Stephen King could take a page from John Green

 Stephen King is one of my favourite authors and until recently, the only author I've read on a regular basis (excluding of course, my yearly refreshment course on Harry Potter)

If you don't know of him, please politely climb back down into that hole you've been living in.

I've noticed a trend in my last ~10 years of reading his books. He always writes about writers. For instance:

1978: 'Salem's Lot

1987: Misery
1990 Secret Window, Secret Garden

1997: Desperation

1998 The Dark Half

1998: Bag of Bones

2005: The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

2006: Lisey's Story

 

I recently was reminded of this trend as I watched the "horror" flick on television based on the story Bag of Bones. The fact that he often writes about a male author that often shadows his life leads me to believe that he is writing less fiction than we may think. This doesn't mean I believe in his world of aliens and ghosts.. but something surely is amiss with him. In more recent years his writing has become, for lack of a better word for is, BORING. Likely due to the medication he's been prescribed. (Lisey's Story is the one book that I own and still have not read it cover to cover)

Speaking of reading, a book I recently picked off the shelves at a local Chapters is "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green. 

I felt a little creative today so I doodled my own version of the cover. Except mine actually has a lovely yellow sticker on the front that says "signed copy". 

Let me preface my review by the fact that it is categorized as teen fiction in the bookstore. 

That doesn't really apply to anything, I was just shocked at the level of vocabulary in a "teen fiction" so much that I am feeling I should especially dot my t's and cross my i's while writing about it. (Scratch that. Reverse it.)

The author himself if quite unique. He's part of the vlogbrothers (look them up on youTube), leader of nerdfightaria (google this) and will always remind you to DFTBA (don't forget to be awesome). Look these terms up if you're interested in becoming a nerdfighter, donate to a great charity (they always have something going) or purchase neat swag. He's also the author of Looking for Alaska, the book I will probably read next.

I am going to reread this book soon, and this time look up each word that I don't recognize. For instance, hamartia. This is one of the words that particularily stuck in my mind. It means:

(Literary & Literary Critical Terms)  the flaw in character which leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy

 I won't spoil the story, but the basic plot follows a 16 year old girl, Hazel, who has cancer. But this isn't really a cancer book. It's a romance, a tragedy, and a comedy. I haven't laughed and cried so much in a single weekend in a long time. 

For those of you who might not want to purchase the book, I'll be happy to lend you mine. 

Thanks to Sam who awkwardly did homework on the opposite side of the room and tolerated my sudden mood swings while reading this book!