I originally wrote this book review on GoodReads, but thought I would post it on here, too. If some of the stuff in the disclaimer came across as harsh and mean, I am not meaning it to be. I just wanted to get my point across. Enjoy!
****Spoilers Throughout This Review****
Disclaimer: Like other people that gave the book a bad review have mentioned, I am allowed to have opinions on the book that differ from other people's opinions, and I would greatly appreciate it if I didn't get hate because of what I say in my review. If you don't think you can handle negative opinions of the book, I would suggest you stop reading this review now. I know that this is a very popular book that most people love, and I respect their opinions, and I am not trying to discredit their opinions or say that they are wrong for what they think of the book.
The only reason I gave this book two stars instead of one is because I thought some of the plot twists in the book were interesting and I felt for the characters a little bit towards the end. The Fault In Our Stars has been a book that has been at the top of my to-read list for quite some time because everyone I talked to said it was a marvelous, emotion-filled book that will leave you speechless and sad by the end. I went into the book with really high expectations and finished the book really disappointed. I just didn't find the story super deep at all and I found the characters were highly annoying. It might have something to do with the fact that I am a young adult now (19 years old) and am kind of picky and critical about the books I read, but I just didn't think the book was as great as everyone says it is.
I am aware that this is a book about two teenagers with cancer, and I understand that they are going through a lot of difficult things in their lives, but I still thought they were annoying, pretentious, hard to connect with emotionally, and their choice of vocabulary was very unrealistic.
I thought it was nice and touching of John Green to write a book about teens with cancer, that is dedicated to a girl that died of cancer. However, I thought that he tried way too hard to try and relate to teenagers. I understand that his books are targeted mainly towards teenage girls, but I feel like he went about trying to catch their attention and relate to them the wrong way. He often used childish sounding phrases and words (one that really bothered me was "condomy problems"-I have never ever heard someone say that, ever), which I think he did to try and make his characters sound quirky and relatable, but I did not fall for it at all. It just didn't come off as relatable or cute to me.
Then other times, Hazel and Augustus used phrases and words that sounded like they came from the seventeenth century (one phrase that Augustus used that irks me is when he talks about the "metaphorical resonance" of an unused swing set. Teenagers just don't say things like that). Throughout the book, both Hazel and Augustus would randomly spew out really long, unused word-filled speeches to each other, which is something that teenagers just don't do. Whenever I would read one of said speeches they made to each other, I couldn't help but picture them reading the speeches off of a little notecard because I just cant picture people as young as them (or anyone else for that matter) being able to come up with the stuff they said off of the top of their head. One example of this, so you know what I am talking about is here:
"I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.”
And here:
“There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.”
Like I have already mentioned, I think it is very sad that Augustus died and that both Hazel and Augustus have cancer, but I could not really connect to their characters because I find it hard to relate to characters that are as pretentious and annoying as both of them were. I know that there are a lot of highly intelligent young people with advanced vocabulary, but (not trying to sound like I know every teenager in the world, I promise) even really smart people usually cannot say really long speeches like the two examples above without actually writing them out and thinking them over first.
Some other small things that I did not like about the book are:
-The fact that Hazel went over to some guy (Augustus)'s house that she just met like an hour ago, even though he could be a (*Trigger Warning*) rapist or a psychotic killer.
-The whole thing with Augustus putting the cigarette in his mouth without lighting it and saying that he was putting the killing thing in his mouth without letting it kill him. I thought it was a neat concept when he first mentioned it, but when I actually thought about it I realized that he bought a pack of cigarettes regularly just to prove a metaphor, but he is helping cigarette companies by buying cigarettes from them.
-This might just be me being somewhat sensitive, but I thought it was really rude of Hazel and Augustus to make out in the Anne Frank house. Sure, it was supposed to be romantic and they were having a moment, but I don't think it was right of them to do that there. And the fact that everyone clapped for them (you would think people would think their behavior was rude) and the two bowed and curtsied after just made it feel unreal and like they were just putting on a show or something.
-This is just a little minor thing that I'm mostly just noting because it's something small I observed, but I thought it was kind of strange that Hazel sold that swing set to someone without asking her parents about it first. Maybe she did ask them to sell it and it was one of those things that isn't mentioned in the book, but maybe she didn't ask them and they wanted to keep it.
Now some good things about the book:
-I thought that the plot line was good. It was neat but kind of sad that Hazel and Augustus were so looking forward to meeting Peter Van Houten, only to find him to be a big disappointment. This is the part of the book that I was most engaged in, I think. I also thought it was good that he made up for his extremely rude behavior by showing up to Augustus's funeral (even if Hazel wasn't happy about it), and I thought it was really sad when he revealed that he wrote An Imperial Affliction in memory of his daughter that died of cancer when she was eight.
-I also thought that even though it was pretty predictable (since he would wince and stuff when Hazel would touch him), it was sad that Augustus ended up dying of cancer even though he seemed like the healthier one throughout most of the book. I didn't cry or anything (like I thought I would before I actually read the book), but I definitely felt Hazel's pain when Augustus passed.
Even though the book had some moments where I felt some emotion, over all I thought the book was disappointing and the characters were really hard to believe and like. I found it hard to really get into the book, and it was a fast read for me. Even though people have their own differing opinions and I respect their right to have their own opinions, I personally think that there are books out there about people with cancer that are way better written than the Fault In Our Stars was. A really good example of a book like this that has a good plot twist is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Also, anything written by Lurlene McDaniel. Her books are really good, but a lot of them end the same way.
Thank you for reading my review of The Fault In Our Stars. I will post reviews for other books when I finish them.
