carolineinthelibrary 's review for:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

3.0

emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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When I read this book as a 19 year old, I thought I’d just read the best thing known to man. As a 30 year old, it didn’t quite hit the same. I still like the story, all of its fast but fierce love and heartbreak, but I found the writing so pretentious. I don’t know that I thought deeply about it the first time I read it but John Green writes Hazel and Gus like they’re two masters students in literature. Their language just isn’t that of two teenagers and it made it difficult for me to really love them on this read. Maybe as a late teen I felt like John Green wasn’t dumbing teenagers down, like he was giving us a space to be haughty intellectuals, but on this go around I just felt like these two people couldn’t possibly be real and if they were, they’d be obnoxious. I’m glad I re-read this but I have such a funny feeling about how much my thoughts on it changed.