occasionally crying.  And besides, it’s a teen book.  I thought it would be like Twilight, but with slightly less vampires.

Victor:  Seriously?  It’s just a book.  Calm down.  These people are all imaginary.

me:  AND THEY’RE MY FRIENDS.  ALL OF MY IMAGINARY FRIENDS ARE VERY SICK, VICTOR, AND I’D APPRECIATE IT IF YOU’D RESPECT THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION.

Victor:  You are so confusing.

Conclusion: Victor doesn’t understand how books work.

PS. There are no real spoilers in this post but God knows what the comment section will be like.  Enter at your own risk.

315 thoughts on “John Green is a real bastard and I wish I could be more like him.”

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  2. I’d say that pretty much sums up that book. Just read it last week and had all the feels.

    *hug*

  3. Made a bad habit of reading his books on the nook at work. Holding back tears while giving demonstrations. Same happened though while reading your book and I’d crack up for no reason in the middle of barnes & noble.

  4. Doctor Who is awesome, and yes anyone who watches it will laugh and cry and wonder why we have such crappy TV like SMASH over here…

    And I don’t know this book yet, but it has gotta be better than Twilight. Damn teen vampires, they just look hungry, not sexy….

  5. I haven’t been able to read this book because my library (which services about 140,000 citizens) has about a 6 month waiting list for the it! Same with Looking for Alaska so I guess I’ll just have to keep watching Hank and John on Youtube and never reading John’s books. infinite oh well sigh.

    Oh, via Hank’s channel I found this lady who cooks super good and I think you’d like her videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq7G-Q9ZwC0 (Contains swearing)

  6. Oh, Jenny. I feel you. I cried whilst reading The Fault in Our Stars. Who didn’t? And I cry so hard during Doctor Who. It’s perfectly normal. Or we’re all just crazy. Probably the latter.

  7. Oh GOD that book. It killed me the first time I read it and every time after. Victor doesn’t understand the feels that a good writer can give us. John Green is a delightful bastard.

  10. I totally get it. John Green is a delightful bastard who has simultaneously ruined my makeup on dozens of occasions and made me fall madly in love with him.

  12. They appreciated that you spent the little time they had left with them, I’m sure you brought sunshine and rainbows into their imaginarily tragic pseudo-existences. x
    (And thanks for the tip for another book to add to my “don’t read on public transport” list)

  14. I had tears rolling down my cheeks when watching “Angels take Manhattan”. . . .and I will quite regularly end up crying at books. . .in fact, I’m more likely to cry at a book than a TV Show or movie. . .

    Because I appear to be first person posting a comment. . . I just want to thank you for being you – I’ve been going through heartbreak/pain/anxiety/depression over the last two months and, when I am feeling particularly down; I will come onto your blog, realise that I’m not alone and I see the community that you have gathered around you and I get hope. . .you have helped me through my life being torn asunder. . .thank you, thank you, thank you!

  15. Gave this book to my 15-year-old for Christmas (HELLO! IT’S YA!) and she came downstairs the next day all weepy and said “Thanks Mom, for the most depressing Christmas ever. I loved the book. But still.” I keep eyeing it warily. I know I’ll succumb, but maybe just a few more Haven Kimmel or Laurie Notaro books first. Or a Jenny Lawson sequel. No pressure.

  16. I love John Green books. I did not, however, read that one yet.

    Have you read Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher? (Also not like Twilight)

  17. THANK YOU JESUS CHRIST. I sobbed on the plane home over that book and the flight attendant offered me free alcohol just to “stop scaring the other passengers.” And you’re right. If you have a soul, Doctor Who WILL make you cry.

  18. Dammit – in the time I took to write that – 12 other people beat me to it. . . .

  19. Terrible and beautiful and perfect. Those are the best and the worst books. Kind of like that scene of Galadriel when she imagines what she’d do if she was gonna take the One Ring. Beautiful and Perfect and Remorseless in the need for terrified adoration. For me, The Road and Never Let Me Go are on the list.

  20. A good YA book series on zombies is The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.

  21. Anyone who can finish a book and not be surprised that the real world still exists and that everyone went on living while they read truly has no soul.

  22. It’s sad to think that some people will never experience the beauty in crying with your imaginary friends when terrible things happen to them.
    I say Victor is just jealous of the attention you’re giving the characters in the book.
    Even that or he’s heartless.
    Do you want to be heartless, Victor? I didn’t think so.

  23. Well, I mean, everyone knows about John Green, so on one hand you should have known better. But on the other hand no one can help wanting to know if what everyone says is true. That said…
    *HUGS**COMFORTS*

  24. That book is amazing and totally deserving of a read and all of the tears and emotions that go with it! Some of my favorite book quotes are from that book.

  26. read a happy book next… or really confuse him and read one that makes you mad so mad you throw the book and yell at it….now i’m just hoping i m not the only one that has done that

  27. Had to quit listening to this audiobook in the car because I was a hazard on the road due to all the sobbing. TFiOS definitely leaves you with a book hangover.

  29. I just read this book last weekend! I cried like these were my best friends dying in front of me. I didn’t know what the damn book was about! I was just all like DFTBA and be awesome! Blobbity blah. Then BAM! Right in the feelings.

  30. I don’t know about that one but The Lovely Bones had me bawling uncontrollably. Even thinking about it makes me well up.

    I look books that ruin me emotionally; it’s kind of a masochistic thing, I think. It was amplified after becoming a mother.

  31. if it helps, you’ve made me cry. a lot. 🙂 but less in a dying-from-cancer kind of way, and more in a you-saved-my-life kind of way. so…thanks for that.

  32. John Green made me break my age-old rule of never, but NEVER, read books about sick and dying children.

    And I am so glad that he did, because this book is too important to miss. It’s a song about life and living, not a dirge for the dead.

    And yea, I cried when reading it, but never once felt like I was duped into mawkish sentimentality.

    FEEL ALL THE THINGS, JENNY. And pass the Kleenex.

  33. Apparently, Victor doesn’t understand how books work. Or Dr Who. Sometimes I don’t know what you see in that man.

  34. @David Eagle
    Looking for Alaska is a great book, but imo Paper Towns is better while still being the same general theme. Have yet to read and Abundance of Katherines though. TFIOS kicks all it’s asses though, hands down. The tears (and I’m not a cryer)

  35. “No one with a soul can watch Doctor Who without occasionally crying.”

    Even some Daleks will cry.

  36. You just explained every emotion I have when reading a book. Seriously, I always make myself the main character, and every other character becomes my best friends… I LIVE in those books… I’m sorry your imaginary friends had cancer and were really sick… I hate it when they die… Hope they didn’t die… Even though it’s about Terminal Cancer… I’m not helping either, am I…

  37. In 3rd grade I had to be sent to the school nurse because I couldn’t stop crying when Jack the brindle bulldog dies at the beginning of Banks of Plum Creek. Everyone laughed at me, and in high school some still knew me as that girl who sobbed over a book. All those people are of course dead inside.

    (YES, I read that to Hailey recently and even though I knew it was coming I had to stop in the middle to sob. JUST PUT HIM IN THE WAGON, PA! ~ Jenny)

  40. I once had to leave a restaurant because I was reading a sad book and started to cry and people were beggining to look alarmed. Since I was eating alone, I’m sure they assumed something tragic had just happened in my life… But alas, I’m not that interesting and ‘Memory Keeper’s Daughter’ is just a really sad book! I figured I would leave and save the concerned strangers the awkward decision of whether to approach the clearly troubled diner. You’re welcome, other patrons! Airplanes are another place where book-crying gets really awkward….

  41. I loved TIOS! I cried so much but I cried more during the happy parts. I highly recommend it to everyone. It has crossover appeal to both adults and teens.

  42. I laughed and cried with your book…but I didn’t feel the same way about The Fault In Our Stars. Your book was hilarious and the best part of all…it didn’t try to force-fed love to a reader. You were just being you.

