The Fault In Our Stars

Originally published to http://www.nobentspines.blogspot.com/2013/01/books-so-special-and-rare-and-yours.html

I am amazed and seriously jealous of Mr. Green's ability to conjurer emotions from letters on a page. This book struck me in a way that, honestly, no other book has. It is filled with raw, pure, undeniable and unconditional love. Mr. Green has away of sucking the reader it and holding them tight to a point where they have no choice but to finish the tale in one sitting. And that's what I did. Finish the book in a single sitting.
When you read this, because you will, have a box of tissues prepared. You get dragged into the story; you will laugh, cry, smile and feel all the emotions that the characters do. I have this bad habit of peeking at the ending, but with this one I forced myself not to. Why? I figured it would destroy the book for me. And it did. Just not the way I thought it would. I'm not describing this well at all.
This is one of those books that you can't get enough words out to convey the full and heartbreaking feelings that the book shoves at you.
I don't write in books. Ever. But I think I would in this book. There are just so many things that Gus and Hazel say that I want to remember forever. Forever. Sadly, this is a library book.
Mr. Green has easily made himself my favorite author of all time. With this one book. This is the first one I've read and I can promise promise you that this will most certainly not be my last.The way they all described things: Cancer Perks (signed basketballs, posters, concert tickets), Side effects of death (depression, cancer), Encouragements (without pain, we wouldn't know joy), Being a professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles, Swing sets of tears, Okay, Always, Hazel's response to Gus's fear of oblivion, Gus's response to Hazel's response to his fear of oblivion, The Way They Talk To Each Other, Metaphors(I have a new appreciation to them), spoiler alerts, An Imperial Affliction, The Price of Dawn, phone numbers written in books. (there are a lot more but I suspect you want me to move on)

This is the first book I've finished in under 24 hours in longer than I can recall.

I don't feel like an adequate review for a book such as this can be written, so I'll just say this: The Fault in Our Stars is beautiful and heartbreaking, but not just because something Sad happens. It mad me think and it made me appreciate the life I have a little more.

I’m not a big contemporary fan… but this was excellent. It was so excellent, that there was one point that I was forcing myself not to cry. I just felt so connected to the characters that I was tearing up.

This story is from the point of view of a girl named Hazel who has likely terminal cancer. But it’s not a sob story like you might think—I don’t think the purpose of the story was to make you weep openly. No, it was more about… the battle and the strength these people have to have to fight it.

Hazel is an excellent character. Her view on life and her illness is something very interesting to look at, because she just feels so real. She feels so lifelike that you can’t help but get attached to her.

You can’t help but get attached to Augustus either. Augustus’ views on life and his illness are just as interesting because he’s just as lifelike as Hazel. The whole plot of the story depends on August being there, actually. And what a plot it was.

Beautifully paced, perfectly written. All the characters and locations are so real you might as well be standing right there! I was so happy to have read this book—even if it is the only contemporary book I own. Highly recommended.

I don’t know how many books I’ve read but none of them have touched me as quite much as this book. Simply put John Green is a genius. I went into this book only knowing two things, that it was about cancer and according to all the reviews on Goodreads it would make me cry.

The reason I loved this book so much was because of Green’s ability to create such fleshed out characters. Most times authors’ focus only on the two main characters while giving the secondary characters dialogue here and there. Not John Green. Although the focus is on Hazel and Augustus we still get to meet the awesomness that is Hazel’s mother. I like how she was a real character which isn’t what we often see in YA.

The reason I put this book off for so long was because I was afraid it would be depressing and boy was I wrong. John Green uses just the right amount of humor. The romance between Augustus and Hazel is so sweet. I loved how even though right off the bat they liked each other their relationship started with friendship first. Now I feel I should warn you that if you are going to read this you should probably invest in a box of tissues (because those Goodreads reviewers were right you will cry. A lot.). Also, don’t read this on the bus (people will stare when you cry).

First off, I want to say I thought this book would be a little hard to read considering my niece is named Hazel and my aunt has breast cancer. But somehow John Green found a way to take this sad situation and turn it into witty charismatic love story with some amazing characters.
The book was filled with power and emotion. And not all the emotion was bad. Just like in life, there were some fun times and other times they of course were not so good. Which is what I liked most about the novel. All the events that took place seemed so well researched and for it to be fiction, it seemed so real... And that's what I loved most about it. Although it was completely fiction, I still found that connection with Hazel and her family and I loved it.
As for their romance, I really thought it was amazingly sweet. Augustus was a very sweet boy and was just what Hazel needed to open her eyes about some things. They fit very well together and it was very evident that they loved each other.
There is really nothing else I can say about this book. I loved every second of it and I am so glad I finally was able to read it. This is my first novel by John Green that I have read and I can definitely ensure you that it will NOT be the last. His way with words is something that cannot be ignored.

