Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

 “The world is not a wish-granting factory.”

 

“You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.” 


How I got around to reading this book is a long story.  First, someone posted this on their facebook.  It is called "17 Rants in 4 Minutes."  I thought it was hilarious and so, I showed it to my brother, Caleb, who said, "Yeah, that's Hank Green.  This is the vlogbrothers."

I'd never heard of such a youtube channel.  He explained to me that these two brothers, John and Hank Green, send vlogs to each other which they post on youtube. And honestly, though they only ever address their brother in the video, it's not really just for their brother.  And then, I became a fan of the vlogbrothers. They are so clever and funny, but always intelligent in the way they do it. As it turns out, neither of these brothers is just a vlogger.  Hank Green runs a record company and has a lot of internet enterprises, including the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, which my sister, Beth, really likes. John Green is a Young Adult fiction writer. 

And then, I learned about his most recent book (which is going to be turning into a movie soon): The Fault in Our Stars.

 

And then, I read it.  So, the voice is very indicative of John Green.  If you watch his videos, and then read the book, you can just hear him reading it aloud.   The story is that of Hazel, who is a cancer patient.  At her "support meeting" (which she hates), she meets Augustus, who lost a leg to osteosarcoma.  They continue their romance while philosophizing about the world, infinity, oblivion and more.  The book deals with the questions of death, life, dying, pain, love, choice and being loved. It is one of the most philosophical and intelligent books that I have ever seen classified as "Young Adult."  In fact, I don't really know why it is called young adult except for the fact that the main characters are teenagers.

Here's my disclaimer of what I don't like:  the language.  There is strong language.  It's a nice PG-13.  It could even keep its PG-13, because the f-word is only used once.  It was like I was back in highschool, frankly.  It would have been better without it, but I guess, considering the age of the characters, not really out of reality.    

Disclaimer two:  The teenagers do it. And by it, I mean it.  It is not detailed, and keeps its PG-13.  In fact, without the language, it could probably even remain PG, but you know that they do it.  And I don't know how I feel about that.  I guess you put together two dying teenagers, and they want to make the most of the time they have.  That said, I still do not feel it is right what they did.  

But, I really liked the book as a whole.  It could be called pretentious, but I call it real and thoughtful.  I give it 4 stars.  It doesn't get 5, just because I don't feel that strongly about the "it was good." 

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