Book Review: The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Posted 30th Aug 2021 by radiosarahc15 Comments on Book Review: The Fault in our Stars by John Green 52 Books Blog

Okay, I’m led to believe that this may be a controversial opinion….I liked this book, I didn’t love it.

I’ve had The Fault in our Stars in my kindle for years. I haven’t seen the film, I had an idea what it was about, I had expected a sob fest, heard so many people rave about it. I kind of expected to love it. I expected to cry, my eyes stayed dry, I didn’t love it.

Hazel has cancer, it’s terminal. A miracle, shrinking tumour has bought her a few extra years, but Hazel knows she’s dying.

At a Cancer Kid Support group, she meets Augustus Waters and so begins a new chapter….

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” John Green 

The rest of the book follows them falling in love, facing their illnesses, living and accepting their fate.

This book is beautifully written. It deals with big issues, it’s two teenagers battling cancer and facing death, so, yes not a light topic but still something was missing and for the life of me I can’t figure out what.

I liked the characters, I enjoyed how Hazel and Augustus interacted with each other. I liked their dark humour, how irreverent they could be, how open they were. I liked Hazel’s determination, she was determined to protect Augustus. I liked how passionate she’d get about things, how she’d stand by her convictions, was never afraid to speak her mind but still there was something missing.

There were scenes I loved, the trip to Amsterdam and the realisation that sometimes, you absolutely should not meet your heroes. The moments of anger felt real, their story was realistic, everything about them was realistic and still something was missing.

It’s filled with memorable quotes, lines that made me laugh out.

“What a slut time is. She screws everybody.” 

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” John Green

I enjoyed how it was written, I liked the character development, I liked the story – as much as you can like a story about dying teenagers. There was nothing wrong with this book, I just wasn’t wowed.

It felt a bit flat in places, I felt like I was just going through the motions with it. I expected to feel sadder, be more upset, be more moved and I wasn’t. 

Even now, days after finishing reading it, I’m still non plussed by it. It was pleasant, enjoyable but not mind blowing, which I was expecting considering some of the reviews I’ve read.

I’m going to say that, for me, this book perhaps falls into the trap of being over hyped.

Maybe if I’d come to it earlier I’d have been more moved by The Fault in our Stars, as it stands I’m just a bit “meh, it was perfectly fine, nothing more nothing less” and that’s what I find disappointing.

Still another book ticked off the TBR, so that’s good!

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Journalist, writer, traveller, music lover, collector of hats, news addict, bookworm