“That’s what fiction is for. It’s for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth.” - Tim O’brien, The Things They Carried

Now that I finished TFiOS, I am embarrassed to admit that I was so reluctant to begin it.
I avoided immediately reading after purchasing it, because… Well, I actually don’t know.
I love learning, but knowing is difficult.
Ignorance is bliss, right?
Understanding that “the world is not a wish-granting factory,” makes me not want to know.
I didn’t want to know about cancer, and how it consumes the body it conquers.
I didn’t want to accept that decease thrives in humanity.
That we are all in debt with time, because life is borrowed.
That death, pitiless, claims even the most genuine loves.

Tim O’brien taught me that fiction tells truths better than truth itself. John Green proved it.
Gosh, am I grateful for fiction.
Along with Hazel Grace, I fell in love with Augustus Waters. Slowly, then all at once.
Like Augustus, I love Hazel because she observes life.
With this fictional novel, that broke my heart (which is still attempting to recover), I learned valuable universal truths. (Oh, the irony.)
I hope you read this masterpiece, and discover life’s darkest depths and the infinities within infinities.
This is not Romeo & Juliet meets Cancer. It is life. Raw, beautiful, tragic life.

Mr. Green,
It was an honor staying up late, reading and turning each page with bittersweet sentiment, and knowing.
Your writing evoked so many emotions. Your characters so painfully real, that I actually fell in love with them.
I wanted to hold Augustus’ hand and make him MY boyfriend (selfish, I know).
I wanted to cry with Hazel and Isaac.
I wanted to play blind video games with them.
These characters you created, with wisdom beyond their years and love powerful enough to exceed death sentences, will live in my memory eternally.
Thank you, John Green, for allowing me to know in a way so beautiful that I didn’t hate it.