I've spent days pondering what to rate this book. I want to give it five stars because it is impeccably written... and it's touching, and it's thought-felt. It's a masterpiece, it truly is. 
 I imagine studying this in school and I think I could easily write an essay about it. There are so many elements to this story that need to be noticed and felt and appreciated. So many things that I think are probably overlooked during a casual reading but they are important. 
 This story IS important. 
 But with that all being said, as a casual sit down piece, I couldn't LOVE it. 
 There is so much about this story that is just really devastating and real, and raw.... (view spoiler)[The entire second half of this book really paints a dark picture of a cancer sufferer's death. There is no amount of love and happiness that can make me forget what I experienced in those last hundred pages or so. I'm not so naive to think that in a romantic story involving death that the death needs to be romanticized...That is the path of least resistance and the way most authors go. I praise John Green for having the guts to show the truth and take a different path, I really do. Because there is nothing romantic about death. It is rough, it is cold, it is harsh, and it hurts like hell for those who are left behind. 
 But I didn't like how reading these truths made ME feel. 
 So in the end, even though this book is perfect and amazing and deserves 5 stars, I can't LOVE it. I probably won't read it again... But I do appreciate it. And it will never leave my heart or my mind. This story sticks with you. Sticks right to your soul and after reading it, whether you've ever been touched by cancer or not, you will never be the same. (hide spoiler)]