This Is A Book + Movie Review, Okay? Okay.

It's Casual Friday once again, which means another break from the usual fashion and style posts!

I was never the biggest fan of "The Fault In Our Stars" novel. In fact, to be honest, I quite hated it. What fueled my dislike for it even more was all the hype it was getting and all the ridiculous tweets and comments that I've been reading about it online.

Let me give you an example. As I was browsing through my Twitter timeline, I came across this tweet:

"TFIOS is such an awesome book! A very UNIQUE love story because the character has cancer."

First of all, let me just say that the story of "The Fault In Our Stars" is far from unique. In fact, it's downright typical and expected. And as far as love stories with characters suffering from cancers go, uh . . . "A Walk To Remember", anyone?? Like I said, it's far from unique.

Another reason why I disliked the book so much is because, frankly, I've been reading novels since I was a little kid, and suffice it to say that I have read countless books with stories of all kinds, and most of them are adult books (I don't mean books with sexual topics, I just mean books that are meant for older readers). I've also wanted to become a writer for as long as I can remember, and I finished writing my first full-length novel at the age of ten. I don't mean to brag, but I consider myself a VERY good writer. That's why when I read books, I want them to inspire me, and whenever I feel like I could have written a much better novel than the actual author, then I end up hating the book. In my opinion, "The Fault In Our Stars" was nothing extraordinary as far as writing goes. The characters themselves failed to captivate me, and I didn't find Augustus Waters as giggle-inducing as, say, Patch from the "Hush, Hush" book series.

However, despite my negative feelings about the book, I resolved to keep an open mind when it came to the movie adaptation.

I was pleasantly surprised because in my opinion, this is one of the rare cases in which the movie was much, much better than the book! Oh, how I wish that this happened with The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and The Host, two of my favorite novels of all time which ended up getting extremely sucky film adaptations.

The story of "The Fault In Our Stars" captivated me much more on the big screen, which is strange because I consider myself more of a book-lover than a movie-lover. I just found myself falling in love with Augustus Waters in the movie in the same way I fall asleep -- slowly at first, and then all at once.

I also applaud Shailene Woodley for her performance in this film because she actually made Hazel Grace a much more likeable character (I found her very annoying in the book).

Did I like the movie? Yes. Very much so.

I know most of you are going to disagree with me on this and that's okay. We're all entitled to our opinions. But if you haven't read the book, then I suggest you just don't. Go watch the film instead!

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