6.08.2014

The Fault in Our Stars

6.08.2014
Local Bookstore
So, I guess this book review came in right on time for some and gloriously late for others. Doesn't matter - as the saying goes, Better Late Than Pregnant.

The Fault In Our Stars obviously has a huge, devoted following. I've known for ages that John Green was a man of great Charisma, wit, and intelligence. But I'm going to bare my heart out, and I hope I'm not disappointing you all, but this was my first time reading a John Green novel, and I did it the same weekend the movie came out (actually finishing it mere hours before going to the theater to see it). I'm mostly worried that my friend Andrea will be disappointed in me, as she is the main reason I know about John Green and Nerdfightia (I am not worthy! I am not worthy!)   But maybe that's better for me as a reviewer, so that I can be honest and talk without bias.

Everyone warned me before I started reading that this book would make me cry like a baby, and that I would need some requisite grieving time. Maybe I'm a cold, heartless bitch, but I didn't actually cry. I got choked up though, so that will have to pass. Actually, I think reading Game of Thrones may have numbed me to fictional deaths because I knew it was inevitable that some one had to die. Also I think I have a disorder that leaves me super emotionally detached from books and movies and sometimes real life. Anyway.

The Fault in Our Stars is called a "cancer book that isn't really a cancer book." I didn't realize that "cancer book" was a sub-genre, and I've had it in my experience to have read plenty of sappy books from the time I started to raid my mom's book shelves. I get it, though I still don't think it's entirely appropriate to call it that. Cancer is a factor - it's a very important factor - but this book is so much about trying to have an identity outside of a life-threatening diagnosis.
Hazel is a girl who is hindered and dying from a cancer that effects her lungs. She's surviving for now, but it's inevitable. She meets Augustus Waters - whose cancer has gone into remission at the cost of losing his leg. They first bond over a book, but they fall quickly and easily for each other. Augustus is romantic and, from what I can tell, a good imaginary boyfriend that all teen girls should aspire to someday have (living or dead - though hopefully living) Hazel's dream is to meet the author of that book she introduces Augustus to, and Augustus goes and makes it happen.
Okay, that's all I can say for now without spoiling the rest for anyone who hasn't yet read it. (I don't want to be that kid) Here's what I loved about this book: Green respects his audience. He's writing for teens and he doesn't treat them patronizingly at all - that is a huge and wide problem I have with YA books. So many YA authors write for teenagers like they're simpletons. John Green isn't Fancy, either, but he's real. It's rare and exciting to come across an author who (from what I understand) is this authentic. When I was a teen, Meg Cabot published The Princess Diaries and that book was so real and authentic and excitingly well written; I still have some warm feelings for that book. But then, the more she published, the worse her books got. Though they were still entertaining, she never duplicated the quality of The Princess Diaries and I stand by that. I'm hoping that's not something I can expect from John Green, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

4 comments:

  1. Aw, shucks. I got mentioned in one of your reviews again. I feel special :3

    And, though I'm super bias, I definitely think that you should check out John Green's other novels. You picked the most emotional book first, but his others are great. My first was An Abundance of Katherines. It deals with math and turning points in life...and it's set in Tennessee (yes, it's almost as if it were written for me :P).

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  2. @akafred32092 I think my next one will be Looking For Alaska, as I got it as a graduation gift and still haven't read it :X

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  3. I found John Green's Looking for Alaska when I was about twelve. None of his other novels have topped that one for me. I've read it three or fours times now. While I enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars- and did cry- my problem with it was it felt like it was geared to an audience, to HIS audience. By that I don't mean teenagers but rather Nerdfighters. He knew what the people who follow him like and he wrote it for them. It's still a great book but that really bothered me about it.

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  4. I love Alaska :D ( I actually wore a shirt that's a reference to it when I went to see TFiOS on Friday). I've read the book 3 times, and I'm not usually a book repeater. I was the same age as the characters in the book when I first read it, so I thought it'd be cool to see if the book effected me the same way when I read it later.

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