Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Series: None

Published: January 10, 2012

Publisher: Dutton Books

Pages: 318

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Beautiful, Bold, Irreverent, and Raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

I don’t like spoilers. I hate them. Part of reading a book is finding out what happens, and how it happens, and why it happens, but if someone tells you that…well, then part of the reading experience was completely spoiled! I’m told the author has similar feelings on this subject.

That said, I’ve recently developed the habit not only of staying away from tumblr to avoid plot spoilers, but don’t even read snippets or teaser an author may post. Because if an author does that, they are generally posting the best/most suspenseful lines from the book…and if I re-read them in the book, I’m like, “I already knew he was going to say that….” AND IT BUGS ME.

One of my friends accidentally spoiled this book for me. She only said half a sentence, that really wasn’t spoilery AT ALL. But my brain was able to make the jump (because it’s annoyingly good at that—IT’S REALLY ANNOYING), and an important plot point was spoiled, which somewhat tarnished my reading of this book. I didn’t cry. I think I would have if I hadn’t known what was going to happen, but unfortunately…I didn’t. It’s not impossible for me to cry, I do it quite often. Most recently, Titanic had the pleasure of turning me into a sniveling mess. But not this book.

That said, that’s not why I knocked off a star. John Green had a lot to live up to. I’ve heard his name flying around for awhile now, seen his books in stores, listened to friends rant about him, even saw his name on the alumni list of a college I visited. And for the most part, he lived up to the hype.

I throughly enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars. I did not love it. The emotional attachment was minimal. I respected Hazel and Augustus greatly, but I wasn’t able to put myself into their shoes, so to speak. And I don’t think that would change if I did become a terminally ill cancer patient; because Green does a perfect job of making these characters come to life. It’s more of, I don’t so much connect with their personalities. They both have a slight ‘disconnect’ from life from all the pain they’ve seen. It’s hard for them to reconcile that pain with the good, and I don’t blame them. And I don’t deny the pain or the good, I just have a different way of dealing with it than them.

This book is beautifully written. No one can dispute that Green knows how to write. I’d post some beautiful quotes except…I’m feeling incredibly anti-spoils. It’s very real, though. In some ways, the realness felt odd because rarely does an author so neatly transfer reality to the page, but Green does. The best way I can say he does this, is to say that he raises a lot of real questions about life, opposed to trying to present a clear cut world.

I do think this is something everyone should try reading at some point. It’s curious how there is a stereotypical reaction, but even more curious that most reactions are positive. And that just goes to show the universality of this book.