Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Published: 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 313
From: Walmart
Rating: 6/10
I love John Green. Ever since I found his first novel Looking for Alaska wherever it was that I found it, Green has been someone I’ve always thought was a perfect writer for teens.
Unfortunately, I did not read the middle books Green wrote, just his first and latest, The Fault in Our Stars. However, after reading the last one, I still believe that Green is the perfect teenage-book writer.
The Fault in Our Stars starts with Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenage cancer survivor. She attends a support group with other teenage cancer survivors, and that’s where she meets Augustus Waters. It’s a romance and tragedy and comedy all bundled up into one little imperfect package.
I say imperfect because of the subject matter, as well as my opinion on the writing. So, let’s start with the bad and move into the good later.
One reason I enjoy Green’s writing is because it’s light and sarcastic, while sometimes heavy and serious. The characters use humor to get through day-to-day living, while also thinking heavily about their individual lives and human beings in general and the universe as a whole. There are a lot of intellectual questions Green brings up, which makes novels like this very compelling. However, the problem with this novel was that every single character had that sarcastic, humorous, deep-thinking way of speaking, and not everyone speaks that way. I felt it took away some of the characters’ individuality.
But, it’s a compelling novel because of the specific subject matter: kids with cancer. No one wants to talk about it because it’s such a debilitating condition for the kids with cancer, as well as the families, and it’s a scary thing to think about. Everyone has been affected by cancer in some way, and that’s why it’s scary: it hits too close to home.
What Green does it get kids to read. He finds stories worth telling, stories that are interesting to people, no matter how old they are, and he tells them. The Fault in Our Stars is based on the story of Esther Earl, a girl Green was friends with when she died of thyroid cancer. He made her story worth reading, and then got people to read it. It was a success.
Green’s latest novel The Fault in Our Stars was a success in both the literary and cinema worlds.
See John Green’s novel come to life on television. Also, read Green’s other novels, available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble in-store and online.