SBT12: Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Southern Book Tour 2012

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Hardcover, First Edition, 313 pages
Published January 10th 2012 by Dutton Books
ISBN: 0525478817 (ISBN13: 9780525478812)
(Goodreads)

Review:

If you saw my Tweet the morning after staying into the wee hours of the morning to finish reading The Fault in Our Stars, you know I hate John Green a little bit for writing this book.  Just a little.  He’s some kind of evil genius or something.  I have read books that are sad, but I can’t remember the last book I read that made actual tears form in my eye, that made my heart ache, that made me mourn with the characters for the lives they could have lived.  I HATE YOU JOHN GREEN!

My wife fan-girled all over this book, and even preordered it so she could be one the thousands that got signed copies.  She also said she thought I would enjoy reading it.  I’ve read other Green books with very little reaction to them more than, “heh, that was ok.”  So, begrudgingly I began TFiOS.  Adam at Hitting on Girls in Bookstores said in his review, that “[he’s] never had such an emotional response to a book before.” (see his review).  After seeing that, I was a little bit more optimistic.

Reading TFiOS was like stepping into a fantasy land, sort of.  It was a world most of us will not experience.  One that involves the daily chore of just living.  Cancer is wreaking havoc on Hazel Grace, and simple tasks are difficult for her.  I’m not going to give away too much, but this is such a plot driven book, that I just can’t tell you too much.  Somehow, Greene made me feel Hazel Grace’s pain, to become one with her emotions, to understand what' she’s going through.  But in the end, it  just all seemed so unfair!!!

I didn’t particularly like Augustus at first, but he quickly became my favorite character in the book.  His outlook on life, and even the metaphors he was so fond of finding in everything made him all the more endearing.  Life is hard, and he knows this, and even through it treats people with cancer normally.  There’s something refreshing about his character.

I cannot fathom what level of heartache Green must have experienced in writing this book.  I don’t want to.  My reaction to just reading was too great.

I think only an evil genius can create a fictional literary work (and make me want to read it) that impacted two teens in such an amazing way.  I agree with others, that Green needs to write An Imperial Affliction and publish it.  I would read it.  There was a little bit of mystery surrounding An Imperial Affliction.  And there were a few times that this mystery was what kept me plugging through.  I needed to know what they wanted to know, too!

This is not my best review ever written.  I’m still emotionally raw from reading TFiOS.  So, you’re just going to have to trust me, if you haven’t read this yet, you need to.

5 Trees: Hate John Green with me and read TFiOS!!

Get to reading,

What makes this Southern?

John Green, according to Wikipedia, went to a boarding school in Birmingham, AL.  Also, he grew up in Orlando , FL.

About the author:

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. The film rights to Looking for Alaska were purchased by Paramount in 2005. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller. He also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
 
In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website.
(Goodreads)