  43. That Van Gogh episode makes me sob. Poor blind chicken monster (I am tearing up just thinking about it). Most of Doctor Who seems to make me cry at least a little, either in the sad way, the happy way, or the that-was-so-amazing way.

    The Fault in Our Stars was fantastic. I was crying my eyes out. The scene in the gas station parking lot keeps coming to me, and I cry/nearly start to cry at very inconvenient moments.

  44. I’ve never heard of this John guy, sounds like a bit of an ass hole writing cancer books for kids.
    I also thought that you wrote that the book title was “fault in our stairs”. And I couldn’t draw the connection between cancer and shoddy contractor work, which made him seem like a bigger asshole in my eyes.

  45. I bought that book months ago because I am addicted to their YouTube channels. Still waiting for a “strong” day to read it because I was forewarned. DFTBA

  48. Ok, if you can watch the Van Gogh episode of Doctor Who and not cry, you have no soul. Just sayin’…

  49. Don’t do that to me! I cry at Folger’s commercials, when I see a St. Jude’s commercial I’m a mess! I gravitate towards things that make me sad though.

  50. John Green is my daughter’s ALL TIME FAVORITE author. If you haven’t watched any of the Vlog Brothers videos (John and his brother) on youtube you don’t know what you’re missing! Keep the kleenex handy as she tells me a lot of his books give you feels.
    Victor clearly doesn’t understand books.

  51. How is it possible he has NEVER cried over a book?!? Is he dead inside? Illiterate, and only pretending to read? I don’t understand!
    PS I know several perfectly normal-ish people that have been known to cry a time or six while watching Who.

    (He’s more of a reference manual kind of guy, but in this defense? If he even walks by a tv playing “Field of Dreams” he’ll start tearing up. The man isn’t made of stone. ~Jenny)

  52. Wow. Ok, I will have to skip those for now. Don’t think I am up to it.

    Sorry Victor! One day, dude. One day. You will get it.

    Or you won’t and Jenny will have to check your vital signs to make sure you haven’t turned to stone.

    Eiher way!!! We’ll be here for you, man. Or stone. Again, which ever. Doesn’t matter.

  53. I get sad when I read biographies. Sometimes I want to skip the last part because I don’t want them to die. I felt this especially with the biographies of William Faulkner, Willem de Kooning, Dorothy Parker, and Anita Loos.

  54. In my house, it’s best to not open a new book unless the next few days are free. It takes time to bond with new friends.

    Poor Victor for not understanding how books work.

  55. Ohhh The Fault in Our Stars. I love John Green and that book is his masterpiece.

    I might have you beat on crazy crying though. I want to be an author and so I read up on the publishing news blogs and I read that TFiOS was getting a crazy amount of pre-orders on Amazon while JG was still WRITING it. Cut to months later, when it finally came out, I went back to its Amazon page and saw (at the time) 300 reviews, ALL FIVE STARS. I sobbed like a baby. I was like “Oh my god, he did it!” I would have caved under that kind of pressure. And then I read it and I cried even more. John Green deserves ALL the five stars.

  56. I loved Field of Dreams.

    I love my imaginary book-friends. And I cry at all sorts of things. (It gets worse as you get older, darlin’ just warning ya!)

  57. I cried so hard at the end of Trixie: A Big Little Life by Dean Koontz that my downstairs neighbor came up to check on me. An Anne Bishop book left me depressed for days. Diana Gabaldon has completely destroyed my expectations of love in real life. Books should really come with warning labels.

  58. My brother-in-law doesn’t get books either.
    My sister says she takes at least 3 books on every flight to ensure she has enough to occupy her.
    But she says her husband just sits and stares straight ahead for THE ENTIRE FLIGHT!
    He’s a terrific guy in every other aspect, but this flight behavior makes me wonder if he has android ancestry.

  59. Esmertina; I read that series so many times and if I came down the stairs when I was a pre teen crying, my mom would just say “did Jack die again?” And I would sniffle and nod, and she would hug me.

  60. My 12 year old had to write a short story for school. While he was supposed to be at the computer working on his story, I found him in a ball on the couch crying his eyes out…I asked him what was wrong, and he said, “my story is just. so. sad!” lol The story he was writing, made him cry as he was writing it!!

  61. I had to wait to read TFIOS until my boyfriend was at work because I knew if he heard my uncontrollable, ugly sobbing he’d make fun of me and/or shake his head in shame. They just don’t get it. Fictional characters are so much more than just “fictional”. A good author, to me, is one who makes their characters so real with just words on a page that when bad things happen to them, my heart hurts. When good things happen to them, I feel good. Is that pathetic? To some, apparently. But I think if you can’t appreciate fiction like that sometimes, maybe your life needs more imagination and emotion.

    That said, I hate John Green and everything he does because everything I’ve read of his has absolutely ruined my life and raised my standards for every book ever. I hate him. (I don’t hate him. I wish I was him.)

  66. I always save those books for when I need a good cry. Usually I have to go read them out in the living room because my sobs shake the bed and wake up my husband. I also ugly cry at Doctor Who, and certain movie previews, most of the past season of Downton Abbey, and about every other episode of any medical/hospital drama ever made, so there’s that. I’m kind of on the verge of tears at all times…I had to stop watching certain shows and movies because my husband just laughs at me when I cry, and then I start laughing while I’m crying, and then I get horrible headaches. And now my daughter does exactly the same thing. Normally when I cry, she is very concerned and comforts me, but when it’s something on the tv, she just points and laughs. I’d always hoped I’d have another tenderheart in the house to cry with me, but instead she takes after her father.

  67. John Green is amazing. Every single one of his books has made me laugh and cry uncontrollably. TFIOS is a masterpiece. Okay? Okay. DFTBA.

  69. Haven’t read The Fault In Our Stars yet (it’s on my to-do list) but I did read Looking For Alaska, and OH MY GOD, THAT BOOK BROKE MY HEART!

  71. I’ve never heard of the author or the book, but how in the hell do you deduce that a book about cancer will be like that fucking piece of shit Twilight with slightly less vampires???

    I think one of your taxidermied animals may have taken your brain. Or the part of your brain that says “DON’T READ A BOOK ABOUT PEOPLE DYING OF CANCER. IT’S NOT TWILIGHT OR ANYTHING LIKE TWILIGHT. NO BROODING, SPARKLY WHINY VAMPIRES HERE. PROCEED TO HUMOR SECTION FORTHWITH.”

    Now I do love books and I can be made to cry, laugh or even see the scene the author is describing if they are a good enough writer, but I refuse to read books about teenagers dying of cancer. It takes too much out of me.

    I do, also, occasionally cry during Doctor Who. If you don’t then you’re dead. You’re a zombie with no soul. Which also means you must be destroyed immediately, but that’s a whole other story.

    Honestly, and I NEVER thought I’d say this, I agree with Victor on this one. 😛

  74. When we were teenagers my sister and I went to the drive in (giving away how old I am) to watch “The Outsiders” when the guy died who I think was played by River Phoenix, we were both bawling our eyes out until my sister said between sobs, “And and he was so beautiful.”

  76. OMG I read that book, too, and it is soooo sad. That being said, DO NOT EVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES READ “KITE RUNNER”. TFIOS is sad, but Kite Runner will make you comatose level sad. I was seriously laid up in bed for days after finishing it.

  77. I gave that book to my roommate for Christmas and just read it a few days ago. John Green is transcendent – not too many writers can make you laugh through tears like that.

  80. I ADORE the Fault in Our Stars, my review is here http://www.darkmatterfanzine.com/dmf/fault-in-our-stars-by-john-green/ and my response to the Daily Mail accusing YA of being Sick Lit and exploitative is here http://www.darkmatterfanzine.com/dmf/fit-lit-or-sick-lit/

    I cried BUCKETS. I could. Not. Believe. It. when someone at uni pulled out the Fault in Our Stars to read in public. I mean, HOW COULD YOU READ THAT BOOK IN PUBLIC? It requires tissues and privacy to WEEP.