Ever since I sobbed my eyes out in "A Walk to Remember" I vowed never to read or watch anything related to cancer ever again. I’m so glad I broke that rule with John Green’s "The Fault in Our Stars." That’s not to say I didn’t cry like a baby a couple times, but let me tell you, the tears were worth it.

What struck me most about the story of terminal cancer teen Hazel is how wonderfully funny Hazel’s thoughts and banter are. I regularly found myself asking, “Am I allowed to laugh at this? Am I some completely insensitive, cancer-free jerk?” I’m hoping the answer is yes to the first question and no to the second, and that others found themselves laughing out loud a time or two.

It’s a testament to Green’s writing skills that he is able to find the humor in such a heart-wrenching story. He has some sort of writing magic to have people chuckling at one point and blubbering the next. Throughout it all, he sends the sincere messages of enjoying the time we have and of not taking life for granted. Thanks to Green, I think it’s time I end my moratorium on cancer-related works, and forgive Nicholas Sparks/Mandy Moore for all those tears.

In a strange way, I always sort of dread reading anything by John Green. Weird, right? See, I live in perpetual fear that one day he will let me down and his book will be less brilliant than I'm expecting. My expectations when it comes to John Green are ridiculously high, because, basically, he's like the god of the nerds and, even in the books I like less, his writing makes me laugh and makes me feel. Despite this constant fear, his books have, so far, improved every time, with The Fault in Our Stars being his best yet, dark and funny and honest and touching and hopeful and depressing and painful and perfect.

*wipes away tears*

When people talk about this book, the first thing they mention is the sadness of it, of how many tissues are requisite to getting through this novel without emerging a snot monster at the end. What struck me much more strongly, though, was the sense of humor and optimism running through the book, even the darkest moments. The humor doesn't subtract from the pain or the suffering; it humanizes it, and enhances the strength of the characters.

In the past, my main complaint about John Green's books (no, I did not think they were all completely perfect) were the characters. They were real, but they were annoying and repetitive (especially with Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska. None of them did I fall completely in love with, although Tiny Cooper was close. In Hazel and Augusta, John Green's characterization has seriously hit its stride in my opinion.

Hazel's voice is just...incredible. Her sarcasm, her brutal honesty, her anger, her intelligence and her wit all made her one of the most wonderful narrators I've ever encountered. I love the way she phrases things. I love that she uses some words that I don't know the meaning of, which really doesn't happen often in my reading. Hazel feels wholly like a kindred spirit, like we would be friends if we ever met, which would totally never happen since we're both so anti-social. Also, she feels one hundred percent like a female to me, always a remarkable thing for a male author to accomplish.

Hazel and Augustus meet and there's an immediate attraction. Though they immediately feel for one another on some level, John Green deftly doesn't go anywhere near instalove territory. For one thing, there's Hazel's cancer, which holds the two apart. Even if there weren't and they immediately leaped into a relationship, I would have been okay with it, because the two legitimately develop a bond. They wisecrack and have this insane rapport; they share a love of word play and navel gazing. They trade their favorite novels and both go into the experience with an open mind, even though the novels were not what they were expecting. They are, without a doubt, one of the best, most convincing, most well-matched couples I have encountered in fiction.

Throughout The Fault in Our Stars, John Green has woven a lot of thoughts about the value of fiction and about what a novel really is, both to the reader and to the author. Hazel's favorite novel, An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten, is a work of literary fiction about a young girl with cancer; Augustus' is a series of novelizations based on a video game about the adventures of Staff Sergeant Max Mayhem. While there's clearly a difference of literary merit between the two, I loved how John Green stressed the importance of both.

I feel like there isn't much more that I can say about this without cutting into your enjoyment of the book. I realize I didn't talk about the cancer at all, but I suppose that was intentional, because the book isn't so much about the cancer as about the people who are partially made of cancer. The cancer is them after all, not a foreign element. The book is wholly about cancer and wholly not, though I know that probably doesn't make any sense. What I mean is that this is in no way simply some weepy tearjerker stereotype of a cancer book.

