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defiantfall 's review for:
The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
Another book that I heard a lot about so I decided to give it a try. I can't say I'm an enamored by this book as most people are. I'm glad it didn't try to candy coat cancer as some books try to because really I get sick of that especially having witnessed cancer's cruelty first hand. I also am glad it showed that authors aren't always these magnificent beings we always imagined to be because they are human as well.
I did find the character kind of odd, though. Both teens' parents don't seem realistic to me. Their reactions, their attitudes, didn't seem like those of parents living with a child with cancer. Augustus had these moments where I didn't really understand why he acted the way he did like with the trophy smashing incident. I didn't really see where he was charming as much as very extroverted.
Hazel could be irritating in her standoffish behavior. I can understand her attitude in some ways but for the most part it's like she didn't care to be involved with anyone even with Augustus. Her whole reason of not wanting hurt anyone because her illness more often than not did not justify her behavior because she ended up hurting people anyway. Even when it came to Augustus there was a distance there that was more antisocial than simply not wanting to hurt him and made me question her love for him. It seemed to come from nowhere and her expression of it was rather flat. It was a switch from the sappy, obsessive love that's seemed to poison most YA literature lately but was not spectacular either.
I congratulate this book for being different than most YA literature in many ways. It does not shirk in trying to be honest about terminal illness but probably doesn't encapsulates it in a realistic manner. Would I recommend it? Probably not because I don't want to steer someone into believing it meets the hype around it.
I did find the character kind of odd, though. Both teens' parents don't seem realistic to me. Their reactions, their attitudes, didn't seem like those of parents living with a child with cancer. Augustus had these moments where I didn't really understand why he acted the way he did like with the trophy smashing incident. I didn't really see where he was charming as much as very extroverted.
Hazel could be irritating in her standoffish behavior. I can understand her attitude in some ways but for the most part it's like she didn't care to be involved with anyone even with Augustus. Her whole reason of not wanting hurt anyone because her illness more often than not did not justify her behavior because she ended up hurting people anyway. Even when it came to Augustus there was a distance there that was more antisocial than simply not wanting to hurt him and made me question her love for him. It seemed to come from nowhere and her expression of it was rather flat. It was a switch from the sappy, obsessive love that's seemed to poison most YA literature lately but was not spectacular either.
I congratulate this book for being different than most YA literature in many ways. It does not shirk in trying to be honest about terminal illness but probably doesn't encapsulates it in a realistic manner. Would I recommend it? Probably not because I don't want to steer someone into believing it meets the hype around it.