Monday, March 24, 2014

Fault in our Stars--Book Review

Two weeks ago during my shift I was browsing the library catalog and saw that The Fault in our Stars was downstairs in the Youth section. I was quite excited because I had been on hold for it the whole four weeks of my winter break at my library back home. I had heard so many good things about the book so I started it right after my shift ended. Well now as I sit here, two weeks later, with the book finished I am saddened to say that I think it is probably one of the most overrated books I've ever read.


The book is about Hazel, a teenager living with cancer who knows that she only has a few years left at best. She has pretty much come to terms with her diagnosis and is just taking life day-to-day. At a cancer support group, she meets Augustus Waters who is another very charismatic teen cancer survivor. As you can assume, the two end up falling for each other and there is a lot of conflict about allowing themselves to get close to another person and make their lives meaningful given their short time that they have left. I've read my fair share of romance/ terminal illness books and frankly this just seemed like every other one. Other than a sub-plot about corresponding with an author who they both idolize (a storyline which in my opinion felt very unlikely, forced, and a little over the top), the plot was pretty predictable. While I liked the character of Hazel and connected with her views on life and it's meaning, I never warmed up to Augustus. And I get that he wasn't always supposed to be the most likeable character but I just never developed a strong yearning that he and Hazel were meant to be.

While I appreciated John Green's attempt to try to throw a twist on your typical cancer romance novel, I just don't think it worked for me. I'm sure a lot of my opinion on this book was influenced by the mass amount of hype that it got. I probably set my expectations way too high and expected way too much. I would like to state that it wasn't a bad book, it definitely kept my focus and I was motivated to finish it, it just wasn't very memorable. If you're into teen romance novels, there's a good chance you might like this book. As for me, I think I'm all teen romance-ed out and will be sticking with adventure/ mystery books for the forseeable future. ~Bellamy

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