The Reader's Shire - Book Reviews

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Disclaimer:

This is a mostly negative review so if you're in love with this book and expect everyone to share your feelings, then please leave immediately.

If you haven't read TFIOS, then hello last person on this planet who hasn't read TFIOS! I love you. Please don't read my review until you've read the book as it contains major spoilers. Actually, on second thought, screw the book. Read my review instead.

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Series: -
Genres: Young Adult Contemporary
Format: Paperback.
Length: 313 pages.
Publication date: January 10, 2012.
Publisher: Penguin Random House.
Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.30 out of 5 stars
My Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars

"You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have a say in who hurts you."

Man, these past two years have been a whirlwind of The Fault in our Stars. The book was practically everywhere. I didn't give it much importance at first because I thought it was a typical romance novel. That was until I caught a handful of my peers who had never touched a book in their lives, mesmerized by it. I simply had to see what the big deal was.

I had never read a book regarding cancer. It was going to be adapted into a film and I knew I had to get on with reading it or I would get bombarded with spoilers, sooner or later. I was promised beautiful writing, a shitload of weeping, a smexy fictional guy by the name of Augustus Waters and my reading experience to be life changing. Back then, I was new to the Young Adult Genre so those four aspects were an easy five stars for me so naturally, my curiousity won.

Deep sigh

As you can probably tell, I got none of that. I didn't cry. I didn't even feel sad. I didn't like Augustus. I found the writing monotonous and my life remained pretty much the same. The entire book was so damn predictable and boring that I was surprised it wasn't written by a 12 year old.

"Don't feel stupid if you don't like what everyone else pretends to love." ~Emma Watson.

And...this is going to be embarassing to admit but 13 year old me felt very guilty for disliking a book which everyone seemed to love. So... I decided to pretend to love it. I'm not proud of it. Someone should have explained that quote to me, ha.

This book would have been good IF:

1) Green actually knew how to write about a disease and made us feel something about the struggles, pain and hardships faced by people who suffer from Cancer.

2) Hazel and Augustus's relationship was developed and a little less cheesy. I do believe in a love story. I really do. But I don't believe in love stories which go like this: 

Mary Sue meets Hottie
Mary Sue magically falls in love with Hottie
Mary Sue and Hottie do the nasty
Hottie dies
The end.

3) The monologues weren't so clichè and actually had any deep meaning.

Like...what is it with Hazel and Augustus communicating like Shakespearen characters?

"I lit up like a Christmas Tree, Hazel Grace."

Wait. So you're comparing your cancer to a tree? 

"It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing."

It's a metaphor, see: You read the badly written book which everyone seems to love but you don't let anyone know that you're not enjoying it.