Book Reviews #2: The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green

SPOILER WARNING: Spoiler alert: Mayhem survives. No but in all seriousness this review will contain spoilers for The Fault In Our Stars (also spoilers for Looking For Alaska), so if you haven't read this and plan on doing so, I advice you read it before reading this review. I recommend it, it was a good book, worth a read. If you either: 1) Don't care about spoilers or 2) Have already read the book then feel free to read on.


For a long period of time, I was very confused about how I felt about the much beloved "The Fault In Our Stars", and to be honest, I was rather afraid of reviewing it. The main reason being that I just, wasn't exactly sure about how much I liked it, and whether or not I liked it as much as everyone else did. Every one around me was telling me that it was an amazing book, that it was one of their favorites, that it was one of the best books written in the last decade. So going into it, I was hyped as hell. In retrospect, I should have gone into it with less anticipation.

Their was a period of time while I was reading "The Fault In Our Stars" where I down right despised the book: I thought it came off as pretentious, I couldn't connect with the characters or relate to them, I didn't quite get why Hazel fell in love with Augustus so quickly, I thought Augustus was too perfect of a character (how he was ludicrously attractive while at the same time being so intelligent and philosophical, and I didn't like how Augustus was so heroic, the scene when he jumped on the grenade in the video game just felt heavy handed, which of course plays out later in the book, and I will explain how later in this review), I thought that their date and their sex scene was too perfect and too romantic, and didn't portray the sense of awkwardness that I think would occur when a 17 year old male with one leg has sexual intercourse with a 16 year old female with terrible lungs who couldn't even get around with out exhausting herself, and I felt that their dialogue between one another didn't feel natural.

The thing about John Green books that has always kinda bugged me is just how smart he is, and it really comes through in his writing. The man is a genius, I adore his writing style and how quotable he actually is. I love his ability to bend the English language in such a way that he can describe things in ways that didn't even occur to me before reading this book. And while all of this can make for a riveting, interesting and thought provoking read, I think it's some what unnatural when the genius of a grown man in his thirties is coming out of characters who are barely 17. I wouldn't mind this so much, if it wasn't a recurring theme in all of his books. His books always seem to feature these child prodigies, who think like adults and sometimes even more than that. And while it's great to explore how teenagers can question the world, heck, the universe, I also wish that Green would maybe try to explore different kind of characters, and different genres. I'm not saying that Green is a bad writer, I'm just saying that I wish he could make his books a little bit more diverse in the future. And doing so I think he could really reach his full potential, and show his range as an author.

Now onto the ending of this book, and by ending I'm talking about the final act, which in my mind is the events that take place after their little trip to Amsterdam...I love the final act of this book. I think it captured the sense of loss wonderfully, like "Looking For Alaska". But the difference between this ending and the ending in "Looking For Alaska", is that the ending of "The Fault In Our Stars" felt noticeably more optimistic. I loved how much of a contrast this ending was to the ending of "Looking For Alaska". In "Looking For Alaska", Pudge and The Colonel were searching for answers about Alaska's death, but found very few. And by the end of the book, we are left with many uncertainties about Alaska. On the other hand, in "The Fault In Our Stars" Hazel actually finds the letter that Augustus sent to Peter Van Houten. Giving her a sense of closure that Pudge and The Colonel didn't have the luxury of receiving.

I also love the scene towards the end where Hazel's mum reveals that she is working towards the same kind of profession that support group leader Patrick had. I loved the tension earlier on in the chapter with Hazel's mother is trying to get Hazel to eat, and how it led up to this wonderful, heartfelt scene with them just being a family together. It was great to see Hazel so joyful and optimistic, despite the fact that Augustus was no longer with them.

Now, onto Peter Van Houten (who is like the opposite of John Green in my eyes). I didn't really expect him to have such a great character arc in this book, and I also didn't expect that he would become such an important and well developed character in this book.When we were first properly introduced to him, I hated him, and I hated every second we spent with the character, but I think that was the effect than John Green intended the character to have. I love the fact that by the end of the book, we know why he was such a jerk and why he was so negative towards Gus and Hazel, and why his feelings towards "cancer kids" was so pessimistic. I genuinely felt bad for his character at the end of the book, which really took me by suprise.

Oh, and going back to when I had a problem with Augustus Waters being so perfect. By the end of the book I understood why John Green made the decision to make Gus so physically attractive, and intelligent. It was to juxtapose how thin and sickly he looked by the end of the book, which really gave us a sense of just how sick Augustus was, and made the whole thing even more tragic. And I loved Augustus' fear of not leaving a mark on the world, of not making a real impact. I think it was very interesting to explore how much Gus wanted to universe to notice him, while Hazel was perfectly fine with not making that much of an impact, in fact, earlier in the book she was afraid of how much of an impact she would actually make on the people around her, she felt as though she was the grenade that Augustus' was going to end up jumping on, when in fact, it was the other way round.

I was rather surprised that by the end of "The Fault In Our Stars" I came to the conclusion that I genuinely enjoyed the book and the ideas that it brought up. While yes, I felt that some sections of the book dragged out longer than necessary and may have gotten boring, and felt a little bit too much like a typical John Green book, overall I liked it. I thought it was extremely intelligent at points and really makes the reader think, I definitely recommend it to anyone who's into young adult romances, or just young adult fiction in general.
John Green is a wonderful author, I just wish he would try something a little different next time and maybe venture into books that aren't centered around absurdly intelligent, and awkward teenagers. Or nerds, if you will.