The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Published by Penguin on January 10th 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Social Issues, Death & Dying, Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, Love & Romance
Pages: 336
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Now a Major Motion PictureTODAY Book Club pickTIME Magazine’s #1 Fiction Book of 2012
"The greatest romance story of this decade." —Entertainment Weekly
-Millions of copies sold- #1 New York Times Bestseller#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller#1 USA Today Bestseller#1 International Bestseller#1 Indie Bestseller
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.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
The Fault in Our Stars is something I’ve put off reading for forever. The subject matter scared me! Kids and cancer. That is a recipe for heart aching disaster for me and for my heart’s sake, I put it off. However, with the movie coming out and all, I wanted to read it before watching it. I mentally braced myself. I started reading, preparing to have my heart ripped out.
Now, I don’t know if it was the hype or the fact that everyone touts it as a masterpiece, amazing, life changing and all that but… I feel like I didn’t have that same connection with it that everyone else did. Which is kind of disappointing to me. I feel like I need to inform: I cry easily. Very easily. I get emotionally invested in all books or movies and I cry during them all the time. I expected to cry. I teared up but I didn’t have the gut wrenching sobs I thought I’d go through. I’m not heartless I swear!! The story was sad and touching but I felt disconnected from it.
I think one of the main things that made me feel the disconnect was the dialogue. I realize that Augustus Waters is supposed to be witty and funny and clever and everything but I just can’t imagine a 17 year old boy talking the way he does. 17 year olds just don’t spout eloquent monologues on the spot! Or even craft them ahead of time as beautifully as he did! It just didn’t seem plausible and sometimes Augustus and Hazel’s dialogue just came off as pretentious to me. Don’t get me wrong, Hazel’s snark made me smile but most of the time I found myself tilting my head to one side and thinking, “really? did this speech just happen?”
I can practically see the mob coming for me now. *hides* Granted, there are amazing quotes from this book. They’re poignant and insightful and I love it — but it really didn’t seem natural coming out of a 16 and 17 year old.
Maybe the dialogue was what took me out of the story enough that I didn’t cry. I’m not sure. I don’t know what it is. The story was sad to be sure but this book didn’t leave the lasting impression on me that I expected it too.
I know what you mean – the dialogue could be quite Dawson’s Creek, in that it didn’t always seem realistic. But I remember John Green saying once that we do underestimate people, especially teenagers, and that it’s sad we think it’s strange they can’t speak intelligently or be poignantly at a moment’s notice. That being said, he also mentioned something about Hazel and Gus thinking they’re smarter than they are and misusing a lot of big words / using them in the wrong context.
I think this was probably a case of you waiting too long to read it and then having your expectations set too high lol. Maybe you’ll like the movie better? I can’t wait to see that. Everyone’s saying it’s an amazing adaptation!
Tonya felt the same way and I have the same feeling I will too. After reading your review, I kind of want to read this just to see where I’ll fall on the spectrum. I never wanted to read this book because the subject matter is so difficult, but I made my best friend tell me the end, so now that I KNOW, maybe I should just read it.
I’m sorry this one fell short for you Wendy, but the mob will not be coming to get you. Tonya and I will protect you! <3
YESSS!! (I feel weird over my excitement) I AGREE 110%! I just didn’t connect to anything in the story. The writing is OKAY, but ehhhhh
Guaranteed I will cry during the movie though
So I know CeCe wants to totally disown you, but I’ll forgive. Sometimes books that are crazily hyped let me down too (like Open Road Summer), so I know where you’re coming from. I just love everything about this book – the dialogue had me cracking up, even if it is a little out there.
I’m happy you gave it a try!
I still love youuuu. Have you read any of John’s other books? Pretty much all his characters talk like that haha. It doesn’t bother me really at all but I totally get why it could be troublesome for other readers! Sorry this wasn’t a win for you!!
See the movie though. THE TEARS. Man some of those scenes were damn hard to see. The fake funeral stuff. The gas station scene. Ansel’s performance made me choke back sobs. MAN. *wipes tear thinking about it*
Ok… I still haven’t read it either and I think I still will but I’m definitely wondering how I will feel about it. I have a huge thing about realistic dialogue so I don’t know… Great review! (I’ll keep CeCe from coming after you lol)
Yes, this is one of those books that you have to go into knowing that you’re going to get flowery teen dialogue – the type of dialogue that personifies what angsty teens THINK they sound like (but they really don’t). (I love Allie’s comparison to Dawson’s Creek.) I still really enjoyed the book, but I can definitely see what you’re saying.
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
I’m actually kind of happy to see someone that didn’t like it… and whose life was not drastically altered as a result of this book. 🙂 It makes me feel less guilty about not wanting to read it. I think dialogue like that would bother me too. I always give major props to authors that write realistic teen interactions.
Well as the queen of those who don’t like the hyped books you can hide behind my skirts! Lol I’ll probably love this because as a teen I used to get into trouble all the time for sounding like I swallowed a dictionary and coming off as pretentious and I was like “well mom you wanted me to be educated so…” Lmao so that probably won’t bother me but I am afraid I have left it too late re: the hype…because books like These Broken Stars and the appalling We Were Liars were just utter shit for me and the hype played a big part! I guess we’ll see this week! Ah well can’t love them all love! At least it’s not life or death!
I can definitely agree with you on the language and the dialogue used in this book not feeling very realistic. But I just took it for what it was and that was beautiful writing. I also think these characters were very unique teenagers, definitely not typical at all so I kind of accepted it as that. But seriously sobbed my eyes out. I loved it. And the movie was so freaking good. Saw it yesterday and was just a puddle. Sorry you didn’t love it as much as everyone else!