Green’s signature style shines: His carefully structured dialogue and razor-sharp characters brim with genuine intellect, humor and desire. From their trip to Amsterdam to meet the reclusive Van Houten to their hilariously flirty repartee, readers will swoon on nearly every page. The two become connected at the hip, and what follows is a smartly crafted intellectual explosion of a romance. He agrees to read the Van Houten and she agrees to read his-based on his favorite bloodbath-filled video game. She’s smart, snarky and 16 she goes to community college and jokingly calls Peter Van Houten, the author of her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, her only friend besides her parents. He’s a gorgeous, confident, intelligent amputee who always loses video games because he tries to save everyone. Sparks fly when Hazel Grace Lancaster spies Augustus “Gus” Waters checking her out across the room in a group-therapy session for teens living with cancer. She’s fighting the brown fluid in her lungs caused by tumors. He’s in remission from the osteosarcoma that took one of his legs. (An interactive, multimedia electronic version is scheduled to release simultaneously.) The result leaves readers wondering what really takes place-even if Frank ever existed-and, through its narrative reticence, speaks volumes to the ineffable nature of both mental illness and intimate relationships. That’s where the work’s literally graphic nature-oversized and teeming with photo collages of significant objects and moments-turns this familiar plot on its ear, forcing readers to infer reality from the often caption-less, seldom contextualized images. But rippling beneath the surface of this star-crossed love story lurks an undercurrent of madness, as Glory starts infusing her performances of classic concerti with the basic “Chopsticks” theme and soon finds she can’t stop. Glory’s overprotective father disapproves, causing both teens untold misery as Glory’s torn from Frank to tour Europe, and Frank eventually gets expelled from private school. The plot appears simple: Gloria “Glory” Fleming, a child prodigy on the piano, falls for Francisco “Frank” Mendoza, the boy next door. In their first collaboration, the wildly inventive duo of Anthony ( The Convalescent, 2009) and Corral, designer of varied and various bestselling book covers ( Decoded, by Jay-Z Classy, by Derek Blasberg, both 2010, etc.), presents a dark picture book for mature teens.
A provocative tale of forbidden love and madness.
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