  81. i shouted like a lunatic at anyone who would listen while i was reading that book. my husband tried to take the book away from me when i shouted: “OMFG. the kids with cancer are at the anne frank house.” it wasn’t pretty. but i loved every single word of it anyone.

    i just started Looking for Alaska. I predict ugly crying.

  82. Yes, that’s a tear jerker, that one. I’m glad I read it in the comfort of my living room and not uncomfortably on public transit. Best to leave the child cancer victim books at home (not to be consumed in public).
    Although, I have been known to tear up reading Mo Williams’ books (knuffle bunny books)

  83. I have not read this book but will have to check it out.

    There are some books that always make me cry: HP 5, 6, 7. The Friday Night Knitting Club. I know there are others but they are not coming to me at the moment. A book that makes you cry is so cathartic. I love them.

    As for Doctor Who (??) some episodes always make me cry as well: Doctor 10 and Rose at Bad Wolf Bay, 10 regeneration, Vincent and the Doctor, Angels take Manhatten… Oh the feels!

  84. I cry all the time from books, movies, music and even tv commercials. I’m a giant sook. But how can you not be? Those stories are heart wrenching. I read slower towards the end of the book because I don’t want my friends to go away.
    See there are many of us with this problem. Show victor the comments and maybe he will understand.
    *hugs*

  85. You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel like you’ve lost a friend.

    I’m paraphrasing some famous quote from some famous dude that I saw the other day and could look up but I’m too lazy to. But its true!

  86. I just saw this Robert Pattison quote on Pinterest and it made me almost forgive him for perpetuating the sparkly vampire myth. ALMOST.

    ‘If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are. Date a girl who reads because you deserve it.’

    And imaginary people are more real than some real people, Victor.

  88. I cries several times while reading that book.

    It was a great book. Just a lot of sadness in it.

    I was surprised a youth fiction could make me cry… but it reallllly did.

  89. I completely agree. That is one of my favorite books and have read it way too many times. And I usually cry pretty close to the whole second half of it.

  90. I don’t know if I should read it. Reading Watership Down still makes me cry. In fact, every time I hear the song Bright Eyes I tear up a little. Still. After reading all the comments I know I will, so thanks in advance for the tears people.
    As for Doctor Who, my memories of watching it as a child are from behind a sofa cushion with my eyes shut. So while it has been known to induce tears my biggest pleasure is watching it get that same reaction from my children. Seeing my 11 year old diving for the door every time a Weeping Angel appears, and his steadfast refusal to re-watch the Empty Child brings joy to this loving mother’s heart.

  91. Oh my gosh, this is hilarious. I was a blubbering mess when I finally finished Gone With the Wind. That’s how I knew I had the right guy for me, God bless my hubby, he just put down the controller and gave me a big hug while I cried about fictional characters! Hahaha.

  92. All of his books do that to me. Looking for Alaska damn near killed me and then the fault in our stars made me ugly cry In bed. . . It was awful.

  93. It doesn’t help that I’m already reading Charlaine Harris, J.R.R. Tolkein, Amitava Ghosh and Ray Bradbury all together, when I really should be studying for “bank exams” and now you’ve added Green! Why? Because I love a book that makes me cry….

  94. I hate to admit this, but I am a 31 year old who is obsessed with this book! I read The Fault in Our Stars for the first time two years ago and have reread it no less than 10 times since. I teach 9th grade English, and after introducing it to one student, it has swept its way through the rest of the 14 years olds like a wild fire! We are all John Green-obsessed. I truly truly truly believe that it’s the BEST book I’ve ever read.

  95. same story except it was Harry Potter and Dumbledore just died. The hard cover is so huge I was sitting cross legged on the bed with the book in front of me. The pages are all wrinkled from my tears. I’ve also let the tears slip on the subway/streetcar.
    Watch Downton Abbey. I cried EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. more than once. For happy AND sad reasons.

  96. I just cried today when I read this book to my 3 yr old. I mean seriously, this book will make you cry if you don’t have kids (I totally did). It is practically impossible to read without crying. That is why it has been hidden on the big people bookcase and not with all the kids books. Maybe I will be able to make it through if it hits heavy rotation….here’s hoping. Damn kids and their curiosity.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_You_Forever

  97. Your book is the first non-children’s book I have read in decades. My daughter has a couple of his books. Now I might have to go steal one so she can give me the stink eye.

  98. I loved that book. I did not cry, but that is because I am a soulless monster. Like, I considered crying, but then decided I was too lazy to clean my glasses after said crying.
    Jen Lancaster recommended The Fault In Our Stars during her last book tour stop here. Right after she complimented Dallas women on their bravery in the face of Pageant hair, and our fondness for concealed weapons.

  99. I was just remarking that I almost never cry unless I am watching “The Doctor”, then I sob uncontrollably. I thought it was just me. I am so relieved it’s not.

  100. Does he not understand the FEELINGS within books?
    Then again it’s not just him…I remember being 10 years old, thrilled because my dad was home after 6 months overseas, and then a few hours later I read ‘Seven Little Australians’ and was weeping. Dad was so confused, he didn’t understand why I had to keep reading it.

  101. Loved that book – it was beautifully sad and fun, definitely worth at least a few tears

  102. I have watched Four Weddings And A Funeral approximately a hundred times and I STILL cry when Matthew delivers Gareth’s eulogy. Every. Single. Time. I think TFiOS would kill me, YA book or no. So I will not be reading it. Some sense of self-preservation is a good thing!!

  103. I have just found ‘Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ [Sorry guy on the flight from Florida who had to put up with both my hacking cough and uncontrollable fits of laughter, which immediately triggered more hacking coughs.] but if I needed any other proof that you might be my people, thinking fictional characters are your friends, is it.

  105. Remember those kids books, “Choose Your Own Adventure?” I propose all potentially sad books should have this option, so, if one was not up for C sadness, one could turn to page 49 for instance – in which all characters live happily ever after – I suppose they woke up from an unpleasant dream or something – that could work. By the way, totally not reading this book – I have considered myself forewarned!

  106. Have you read the YA Thirteen Reasons Why? That book was very painful to read despite being fiction. Thx for the suggestion.

  107. “Terrible and beautiful” is exactly how I described The Book Thief in my mother / daughter book club (while sobbing to the mortification of my 13 yo). Marcus Zusak’s make believe characters will haunt me forever but have also helped deepen my love of humanity. I so wish we could make your book our next selection, Jenny.

  108. Oh I totally know what you mean! I cry over books and movies and fall in love with the characters constantly!

    But to be totally honest, I can’t promise I won’t make any of my beloved characters suffer when I finally finish my book, because then there would be no plot! sigh!

  109. I just read this eschange to my husband who said “Like Roger from American Dad, I think you have different personas and I’m fairly certain one of them writes this blog.” 🙂

  110. Reading…you’re doing it right! We should totally be friends. For a funnie teen book about cancer, you should read Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. I’ve never laughed so hard or cried so hard at a book.

  111. Oh Jenny, that book had me weeping too! My husband does not read fiction….ever. He has no idea how invested I get in these people, how REAL they become. Im four books into the Outlander series now and keep shooting sideways glares at my Husband, thinking, God, why cant you just grow some red hair and start speaking with a Scotish accent!?! Is that really asking too much? Oh, and ah call me Sasenach.

  112. When I read, I will laugh, cry, comment, yell, curse, groan, giggle.. and every single time, hubby looks at me and says “what”.. and I’m just reading.. he rolls his eyes at me and says.. “I don’t understand how you can laugh or cry at a book..”. *sigh* some people just don’t get it. He’s more of a manual kind of guy too Jenny. But again, not heartless.. I’ve seen him tear up. The Time Traveler’s Wife. yep, he cried.

  114. I read TFIOS when it came out, and I started crying about halfway through the book. Didn’t stop until I’d finished. Admittedly that was at 2 am the next morning…. And I cry every time I re-read it, which is a lot because it’s an AWESOME book. DFTBA!

