Friday, October 25, 2013

The Fault in Our Stars Review

Author: John Green
Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Published: 01/10/2012
Good Reads-
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.


Review:
I finally jumped on the John Green bandwagon and picked up one of his books, which happened to be The Fault in Our Stars. I honestly had no idea what this book was about, all I knew was the reading her favorite book thing, and it’s supposed to be sad. Whatever I gathered from the random little things I’ve seen about it on the internet and what not. I usually don’t read too many reviews when the book is so popular like that, because unless it’s a blogger I follow or what not. Cause honestly, we all know it’s gonna be a bunch of 5 star reviews about how amazing and touching the book was. No one is gonna mention anything bad because it’s just their emotional reaction to write a paragraph long “review’’ on how this book has changed them. One of the things I hate in life but nothing to really do with The Fault in Our Stars besides the popularity of the story.

Now, I am not one for contemporary, but this year has like, been a year of it for me. I’ve read so much that it’s almost normal and I stopped expecting a magical being or what not to come out of nowhere and take the characters off to fairy land. The thing with The Fault in Our Stars is how much you expect from it, I’ve seen one John Green GIF and I knew he was a mad genius already, so I knew the story was gonna be super well written. I also saw the cancer thing and went “oh this is why the crying” but what I expected was a total sad cancer book, mixed in with the cliché love story. The sad dying girl gets her one long lost wish that she could find someone who truly loves her, and here comes this super-hot perfect guy and BOOM it’s magic. Happily ever after, and then she dies peacefully knowing she had as much as a life as her cancer allowed. Well this book is kinda like that, but then again it’s not.

The reasons why I like it so much is because it’s not a cancer book, but in a way it still is. I made the mistake of thinking the book is about Hazel Grace Lancaster, who’s the 16 year old narrating the story. She’s got some tumors in her lungs so they suck, her doctors bought her some time by putting her one a drug that prevents the growth of the tumors. Her current issues are lugging around her oxygen tank, and her parents constant push for her to get a life really, and you know the whole slowly dying. But then again, aren’t we all slowly dying? Some just slower than others. I was wrong, really really wrong, cause the story isn’t Hazel’s story, it’s Augustus’s story, his cancer book, so it is a cancer book, just with Hazel telling it so it isn’t.

Anyways, Hazel is telling Augustus’s story and it took me a bit to get the end, but here’s how the rest goes. Like I said Hazel is 16 living with cancer, her mom forces her to go to these Support Group meetings and one day she happens upon Mr. Augustus Waters, who’s clearly not unattractive and actually shows some real interest in her. One Natalie Portman reference leads to that magical cliché romance. Although I like this romance because it isn’t that typical cliché blah romance cause Augustus is pretty far from perfect, and his imperfections compliment Hazel’s in a way that’s just simply lovely. So in the end it ends because one of the other character dies, and it ends with their last words, so it’s a cancer book, it just isn’t Hazel's. Usually I’d be heartbroken and dying to find out about the other characters, but for some reason this ending made sense in a way that doesn’t make sense. It was extraordinary.

The Fault in Our Stars scores a 5 for me. Might be awhile before I have the courage to grab another Green book though. 

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