My words are failing me, so I leave you now with this: The Fault in Our Stars is everything I dreamed it would be and more. John Green constantly increases his awesomeness. With this novel, he will break your heart, repair said heart a few sizes larger, make you laugh, give you hope, rip your heart to pieces again, and basically tell you the utter truth about a lot of awful things also known as life.

The Fault in our Stars was my first John Green Experience. It was life altering. I'm not kidding. I will never be the same after reading this. John Green has written a novel so far beyond the ordinary. It's poignant and highly addictive, with a unique cast of characters, meaningful dialogue, and beautiful pacing. On the real, I was a mess while reading this; a snotty, bleary-eyes, tear-streaked, red-nosed, heartbroken, wailing mess while reading this. There are exactly three books I can recall getting this emotional with while reading and those would be Delirium by Lauren Oliver, Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han. If you check out previous posts on my blog, you'll no doubt discover how much I adored those books. The Fault in Our Stars has officially been added to my Crazy Emotional Adored Books list. Seriously, I had to get the roll of toilet paper and leave it next to me so I could blow my nose. And afterwards, I was so emotionally drained I could barely keep my eyes open. I now understand why everyone worships John Green.

I now worship John Green.

Hazel and Augustus are unlike any characters you've ever read, I promise you. Somehow Green manages to make their dialogue a perfect combination of intelligence, sarcastic humor, and depth. I don't know how he did it. I was alternating between laughing and crying. Hazel is quite the scrapper. She was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, but she never gives up. Sometimes she wishes she could die, but I don't think she really means it deep down. She's not typically one to give up. She's strong. She's so beyond her years, too. She's smart and passionate. Determined. An all around marvelous character. And Augustus Waters. My oh my. Augustus AugustusAugustusAugustusAugustusAugustus. I LOVE YOU. Like, he's nothing you've ever seen in a YA boy. I'm not even sure I can put him into words. He's kind and strong and a beautiful person. I wish I could meet a guy like Augustus Waters. Together they go on adventures that are weird and heartbreaking and unique.

I keep saying it's different and unique, but I think what I mean is that everything in this book is astoundingly real. The characters are real, the relationships are real, the plot is real. It's all real, authentic, genuine. It's difficult to explain, but people experience different things in life. John Green really thought out of the box with this book, which makes you wonder if perhaps he is secretly a sixteen year old girl with cancer, obsessed with a certain author worried that she's a grenade.

This book is stunning. If you don't read it pronto, I will be tempted to, ya know, shank you or something. I can't emphasize enough how much you need to read it. It's moving, fresh, different, and nerdalicious! I didn't even want to like this book. I am a rebel of sorts, and I don't like to flow with the hype. So I didn't want to like it, but I couldn't help it. This book is phenomenal in a way you'll only understand if you read it. There were some sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters that literally took my breath away.

Just. Read. It.

Trust me.

I expected this book to end with the main character dropping dead from cancer, but that is not what I got at all. I got a friendship that should be like everyone's, one full of humor and happiness, not one that you build up on the hope of something more. Gus's and Hazel's relationship came from a chance meeting, and grew from there. They did not expect to go further, especially with Hazel with her lungs, but their friendship grew until they saw the truth. It was not one where they both hoped it would became more. It was real.

This book was full of humor even in the darkest of times. Perfect jokes were cracked with perfect timing, and it lit up the sadness around them. But I did not feel enough sadness, as I felt like I was watching the book being played out, and that I was not there. I was reading from a distance, and could not enjoy the book as much as I should have.

I reckon this book is a great read that shows you the pain that Cancer patients really go through. I understand why Hazel did not want pity, because it makes you feel worthless, and this book is not worthless in anyway. This book is worth the read, and maybe after reading this you may be able to sought your faults in your stars.

"My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations."

I wanted to love this book the wit and humor was delightful, the story tragically beautiful, but I felt as though I was kept at a distance. Technically it was perfect. I should have loved it and been extremely emotionally invested in it. But for some reason I never became completely engaged in the story and the characters. Instead of crying at the end, I felt a strange sense of depression. Sadness, but also annoyance, annoyance that I didn’t feel sadder, frustration that Hazel, the narrator, was holding me at a distance. Perhaps, the author did this on purpose. A key part of the book was her grenade-ness; or maybe it was an unfortunate side effect of her opinion on herself. She only opened up to Augustus, and even then I felt out of the loop as if I was being kept out and held at arms length. Whether it was purposeful or side-effectual it hindered my enjoyment and appreciation of the book as a whole. Mentally it was enjoyable, but for me emotionally lacking.

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