  117. I totally cry at the end of certain Doctor Who episodes. And, you’re right; Victor doesn’t know how books work. My husband knows enough to check on me, but if I’m crying and there’s a book in my hand, he just nods at me and goes on.

  118. My reaction to reading this post: “Sounds like a book I need to read!”

    My husband’s reaction to reading this post: “I think Victor and I should go out and get a beer together.”

    My husband is obviously as soulless as yours. Let’s go on a date and we can go romp through fields of gold while they instead go have a few beers and complain about our strange obsession with animals.

    In other news, we were driving back from Florida a few days ago and we passed a little store that had A YARD FULL OF METAL ANIMALS. My reaction? “Beyoncé!!” He actually TURNED THE CAR AROUND to go back before he realized that I was talking about giant metal chickens. Since it wasn’t our giant metal chicken-aversary yet, I instead bought us a metal skeleton dog. He has no name yet, but is FREAKING AWESOME. Would you consider this metal taxidermy?

  120. Reading it now and I get it, Jenny. It’s one of those books that you need to scream about from the rooftops. I thought the first two pages were witty so I was holding out hope that I wouldn’t be sobbing.

  121. Victor just doesn’t get it, all my good friends live in books!! I cry at Nicholas Sparks and people don’t die in his books usually, I am not sure I could handle a John Green book.

  122. Joules- that quote is by Rosemarie Uroquoco (sp?). Not RPatz. Sorry. :/

    I second whoever mentioned The Lovely Bones as a sob book. Even my husband, who doesn’t get emotional over books, refused to keep reading it because it was “so stupid- why would anyone write something that sad??”

  123. It makes me so happy that you love John Green! You should check his and his brother’s youtube channel, Vlogbrothers, if you haven’t already. It’s really great.

  124. I read that book while feeding my son at all hours of the night. Sobbing at 3 am is not pleasant, but I seriously stayed up after baby went to sleep just so I could read more.

  125. I just finished my first John Green book _ever_ (Looking for Alaska) and it made me so incredibly happy and incredibly sad, I was absolutely sure I would change my life around for ever and ever, but then I got distracted by another book. I’m scared to start TFiOS in fear of crying to death.

  126. When I was at home studying for the bar exam, my husband would come home for lunch and usually find me sobbing over someone who had “died” – and usually their deaths involved super great orchestral music. At first he thought it was cute, then he thought it was annoying, and finally, he disconnected the cable. And since we lived in Midland, I was pretty much screwed after that :).

  128. Love Young Adult Lit! John Green is one of the best in this genre. Have you read Paper Towns?

  129. “The Fault in Our Stars? What the shit, Jenny? It says it’s about terminal cancer patients in the very first sentence. Why would you even read that? You can’t watch Doctor Who without crying.”

    This is the reason why I can’t read The fault In Our Stars. Far too sad.

  130. I try not to read books of utter sadness, UNLESS there are vampires, or serial killers. I’d rather laugh a little, or shrink in horror, or something.

  134. I second Karla above – The Kite Runner turned me so inside out that, two years later, my heart still breaks at the mere thought of it. And I can’t bring myself to read another of Hosseini’s books because I don’t want to go through that again.

    TFiOS was fantastic – looking forward to reading more of Green’s books (with tissue at the ready).

  135. From a wonderful post: “Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

    If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.”

    Read the whole thing here — http://nonamerah.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/869/

  136. Every time I sell that book, I tell the customer to read it with a box of tissues. Mainly because I was pissed when I was reading it and I didn’t have any tissues. And I was in public.

  137. I cried just reading all of the comments on this post as people listed every single other book that’s made me cry. The only one missing is Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, which makes me laugh so hard I cry. Have you read that one yet? 😉

  138. Go read Will Grayson, Will Grayson. It will help you recover…. Same awesomeness without nearly as much angst.

  139. You are 100% accurate as usual. Victor *doesn’t* understand how books work.

    I haven’t read that book or Kite Runner, though… I’m a little scared to; I might end up clinically depressed. It’s already hard enough trying to stay balanced when my period comes. Maybe if I time it right… =/

  140. Imaginary people? While I am reading a book, these people are very real to me. I cry with them and for them.

    And Doctor Who often makes me cry. I sobbed when he left Rose behind. I sobbed when he had to send Donna home. I sobbed when the Angel took Rory and when Amy followed. In fact, the love story of Amy and Rory was full of tearful moments.

  141. I was just explaining this to my fiancé–but over characters in shows (Downton Abbey specifically), and how my life can be wrecked by the loss of one of my “special friends.”

  142. Sounds like a good one.
    While rewriting my first novel last week, I started crying. I was so happy! It was a good sign. And then my dog started barking at a squirrel right outside my window. Really??? Was that a sign too??? I hope that it was just a sign that my dog is really annoying sometimes…

  143. I love books that are sad but have a hard time reading them if it involves children dying or getting hurt. I’m the same way with movies and tv shows as well. Ever since I had my kids and since my oldest started having health issues of his own. So my ability to read something like that is nil since I’d end up having severe anxiety attacks if I did.

    And I’m having my own health issues so anything that involves serious illness & mortality may push me over a cliff.

    I did just mention the book to my husband(who works in publishing) and he said “yeah, remember the manuscript I had read last year that made me cry? That was it”. Ahh I do now. So yeah, there is at least one man out there who cries at book endings. I apparently married him.

  144. That book was so heartbreaking. I believe I used a lot of curse words when yelling at the friend that told me to read it. We now treat it like the movie in the ring you have to pass on the pain. It’s cruel but you got to do what you got to do.

  145. No book has ever made me cry as hard as this one! I had to watch an hour of cheerleading after I finished it just to stop sobbing.

  146. I always get lost in stories so I totally get your tears. I cried at Frankenweenie. Yup, the Tim Burton kinda sorta kids movie about a boy and his dog. I sobbed. In a theater full of parents and children. All of whom started looking around to see who was crying like a fool. My husband laughed at me until he realized that the crying wasn’t going to stop with just a few sniffles. Then he just looked alarmed. Especially afterwards when we were discussing the film and the sobbing started up again. Even now if I think about it too long I well up. The kicker?? Every time I see it in stores I want to buy it and watch it again because I loved every second of it. But I’m afraid of another all out crying jag…

  148. I just happened to finish this book yesterday and I had to stop a couple of times because I was crying so hard I couldn’t see to read…

  149. Truly wonderful to find you are a fan of John Green’s writing and he is a fan of yours. Honestly, both of you make your readers reexamine their feelings. I quoted your investigative computer HR work to my upper management husband and made him wonder what is hidden on his employees computers. I love John Green and his brother Hank. TFIOS is wonderfully rewarding. It was a monthly book club choice and loved by all.
    This is not about John Green, but is his brother Hank’s work. Do yourself a favor and check out The Lizzy Bennet Diaries on YouTube. I am addicted!

  150. One of my new favorite books! At first I didn’t want to read it because of the subject but am so happy I caved. I would also recommend Looking for Alaska by Green. Young adult literature has come so far since my adolescent days.

  151. Dear everyone in the comments who’s having a rough time right now: (Including the people who haven’t commented but are in that place):

    Consider yourselves hugged. Hang in there.

  152. Reading it right now for the second time. I picked it for my book club which is tonight. I can’t wait to see what my lady friends thought. Went out on a limb picking a YA book. I love everything that John Green writes. He his so smart.

  153. Did you ever read “Six Months to Live”? It was a book fair mainstay back when I was in junior high. It was so sad because the girl lost her best friend and chemo-buddy. She found out via TELEGRAM. So bizarre. And I think they made a sequel. I decided then and there to never read a teen cancer book again. I started reading about anorexia instead. “Mirrors Never Lie.

  154. I feel slightly sorry for Victor, not understanding about how good writing can make you sad or happy (depending on the book). But only slightly.

    Reading the comments, I’m getting titles for more books that I will have to read at some point. I think I have enough to keep me occupied for the next year or so.

