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.

The YA Issue

UPDATE: I wrote this more than eight years ago. Since then, my views have greatly evolved. I no longer believe a lot of what I wrote in here. The heavy handed moralizing is due to a stint I had with the Catholic Church, but that's long pass. I still believe that art should better society in some way, even as it seems purposeless. But I no longer have such rigid standards about the methodology. If anything, I believe that good art forces us to confront the ugly truths inside us. I think I can fairly say that the me who wrote this essay was avoiding some truths she'd been confronted with. I'm not going to remove this. Fuck, no one is ever going to even read it except me since this blog is a long fossilized piece of history that very few knew about or interacted with in the first place. But I'll know that once upon a time when I excavated this blog via long forgotten passwords and platforms, I saw this post, realized it was problematic, and did something to address it.