Second time through was no less emotional than the first. Books about cancer seem to have some sort of automatic acknowledgement that they will make you cry. And maybe that's true; maybe the writing and the characters in this book aren't perfect, and it is just so emotional because it is about cancer. But, for me, I don't think the book's success is a Cancer Perk.

For me, it's a love story. It's a tragic love story, but it's still a love story. The characters made me happy. Seeing (or reading) the way they interacted, and the way they made each other feel, it made me happy for the two of them. I wanted them to see it through to the end. I wanted them to survive. Even though I knew they couldn't... I still wanted them to. I still enjoyed the moments that they did have together.