  155. My best friend, who is now dead to me, told me to read that book. I cried the entire second half and kept sending her nasty emails for telling me read it in the first place. My husband thought I had lost my mind as I sobbed uncontrollably on the couch while attempting to eat dinner. Ugly. I feel ya!

  156. Love, love, love John Green! He’s fabulous!

    When his first book was published I happened to be on an ALA (American Library Association) book selection committee and received a galley copy before it was published. Could not put it down. It was so wonderful! When I went to the ALA Conference he was sitting in his publisher booth trying to give away free copies of his book, but as nobody had heard of him yet, he was looking a bit lonely and forlorn. I asked him to sign my galley copy, geekily gushed all over him and told him that within a few months, people would be standing in line for the honor of meeting him. His first novel won a major award that year and yes, indeed, people now stand in line to meet him!

  157. I am pretty sure that I am in love with you and Victor.

    Also, I am too scared to read Fault in Our Stars because I get overly emotionally engaged with the books I read and sometimes fall into a depressive funk for weeks after reading really sad books.

  160. Oh, Jenny, by saying exactly what I think sometimes you make me feel like I am in good company! I agree with EVERYTHING that you just said! Let me recommend “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” from John Green and David Levithan to make you happy again. It has a one of the best fictional characters in the world called “Tiny Cooper” who is described as follows: “Tiny Cooper is not the world’s gayest person, and he is not the world’s largest person, but I believe he may be the world’s largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world’s gayest person who is really, really large.” It is amazing! Also, let me also introduce you, if you don’t know him already, to Hank Green, John Green’s brother, who is one of the brilliant masterminds behind The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. The show is terrific and now I want to get both Green brother to be my BFFs.

  161. MY UNIVERSES HAVE ALIGNED.
    Thank God you’ve found John Green and, by extension, Nerdfighteria.
    Because Nerdfighteria is the other place for people who don’t quite…fit. And yet fit perfectly.

  162. Minority opinion: I NEVER read books about sick kids — my mom brain just can’t handle it. But it was on my daughter’s kindle and I started it accidentally and I loved it. I thought it was funny and smart and uplifting. Apparently if it *starts* with everyone doomed, I’m ok.

  164. I loooooooved this book! It is the most amazing book I have read in a really long time! (side note: It is also my favorite of all of John Green’s books, not all of which are nearly as sad)

  165. I’m with Victor. I don’t cry over books. But then again I avoid reading really sad stories. I would never even consider reading a book about cancer stricken children. I DID feel a sense of sadness at the end of “Message In A Bottle” (years and years ago), but I didn’t actually cry tears, though my eyes welled up at the end of the movie version…but maybe that’s because my hubby was bawling his eyes out! He cried at the end of Field Of Dreams too…something about his relationship with his own father in that one. He bawled like a baby at the end of “Titanic” too….such a sap.

  166. Since I am one of those benighted people who reads the END of a book first (forever scarred by “Old Yeller”!) –
    I truly appreciate the heads up that reading this book will not result in a marvelous feeling of ‘and they all lived happily ever after…’
    One must be prepared to enter the world of books with their curling arms of words that can catch and clutch the unwary reader.

  167. John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” had me sobbing my heart out, but that was before I had to give up crying so I have avoided his new book (and all other tear inducing novels).

    Glad to know I made a good choice…although maybe I will pick it up anyway and just try reading one page at a time so I don’t get too involved with the charac….ya, this isn’t a good plan, I can tell already. Guess I’ll stick to zombies and murder mysteries, and, of course, YOUR book … you know, the sweet stuff.

    Thanks for saving me!

  168. I also sobbed through at least half of TFIOS and had to hold off reading it when it first came out because a girl I knew in high school died (from brain cancer) the day TFIOS came out. Talk about all of the feels.

    Looking For Alaska will also make you cry, if you’re looking for another fabulous book. Also, Twilight is like the shittiest example of a “teen book” ever. It was actually written for suburban 30-something ladies and publishers decided to market it towards teens. There is so so so much FANTASTIC literature out there classified as Teen or YA and it totally sucks that Twilight gets lumped in with the fabulous stuff. Ask your librarian for recommendations – I’m sure they’d happily oblige.

  169. Doesn’t everyone become best friends with the characters they read/watch? And who doesn’t cry at Doctor Who? The point of a good book/movie/show is to escape from my problems into the world of someone else’s. In order to do that convincingly, the audience will feel a range of emotions and that includes crying. (Happy, sad, angry….all reasons to cry.) It’s an excellent story if it makes me both laugh and cry. I’m totally with you, Jenny!

  171. Oh god, that was a snotty teary-eyed experience over here. Loved it completely. What a great book, story, characters.

  172. My 18 year old gave me that book to read and I grounded her forever about halfway through. I was sobbing. SOBBING.

    God help me if George R.R. Martin ever kills off Arya Stark. I’ll never recover.

  173. I have to read it for my book group. I even had it out of the library once before, though, and couldn’t bring myself to read it.

    I really enjoyed John Green’s Paper Towns, which was much less weepy and very funny in parts.

    I also LOVE John Green’s online history review videos, Crash Course. His brother does science ones.

  175. You really aren’t an avid reader unless you get so involved with the lives of fictional characters you go into a massive depression when the book ends and sob over the weepy parts

  177. Haven’t read this particular book, but been there & done that way too many times, over both books and websites. The most embarrassing episode was a few years back in the Mass General ER, when I was having various issues about a month after an emergency appendectomy (I turned out to be fine and yes, people in their 40s can and do get appendicitis). I had just checked a copy of Eat Pray Love out of the library and took it with me, knowing just how tedious the ER can be, and while I’ve never been through most of the situations Elizabeth Gilbert has, it managed to hit me in a sensitive spot. Let’s just say it’s more than a little embarrassing to have one of the nurses give you the side-eye and suggest that perhaps you should see about booking an appointment with your psychiatrist ASAP, the insinuation being that you’re clearly mentally unstable. (In the “life’s little ironies” department, I had actually seen the shrink the day before; it was just the book getting to me.) Some people just don’t get it… *sigh*

  178. Uncontrollable sobbing…but worth the stuffy nose and puffy eyes. Thank God there’s wine at our book club, because we all needed it.

  179. That is almost an exact transcript of the conversation I had with my boyfriend after reading TFIOS, including the Doctor Who statement. You and John Green tweeting each other is making my life joyful.

  180. I finished *The Fault in our Starts* just LAST NIGHT! Two days before that I finished *Looking for Alaska.* I’m now on suicide watch–I’m 37 and 3/4 old–and yes, my 16 year old friends have all met tragic ends. Effffff.

  182. “No one with a soul can watch Doctor Who without occasionally crying.” My thoughts exactly. What kind of a monster can watch Rose get lost forever and see the Doctor break in pieces and think, “huh. I could go for a sandwich”??

  183. I completely understand..I foolishly listened to that book on audible and had to pull over because I was crying so hard.

  185. I simultaneously love and hate that book. And I just can’t figure out how a male author could so perfectly get into the head of a teen girl filled with all of her angst and pain and heartache. He’s good.

  187. Tell Victor to imagine a player on his favorite pro sports team.

    How would he feel if that player got AIDS and cancer and PMS and Vampires?

    And there was no more beer.

    That should put it all in perspective.

  188. I have cried at the ending of many books when it wasn’t a sad ending. i was crying because the book was over. Real life was back.

  189. Yup. You summed it up perfectly. I am terrified that they are making it in to a movie for so many reasons.

  191. I read that book in a single sitting, overnight, because I couldn’t put it down. I spent the following day occasionally sniffling like a fool every time I thought about it, and trying to explain to my coworkers that I would be fine… just needed to read something happy now.

  192. For three college semesters I read Holocaust literature — all nonfiction. For three semesters I sobbed, gut wrenching, snorking and honking, one wretched chapter at a time. Even the good stuff, the heroic stuff, is emotionally exhausting.

