I’m often glad that I get library books solely by reserving them online. I get an email and go pick up the book off the reserves shelf, and now that check out is self serve, I don’t even need to interact with a human! I really should tip the librarians with how often I take advantage of this brilliant system that allows me to check out whatever I want without anyone seeing what it is. It’s silly, yes, but kind of nice, other people not seeing. I mean, this one has TEEN FIC brazenly stamped on its spine, and I’m a 30-something-year-old woman. And a woman who thinks that while reading Harry Potter is all well and good, adults should read an ADULT book now and then, too. Hunger Games doesn’t count. Yes, I’ve read Hunger Games, but many adult books in addition.
I really liked this teen fiction. It was simplistic and a bit cutesy, the characters way too self important and naive and idealistic and worried about being cool. Wait, that’s how teenagers are EXACTLY! Really, brilliantly realistic in that regard. And the story is far from light. Main characters Hazel and Augustus meet at a kids’ cancer support group. She’s on oxygen, given temporary reprieve from lung tumor growth thanks to a new drug, and his cancer took his leg before being banished. These kids are far wiser than their years, and Hazel’s point of view about death and dying is poignant and powerful. For instance, every cancer kid who dies is remembered the same way: as the brave kid who fought to the end and will live forever in the memories of his loved ones. No, says Hazel. If you were an asshole, they should remember you as one. No one should have their entire lives and personalities wiped away by the method of their (untimely) death.
As I said, I liked it; as a teenager, I likely would have passionately loved it. I didn’t love crying in front of strangers as I read it in a waiting room, but what are you going to do?
Rating: 4 out of 5
I need a little dose of silly genre fiction sometimes. The description of this book?
I finished, and it was page-turning fun, just the kind of silly yet absorbing distraction I needed at the time. And let me get it out of the way: They do. You know. It. Woo.
Everyday girl (a.k.a. the reader’s version of her teenage self) falls in love with gorgeous, intelligent, sweet and commited vampire. 
Not to sound even more judgmental and snobbish than I usually am (see above tangent), but I am one of those people who deplore the state of American readers. God bless Harry Potter. I read the first book and love the movies, but if all you’ve read in the past year is Harry, the Golden Compass and Twilight, I’m probably going to downgrade you as reader. Not as a person, take note. But only as a reader. That said, the overwhelming success of the Twilight series — especially among ADULTS — was offputting. (I mean, come on. Even Oprah puts non-young-adult books on her list. You’d think women would read “
Sometimes, an adult gets certain childhood cravings that simply can’t be ignored: hunger for a peanut butter and banana sandwich, the urge to give your significant other a wet willy or the comfort of curling up with your old, ratty teddy bear. Mossflower, to me, is that teddy bear.
