book review // the fault in our stars

Photo credit: The Bamboo Nomad

The Fault in Our Stars
By: John Green
Pages: 313
Genre: YA Literature
Jane's Rating: 7.5

The Fault in Our Stars is different from the typical books on my shelf. Because of the author's unusually real (honest, raw) voice, I wasn't hooked immediately. Green's style was somewhat startling and almost unnerving at first, but I kept reading. It wasn't long until I was soaking up his poetic lines and repeating his words in my head. He's the kind of writer who articulates so many abstract, ambiguous thoughts that have spun through my own mind (I, however, am never able to articulate them).

Teenager Hazel has cancer and knows it will kill her. She meets Augustus, who has also been in and out of cancer treatments during his teen years. They fall in love between hospital visits, support group meetings, and their favorite books. Though their cancers define their lives, they do what they can to pedal around the obstacles.

John Green's narrative from the perspective of a teenage girl is convincing, like I said already, honest and raw. Nothing is sugarcoated, which I is another reason I liked it. He says it like it is, nothing syrupy. I tend to read a lot of sad books, but that's because often the truth is sad, and the truth is beautiful.

Favorite Lines:

What a slut time is. She screws everybody.

The weird thing about houses is that they almost always look like nothing is happening inside of them, even though they contain most of our lives.

A drink this good deserves one's best posture.

I owed a debt to the universe that only my attention could repay.

The voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again.