    And in the middle my sister died. Fucking cancer.

    Sometimes, I was grateful to cry through the books. To feel for everyone and not just for me. Not just for her. But to take in the all-encompassing grief and let it pour through me.

    I can’t read sad books right now. Maybe not for a while. But I’ll find one again and be right there with my sniffling, tissue-clenching, mascara-ruining sad-book sorority sisters. Cuz that shit IS life-affirming, damn it.

  195. Your post title is pretty much exactly what I thought when I read that book. I also made the mistake of reading the end of it in a room full of strangers (at least 50 other people). Suppressing the sobbing was almost impossible.

  196. I sobbed through so much of this. I should not have been surprised. But it was so worth it. Just so glad that I didn’t read this on the train like I was originally going to.

    (My fiance does not get crying over movies/books/shows, and starts to worry about me when I do so.)

  198. Great book – try the audiobook if you can’t get it at the library. It’s very well done.

  199. Doctor Who and John Green books make me cry, too. That is why you are my imaginary friend!

  200. It is very clear that Victor does not understand how books work.

    I haven’t read this yet, although it has been recommended to me several times.

  201. TFioS is one of the best and most heartbreaking books I’ve ever read. I felt a love/hate relationship with John Green after that for weeks.

    You should look into the This Star Won’t go Out charity Esther Earl’s (who inspired TFioS and its dedicated to) parents started, it’s lovely.

  202. This reminds me of that picture that’s been circling the web for a long while now. It says:

    “That moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize that everyone is just carrying on with their lives…

    as though you didn’t just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a paperback.”

    That’s a familiar feeling. We know how you feel.

  203. Yes, EXACTLY. I read that book in 24 hours, hampered only by having to go to work. When I finished, I just sat, crying and hugging the book to my chest. I love Hazel and Gus.

  204. I’ve read it twice and cried just as much the second time. Had to go out and buy a copy. It’s an amazing, perfect book, even if it is incredibly sad.

  205. i remember my daughter as a child, bringing the book “bridge to terabithia” to me and asking me if a book had ever made me cry. i knew she would always love books.

  206. I just read this page to my daughter, a huge consumer of teen novels (but NOT Twilight she tells me proudly!) She hasn’t read this book, but her bestie has.

    DD’s reaction to your post? “I love her.”

  207. I had to retreat to the bathtub, taking with me the world’s largest mimosa, in order to finish that book. Totally ruined my contacts, too.

  209. My daughter started me on John Green’s books. We read this together – spent the whole day sobbing on the couch. Such an awesome story, and an incredible writer.

  210. “If I had a dollar for every time I felt more emotion for a fictional character than people in real life, I could pay for the psychiatric help I obviously need.”

    My source, though not original, I suspect:

    For me, it is sometimes the well crafted TV commercial. I’m glad I don’t have a TV in the house anymore.

  211. SERIOUSLY!!! I was wailing last night, finishing this book. This author knows this story so intimately. I wear a heart on my sleeve-a tattoo in honor of James, a boy who died of cancer just shy of his 18th birthday. Wrote a little about it here: http://faithstudio.org/blog/2013/2/21/lent-1-a-sermon-for-lent-1c But one of James’ last quotes, as his body was filled with cancer, was “this is all bullshit.” His mother has written a book that’s being edited and it’s so important and it will be a treasure for so many. This writing was beautiful and heartbreaking and intimate. Now it’s time to read your book!

  213. OK, my computer got too excited and posted for me before I had gotten started on that comment. Ahem.

    HOLY BALLS. I never cry during books and I SOBBED FOR AN HOUR. From the time you figure out the big twist in the plot to the time it comes to pass (trying not to be a spoiler here), sobsobsob.

    Let it out. Ignore Victor (as per usual).

  215. I could have just died from grief at that book. And I’m REAL! So this bunch of fictional teens, one of them newly freakin’ BLIND but still fictional, might have killed a real person. That’s totally vampiric.

  218. Oh, man. I really want to read this now. Because I’m apparently a masochist. But I’ll have to wait until I live closer to my boyfriend because I don’t do well with books that make me cry.

    (No joke, one time I made my ex-boyfriend drive to my house at 2 am because I’d stayed up late to read a book and I was SO WORRIED the characters wouldn’t end up together and it was just So Sad. Except that it was a romance book, and by definition the characters have to end up together. Oh, and I’d read it before.)

  220. Hmmm another book I will reconsider picking up. I’m a huge sap and cry at commercials. This book sounds like it’ll send me into a tailspin of depression. Ok maybe not that deep, but I’ll be buying stock in Kleenex.. 🙁

  221. Sometimes you just NEED a good cry. It clears out the cobwebs. I need to find this book for the next time I need to do a little interior cleaning.

  223. Perhaps what is most disturbing about this post isn’t the crying at the book, but the fact you intentionally read a book BECAUSE you thought it would be like Twilight. 🙁 And here I thought we were soul mates.

  225. My husband doesn’t like Irish or Scottish music because “it’s all about death and dying and broken hearts”….
    He told a drunken Scottish woman this once, and she nodded sagely and said “Aye! Isn’t it wonderful?”
    He was poleaxed.
    I wanted to hug her.
    She & I went off singing into a room full of music, and he fled to the kitchen to help out.

  227. My point being that music and books are both cathartic. Those tears build up if we don’t get ’em out — so I like to get ’em out when it’s socially acceptable.
    Is it “Broadcast News” where the anchor makes herself cry on purpose every morning ??
    I’d rather have a book or song to keep me company instead of being alone like she was.

    Totally random, the last book that made me cry is “84 Charing Cross Road” by Helene Hanff. I must have read it a dozen times — and seen the Ann Bancroft movie — and I still get happily leaky.

  229. I just read that book this week for the first time as well. I’m still tearing up whenever I think about it. What an amazing, beautiful book. “As he read, she fell in love like you fall asleep – slowly at first, and then all at once” (from memory; quote may not be exact) Just… beautiful.

  232. I was bawling–downright BAWLING–during Doctor Who the other day, and my husband was attempting to be supportive but he obviously thought I was a freak. Stupid British, trying to rip out my soul.

  234. Men: never invest a moment’s thought in your woman’s emotions. They are not like your emotions. They are fashion accessories, worn on a whim, and enjoyed as a means of demonstrating superiority over other women (just like everything else in the universe). Just keep practicing the Blake Clark mantram: “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

    She’ll still think you’re an asshole, but at least you’ll be an asshole who isn’t bashing his head in utter futility against the brick wall that is trying to please her.

  235. I read that book in a day and a half, and cried as well. I get attached to the words in a book. Like your memoir pretty much made me laugh out loud a dozen times, and I loved how I connected with it. A reader ( a true reader) connects with the words on the page.

  237. i had this exact same conversation with my boyfriend as i was sobbing. i even told him he had no soul.

  239. want an amazing teen book that will make you laugh and cry and wonder why we read adult crap when there is stuff like this out there? read Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills. then start an ugly children brigade in your hometown.

  240. I have similar conversations with my husband when I’m reading online articles. I’ll be innocently searching articles about how cute cats are and inevitably come across a horrible one about some sociopath who microwaved a cat to death. Then at the end of the article there’s ‘more like this’ and the downward spiral begins. The first time this happened my husband was bewildered but supportive. The second and third time, not as much.

    Husband: What’s wrong?
    Me: Humans all deserve to die for being evil!
    Husband: You’re reading that article again, aren’t you? I TOLD you to just click away when you find those…
    Me: I CAN’T or the murderers win 🙁
    Husband: …Right then, I’ll get the chocolate…

    On a lighter note I still get a kick out of freaking people out when I startle them by laughing aloud at something funny I just read. It’s like people expect book reading to be such a somber, quiet, emotionless thing when it’s anything but.

  241. That book is one of the most honest books I have ever read about being inflicted with cancer – and it’s a work of fiction. If you haven’t read it, then by Glob go out and read it.

