The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
“Everyone in this tale has a rock-solid hamartia: hers, that she is so sick; yours, that you are so well. Were she better or you sicker, then the stars would not be so terribly crossed, but it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he had Cassius note, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.’”
Hazel is a self-proclaimed, metaphorical grenade that could go off at any moment. Therefore, she keeps most, besides her loving parents, at arm’s length. Even when she meets the charismatic Augustus, she does her best to keep his NEC (no evidence of cancer) self away from her currently-on-drugs-that-are-miraculously-prolonging-her-terminal-diagnosis-self.
The Story– I’m going to be real, and admit that I am way late to the game, so I’m not going to try to do a full review, and thus here are my honest thoughts:
Was this book supposed to make me appreciate life and my fully working lungs? I am a bitter monster and only cared about the characters for about a blip – and it came at a point where they post an ad for a swing set.
This book was about a defeatist who, despite the risks and trying to friend-zone the entire time, falls for an optimistic guy. In theory, could be a sweet story, except it focused so much on the cancer that the romance was a little lost to me.
Let’s just face the facts: this isn’t the type of book I read, and I only read it because I promised a dear friend I would. So let me point out that the only thing that really drives this story is the peculiar dynamic that the characters present. I need more angst to really get me to feel things.
The Characters– Hazel is a pessimistic girl doing her best not to cause very much damage of her life, not seeing the reality is that she brings life to those around her. Between her and Augustus I feel like I have to brush up on my SAT vocabulary because of the way they so eloquently speak. I was so happy that it was addressed in the book jokingly how pretentious he was.I wanted to like them both a lot, but honestly, I probably wouldn’t be able to hang out with either for very long without rolling my eyes and screaming to get over themselves. Can we have a normal conversation that isn’t revolving around an existential crisis? Not everything has to be profound. Gosh, I sound like such a jerk right now. I don’t really care though.
Anyway, despite their ostentatious conversations being over the top, I did find them entertaining. It was the type of entertaining you might find by listening to banter between two hoity toity men discuss the meaning to life as they smoked their pipes and sipped their aged brandy. Anyway, it worked for me, and helped me finish the book.
The Soundtrack– I hate that I am dedicating a song from one of my most favorite bands to this book since I thought it was so-so. But it just fits SO dang well that I can’t NOT put this song to the book.
