John Green - The Fault in Our Stars

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Pub. year: 2012
Pages: 336
Editor: Dutton Juvenile

Summary: Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Lyra's review:
So. John Green again, as announced! The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS) is out since January, the 10th, and I couldn't wait to read it! Why would I?

So here we are, after turning the last page. I'm still not sure about the word to use to talk about this book. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and think, and feel, and smile. I had to take a break an hour or two in the middle of the story to stop myself from reading it in one go, because I needed to think about what I was feeling. I felt heart broken. I wanted hugs from my friends. I had just this sentence in my mind: Why, John Green, why are you so good with words? And a couple of hours later, I took the book and made myself comfy to finish it. Another couple of hours later, I was crying. Like, really. And later again I closed the book with a limp in my throat, very confused about the state of my feelings.

TFIOS is a smart, funny, sad, poetic, and so many other adjectives, book. John Green depicts as always clever and funny teenagers, or should I say nerdtastic ones. And he doesn't just take a sad subject and make people cry. He also makes them laugh, and think, and doesn't just bring pity on characters. I like how Hazel and Gus (and Isaac) see things. Their illness makes them think a lot about death and its side effects. But they don't mourn about it. Of course, sometimes they ramble about how it pisses them off, but most of the time, they deal with it quietly, or make fun of it.
I love how this book fights clichés about dying people and dead people. Like the way everybody suddendly loves you because you're dead and they can attract attention by the loss of a dear friend. Or the way that dying people are seen by the others. I can't say to much because I don't want to spoil it to you, but I appreciated to read a book with kids who have cancer that is not a cancer book.

You probably get it by then, but this book left a strong impression on me. I'm probably gonna think about it for a while, and it certainly did change how I see some things. I really enjoyed this reading, even if it broke my heart in a very different kind of way, and I definitely recommend you to read it too.


Lily's review:
Hey, I'm here too! Funnily (unexpectedly would be more accurate), I also had time to read this book—it took a day and half that should have been used for other purposes, but sometimes we don't have a choice, reading takes over and that is it. So, I read this book, but not because I was dying to (no pun intended): I knew already it wouldn't be my sort of book. See, I don't do Sad Stories. I don't do Heavy Drama. So, logically, I don't do Kids With Cancer books. But John Green being who he is, and Lyra being the persuasive/menacing friend she is, I read it. And I read it fast, if that tells you something.

I think it's fair to say this book is about its characters before being about its story. They're not so many, and taking aside the usual worrying but great parents (they're not usually great, in fact, but those ones are, and it's worth mentionning), the usual important-but-not-so-much friends (that includes Isaac, who made my day while reading thanks to his funny reactions), only two remains: Hazel and Augustus.

I know I'm vain, but those names, really? Oh, well. Hazel, being the story teller and all that, applies to the usual treatment: being great but a bit too much, too much of her, too much of the bad that comes with the good in everyone. And she has cancer and kind of hates it, though she often talks about it in a funny way. Somehow, I have to give it to her that she's very alive (still no pun intended) and that makes her quite a good character. Augustus is... well, I loved Augustus at the begining, even though he's really too much—too tall, too beautfiul, too sweet, too romantic, too impossible—(something Hazel and Nerdfighters apparently disagree with, but I don't have the privilege to know them enough to really figure it out), and then all goes wrong somewhere. I feel like I've been kind of cheated by the ending, I admit.

I said I don't like Sad Stories (really, I'm not kidding there) and this one starts as a funny story, where you feel slightly guilty to make fun of cancer kids, and it ends as it should end, and leaves you as it should leave you, quite overwhelmed indeed. I don't do crying, but if I did, I'd have a cup of my own tears laying around. However, I do laughing, and I had enough chuckles to make me say that this book is great, greatly written by a very good author who knows how to say what he wants to say, and make people feel what he wants them to feel, and keep feeling it for a long time afterwards.

But I am rebel deep down, and I don't do Sad Story, so I don't think I'll read it again. I learned things, fancy words, fancy poems, I learned about life and death, even thought there was so much of it that I'll never remember everything, but that's alright. This story left a tiny scar in me, and it's better than nothing.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Posted in: 2012,Dutton Juvenile,John Green,Young Adult