  242. Poor Victor.

    For weeks my entire review of TFIOS was “Dear John Green, Fuck you. You made me like your characters and I can’t even. “

  244. Oh my word yes, this book was so terribly, terribly sad and yet so terribly, terribly good!

  246. Maybe you should Start a book club Jenny 🙂
    Though I generally prefer to read books that make me laugh like a lunatic in public rather than cry
    because I hate crying
    I have read books that have made me cry, certain songs have same effect for me too. Most men in my experience do not get it. First time I bawled to a song my ex was just like stop listening to it why would you do that. haha
    Some times the book, music, movie is worth the feels good or bad

  247. If you don’t occasionally tear-up during Doctor Who, then I don’t want to know you. I made the mistake of picking up P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern right before bed recently, and stayed up all night reading, and sobbing.

  248. i think theres something wrong with me – this book made me laugh my ass off. Or at least once i got past the cancer part. i thought that was kind of the point the characters were trying to get across: “we might be dieing but WE’RE NOT DEAD YET” i mean the way they utilized the time they had left with each other and their parents i LOVED them all, and i found they’re demeanor and outlook hilarious!!. They kind of tell you how to feel about them from start to finish “you loved him?” “yes” “and even though he’s dead it was still worth it?” “yes” “now you know how we feel” John Green does it right with the emotional precision. you knew you were going to lose the characters from the beginning – STILL WORTH IT!

    watch out for the movie coming out soon!!

  249. I loved that book so hard that I finished it and immediately went from the last page to the first page and read it again. I bawled. Often and good.

  254. I would never knowingly pick up a book that’s going to make me cry – I am way too sensitive as it is. I always used to forget that when I was in my classics stage and I read a new Thomas Hardy book. I would start out all optimistic and then find myself sobbing at the fate of a completely ostracized couple who had had (whisper) sex before marriage, and watch the disaster of a story unfold as their pre-teen killed his four little siblings before hanging himself.

    I wanted to stab myself in the eye.

  255. I’ve gotten super pissed off at books. I would kill Anita Blake if I could crawl into the book. Let her die a slow, horrible, painful death. And I wouldn’t even feel guilty afterwards. In fact, God would probably high five me when it was my turn to die.

    I’ve fallen in love. Adrian Ivashkov is my book boyfriend and I’m already getting hives at the thought that he won’t be in my life some day. I’m anticipating the loss of new Adrian adventures like he’s got a terminal illness and I will feel the loss as if he’s died. I’m in pre-mourning over it.

    I’ve sobbed. Fuck you, “To Kill a Mockingbird” and” Old Yeller.” How DARE you ruin my childhood?!?

    The important thing is that we FEEL. Victor doesn’t want to be married to the woman who doesn’t lose it over Doctor Who. You’re not a Cyberman.

    I started to mention Field of Dreams and then realized you covered that. So point made. Men can talk shit, but Kevin Costner gets them every time.

  256. My husband acted the same way as Victor while I read TFIOS so I made him read it too. Then he reacted the same way as you and I (and anyone with a soul) when we read it.

  257. That book IS incredibly sad and the characters truly do become your friends! I sympathize with you!

  259. What the hell is wrong with crying at a book? I mean, come on, Where the Red Fern Grows? Harry Potter? Green Mile? People die and we cry. WHO CARES THAT IT WAS ALL IN OUR HEAD, why should that mean it wasn’t real?

    (Holla, Dumbledore.)

    Wonder if I will be able to find time to read it before the movie comes out.

  260. if you think that’s said, try Jenny Downham’s Before I Die- glorious but I cired like a bubba

  261. Everyone should cry watching Doctor Who. Even my boyfriend will get tears watching it. It’s an emotional show.

  262. I FEEL YOUR PAIN.

    And if you want to induce some more book-sobbing, try Elizabeth Wein’s AMAZING Code Name Verity. Spies, friends, planes, tears.

  263. After you read the book and has the huge cry; listen to the audiobook. Additional sob-fest!! John Green reads it and manages to make you forget he’s reading as young female character for much of it!

    Also; Dr. Who is made for those fist-pumping moments as well as those heart-wrenching ones. I think if you’re not crying/laughing/cheering while watching you’re doing it wrong! 😉

  264. I preordered this book for my daugher, forgot about it. When it came out, I put it with MY books, and picked it up trying to figure out why I had bought it. Fast forward a bit, and my husband finds me sitting on my bedroom floor sobbing over this book.

    I wouldn’t have picked it up for myself – I cry at Hallmark commercials. But its an AWESOME book. My daughter was in a snit at me for a while for “hiding” it from her, however.

  265. So weird… I just finished the book and then decided to check in on your blog. I loved it. It is smart sad. Books that are just sad and therefore think they are important annoy me. But this one is sad and totally worth it for the ideas. Others I would put in that category are The Book Thief (also coincidentally supposedly for adolescents) and The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

  266. OH MY GOD! Victor DOESN’T get how books work! I don’t even understand what he didn’t understand about “a book made me cry.”

  267. Oh my Lord and Taylor, I loved TFiOS and I too had the chest heaving sobs. My youngest was only a few months old at the time and I damn near drenched poor boy while I clutched him to me.

  268. Oh God, The Fault in Our Stars made me feel ALL the feels. Laughing out loud, and reading bits to my friends and gut-wrenching sobbing and ugly crying. I’m so upset that the Norwegian title has been changed to Fuck Destiny, basically, meaning that I suspect quite a few parents may have reservations about buying it for their kids, and some school libraries may be worried about displaying it. I don’t entirely see why they needed to put swearing in the title, but I’m not a translator or publisher, so what do I know?

    Your post pretty much sums up my conversations with my husband about books, or the Lizzie Bennet Diaries or occasionally even movies. He doesn’t really see why I get so worked up about fictional characters. Yet we are still together.

  270. My cousin messages me the other night telling me she couldn’t stop sobbing, which concerned me since she suffers from depression and she doesn’t usually tell me when she’s crying. Her next message was “it’s all your fault. You and your stupid John Green book!” I had given her the book months ago. Guess she finally got around to reading it. I regret nothing!

  272. I struggle to fight the tears when I watch vet shows. Especially when the animals die. They’re the worst.

    Books to really get the sobs going;
    The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein *seriously, good luck getting the lump out of your throat
    Zamba, by Ralph Helfer
    Modoc, by Ralph Helfer
    The Bronze Horseman, by Paullina Simons

  274. (hangs head In shame). I haven’t ever watched and episode of Doctor Who but I have a really good reason. I went to England and my friend brought me to and exhibit and it was all creepy and scary and things popped out at you and I have PTSD and I almost peed my pants and cried in public! So it’s her fault not mine.

    My partner doesn’t understand books either or why I insisted on standing in line at midnight ever time a new Harry Potter book came out and then stayed up the whole night reading it. She also thought I had lost my mind when I threw the last book of the Hunger Games across the house and every swear word I knew came flying out of my mouth when a certain character died!

    When the boy I nannied for before I got sick was reading the Harry Potter books someone spoiled Dumbldore for him and he was dying for me to confirm it for him and my response was I will neither confirm nor deny that this statement is true… Drove him crazy. He also hated that I would not tell him if Snape was bad or good. I told him he had to figure it out for himself just like the rest of us. I would be happy to discuss his ideas about it but I would not tell him one of the most important parts of the book. It’s kind of crazy for about two years the best person I had to have a conversation with was a 8 year old and I swear he came up with the best discussions! I had to go back and reread some of the books just so I could answer his questions lol.

    I have one friend who will randomly call me and say OMG so and so died I have gotten to the point of asking her if this is a real person or someone from one in her book. I do the same thing to her she’s usually a book ahead of me though so I’m usually prepared for the death which is good for me I don’t like surprise deaths in random books had she done it to me in the Harry Potter series I would have killed her.

    No one I could handle a book about kids with cancer I’d be a mess!

