The Fault in Our Stars

I'm a little late to the game on this one (Who'm I kidding, I'm probably gonna be late to the game on most reviews, but I'm gonna write them anyway)

I have been hearing about this book for months, and it's gotten such rave reviews all over the interwebs. This made me both really want to read it, and really skeptical. In my personal experience, things rarely live up to the hype. So I did what I usually do in these cases...I procrastinated, and then eventually gave in.

I hate reviews that spoil books/movies, and so I'm very wary of reading reviews before I read something new. So, I will endeavor to not spoil things for you - because really, if a review does so, what's the point of reading the book?

The Goodreads book description:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

I have to admit that my reaction to this book was mixed. The first half of the book I was convinced that the interwebs were full of idiots. I found Hazel to be an obnoxious and inconsistent narrator. There was a disconnect between her internal monologue and the actual dialog she engaged in. And though there were occasional snarky, sarcastic comments that I found amusing, I was not loving the characters or the book. She struck me as pretentious, and unrealistic, and I was annoyed. I sincerely apologize for my teenage self. I'm sure I was every bit the pretentious ass that I am now annoyed by. This all raised some interesting questions for me. Mostly:

• Am I, at 31, just too far removed from teenagerhood to recognize an authentic teenage voice? 
• If I had found Hazel a more authentic representation of a teenager, would teenagers (who are admittedly the target audience here) have found it as unrealistic as I did in it's present form?
• If yes, does that mean that my days of reading and enjoying YA novels is limited? They've long been a guilty pleasure of mine, and if I can't enjoy them anymore - I'm going to be quite sad.

Somewhere around the middle of the book, my annoyance began to abate. I'm not sure if it's because the inconsistencies actually evened out, or if they just became less noticeable. I never grew to really love or connect with Hazel in any way, but I stopped actively disliking her. I really liked the second half and found myself much more actively & emotionally engaged. 

One of my favorite quotes:  "you have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice:..."*

After finishing the book, I was still fairly ambivalent.  I wasn't sure what I was going to write about it; for me, it didn't live up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, but it was just OK, not GREAT. So I made some initial notes and then put them away for a few days...to sleep on things. It wasn't until I came across this tweet:

I see patients dying of cancer on a weekly basis, and @realjohngreen's TFiOS is so painfully accurate, down to the most minute detail <\3

from Jen (formerly of Makeshift Bookmark) on my Twitter feed that I was able to put my finger on why I wasn't ready to just write this book off and move on.

I loved the way Green handled the cancer stuff in the book. It resonated with me in a way that the characters did not. This part of the story felt genuine and real. The grief was palpable, and I'd be a liar if I said that I didn't tear up at least once while I was reading.

So my conclusion? This was a good YA novel, and I think 13 year old me would have loved the face off of this book. It didn't cross into the realm of ageless for me - but I think that's ok. I felt like it accomplished what it should have, and that it probably reached the intended audience in a way that it didn't reach me. I'd give John Green another chance personally, and I'd recommend this to a teenager who would appreciate a snarky, sarcastic, funny narrator.

3/5 Stars

*Because I usually read library books, (and, even if I didn't, have an irrational aversion to writing in books) I often find quotes that I really, really like - but then can't remember by the time I get around to telling someone about the book. Now that I'm going to be attempting reviews - my reading habits are going to have to evolve accordingly.