Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Release Date: January 10, 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 313
Format: eBook (Izzy), Hardcover (Emily)
Source: Purchased by Reviewers
Goodreads • Amazon 

Izzy's Rating:


Emily's Rating:

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.

Insightful, 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.

Izzy:

I just want to start out by saying: this is by no means a sub-par book. It is beautifully written, and it’s completely understandable why people love it. However, it just wasn’t for me.

As we all know, romance is really not my thing. But this book is romance at its finest. It’s a breathtaking story about two cancer ridden teenagers with a realistic view of their lives who take the chance to love each other. 

It's pure. 

It's fresh. 

It's absolutely raw emotion. 

I admire Hazel and Augustus' outlook and their witty banter—actually, I absolutely love the characters. All of them. Hazel and Gus' story is probably the one of the most beautiful stories to have been written. It is poignant and heart-wrenching. John Green is a genius in character development and his ability to so clearly portray the characters’ beings is absolutely mind-boggling. You will fall in love with them as soon as you meet them.

I know there are lines from this novel that will stick with me for eternity. They are hauntingly beautiful.

I really wish that this book was for me, but it just wasn’t. I couldn’t seem to connect with it on the level that so many others (including Emily) were able to. It breaks my heart to give such a wonderful book an average review, but I feel like I would be betraying the purpose of this blog if I gave it a rating that I couldn’t connect with.

I am just too emotionally immature to fully appreciate The Fault in Our Stars. It may seem like a cheesy break-up line, but it honestly wasn’t the novel, it was I.

This is a book that I would definitely recommend to everyone, despite my personal experience.

A must read.

A 3.5 star for me that I sincerely hope will be 5 star to all of you.

Emily:

This book. Where do I even start? By wondering how in the hell it took me so long to read it? By asking myself if I'll ever be the same after reading it? I really don't know.

And that sounds ridiculous, I'm well aware. To say that 313 pages of YA novel left me different that when I started them? Seriously? But, you know what? It's true.

Not that I'm a different person necessarily, because that sounds absurd; but I will never be able to forget this story. But this book had the incredible ability to make you laugh as you cry and feel an incredible amount, so quickly and deeply. The writing was unique, exceptional, and full of a voice so poignant and heartbreaking, it's unlike virtually anything I've ever read.

I know there’s a feeling for some that the use of humor and the way this story was presented didn’t adequately represent what it’s like to lose a 16-year-old, and that’s not wrong. But this is not a story for the parents or the friends or anyone who’s not living it. This is what it feels like to 16 with a known expiration date. It’s messy and painful, but it’s also life, with a capacity for joy and hilarity and love.

Hazel's journey through life, albeit a tragically shortened version, was beautiful. The kind of life we all should aspire to lead. Her character was incredible and so well-portrayed by Green - as Elizabeth said, it's so easy to fall in love with her from the first pages. It's really no wonder Augustus did.

Speaking of our boy, he is a pinnacle of YA book boys. So perfectly imperfect, sweet, and funny. The kind of person that sticks with you no matter how long they’re in your life, as Hazel finds out first hand. Falling in love with him is just as inevitable and unstoppable as it was for her.

That and many other reasons led to me crying my way through the last 60 pages. It’s so beautiful but so heartbreaking at the same time. It’s a story that I certainly won’t soon, if ever, forget.

Hazel and Augustus are a part of me now. These characters are forever.

About the Author

John Green is the New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and The Fault in Our Stars. He is also the coauthor, with David Levithan, of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. He was 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Green’s books have been published in more than a dozen languages.

Green’s book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review and Booklist, a wonderful book review journal where he worked as a publishing assistant and production editor while writing Looking for Alaska. Green grew up in Orlando, Florida before attending Indian Springs School and then Kenyon College.

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