    I can’t read much right now due to being sick it effects my eyes so I’ve been listening to audio books and downloaded IT because the movie terrified me… Yeah I forgot that Golden rule that the Book is always better aka scarier in this case than the movie… And since I spend so much time in bed in and out of sleep and twilight sleep while listening it made for some interesting terrifying dreams I can only imagine what a book about kids with cancer would do to me!!

    Btw I cried like a baby during parts of the HP books and a few others. My girlfriend doesn’t get it either.

  276. This just happened to me last week. I came to work and everyone’s all, “How are you?” And I’m like, “Great, except that one of my friends just got caught in a terrible scandal.”

    And then I remembered that no one else was reading the same book I was. Their loss.

  277. I read that book on vaca in Mexico. Imagine how confused my husband was when he heard me in the bathroom with explosive diarrhea whilst bawling my eyes out on the toilet.

  278. OMG! that book! took my heart and crushed it with its perfect well-written fists. I don’t know if I hated him for writing it or loving him for the same thing.

  279. I jsut finished reading this again myself and it is a lovely book! I want to know these kids! I cried while I laughed!

  280. Esmertina-
    I used to teach developmentally disabled adults, and my assistant and I decided to read them the Little House series. Cut to the two of us sobbing in the hallway because Jack the dog died (and we didn’t want to scare the class)! To top it all off, our boss thought we were crying because our STUDENT named Jack died. It was so embarrassing to explain it all…..

  281. OH man. I just watched the Dr. Who episode with Van Gogh, and I was bawling my eyes out. Brian came home and was all, “Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

  282. I finished the end of this book in the back of a classroom at a middle school. (I work there, I’m not a creeper) The middle schoolers mocked me as I sobbed. That book killed my soul!!! You’re pretty spot on about the Doctor too!

  283. I made the mistake of reading TFIOS at the bookstore. So, so many tears. (I mean, DUH, but I thought I could hold it together…)

    A few years ago, my mother gave me a book for Christmas – The Art of Racing in the Rain. Normally she’s awesome at picking books, but this was probably the least thoughtful book purchase she has ever made – I guess it was a “staff recommended” book at the bookstore, so she’d grabbed it without giving it much thought. It’s told from the POV of a man’s old, dying dog. Sad, obviously, but sometimes sad is okay right? …but at the time, it was only four months since we had to put down the dog we’d had since I was a kid. I was sobbing within 10 pages of that damn book.

  285. I knew I loved you, the fact that you liked and cried over tfios just cements everything…..I agree with another post, just as I cry when reading books, I often burst into laughter as I listened to you reading your book….emotion is always welcome and good!!!

  286. I love the friends I meet in books more than most people I know in reality.
    Gosh, you people are wonderful. Can we all get together and sit in a circle and read? (While passing the vodka, of course).

  287. After reading this post I immediately purchased the book and then stayed up until 4am finishing it. Then I read it again the next day. Thank you for introducing me to the beautiful mind that is John Green. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go recover from losing my best imaginary friend two nights in a row.

  289. My God, this comment section is like finding my people. That book was fabulous. And anyone who doesn’t cry at Dr. Who has no soul. I’ve been known to talk about certain episodes with friends weeks after watching them and start to well up out of nowhere. So sorry, such a mush.

  293. That book is just perfection( if I ignore the fact of their ages) I read it like in 4 hours. At some point I had to put it down, take a deep breath and then keep reading.

  294. I now have a book list for the next year, thanks to comments on this thread. I’ve cried at books my whole life, especially animal books like Black Beauty, or “Beautiful Joe” by Marshall Saunders and “Bristle Face” by Zachary Ball. One wonderful book that was not mentioned yet is “Oh My Stars” by Lorna Landvik.
    Now I really have to figure out how to see Doctor Who, with no TV.

  295. Jenny, you are hilarious! I am still chuckling over you and your imaginary friends (I mean who doesn’t dive into the world of the book their reading?!) I think your relationship with Victor is amazing!

  296. Oy, the sad with that book! At one point I actually though “I know! I’ll stop reading now that way NO ONE HAS TO DIE!” Didn’t work.

  297. I have a love/hate relationship with books that make my cry. Not just tear up but cry for real with snot and everything. For Whom the Bell Tools? Cold Mountain? The Wizard of Oz? I mean, Come On!!!!

    I don’t trust people who don’t cry when reading sad books. Or while watching Dr. Who.

  299. I didn’t cry when I read TFiOS, but that’s only because I’ve had lots of practice-starting with The Summer of My German Soldier when I was 12. Snotty, sloppy, heaving, scary crying.

  300. My book club went through a series of sad tales, Green being one of them. Thankfully we are now on to your book. I went from tissues to peeing my pants with laughter. Teen books are way underrated. Try the Book Thief if you want to cry more.

  301. Bloggess – I just spent Spring Break feeding both sides of my psychosis – one with your wonderful book (you are welcome for the help in getting paperback to #5 that was all me and sorry I am too cheap to buy the hardcover) and reading the Fault in Our Stars. I laid in the sun in San Diego and laughed and possibly farted out loud at your book and then came back home to Texas and bawled my eyes out at Fault in Our Stars. Loved them both!

  302. Been out of town and catching up with posts. There are people who DON’T cry during Doctor Who? (Ok, so my boyfriend doesn’t.) And all the people in my books are my friends. I hate when the books are over because I don’t know what’s happening to them anymore.

  303. My daughter gave me this book to read and has handed it to me 3 times a day trying to force it on me. Now I might just be curious enough to give it a read.

  304. I see two other people have mentioned it, but I will also mention The Art of Racing in the Rain. It is an EXCELLENT book and very well written, but my God, I was SOBBING during the last 20 page, to the point that MY husband came in and asked what was wrong. And then, he said, “OMG, it’s JUST a BOOK.”

    -_-

    Yeah.

  305. “The Fault in Our Stars” was amazing! I stayed up late to finish it after my husband had gone to bed, but my wailing woke him up =/

  307. Okay, coming back to this because I have now read TFIOS since I last read this post. And now I am full of SO MANY FEELS!

  308. Finished this book all in one sitting. Cried so hard, my boyfriend asked me who died. Great way to start Spring Break, right?

    Regardless of all the tears it causes, read it, it’s so worthwhile and wonderful.

  310. I can’t tell you how many times my husband has come into the room, visibly alarmed by my crying, and the only explanation I have for it is “TV is being saaaaaaaaad.”

  311. When I give people TFIOS to read I make it a bundle.
    The fault in our stars and then Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. So you have tragically sad and great and then hilariously funny and great. It’s perfect. By the time you finish both you’re on the normal side.

  312. So… I read Fault in Our Stars on an airplane. Let me tell you that was embarrassing as anything ever. Victor totally doesn’t get it.

  313. Oh, please tell me that you’ve read The Book Thief, by Markus Zuzak! It is another book that is so very smart, and funny, and touching, and unbelievably sad. The first chapter freaked me out a little (Wait, is this book narrated by Death? Not a good sign) but I kept finding these incredible quotes and lines, and it sucked me in and broke my heart and burned it to ashes… And I cried like a baby, and loved it, and told everyone to read it, and read it over and over again. I still can’t bring myself to watch the movie, because what if they ruined it?

    Anyway, loved TFIOS, and I weep openly at Doctor Who, which seems to be all the permission my two teen and almost
    teen boys need to cry, too. I can’t get them to read either Book Thief or TFIOS, though. They don’t know what they’re missing.

  314. “Someone should tell Jesus,” I said. “I mean, it’s gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart.”

  315. I loved that book! Cried my eyes out and sent my brother a series of mean text messages for recommending it to me. It still makes me sad and I probably read it about the time this post was written.

    Some other amazing tear jerkers: The Art of Racing in the Rain (I know it’s already been mentioned a couple times but seriously everyone should read it, it’s sooo good), The Pact by Jodi Picoult (also a “teen” book), And The Boy and The Dog Are Sleeping.

    And Dr. Who DEFINITELY makes me cry.

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