![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
The Blurb On The Back:
Despite the tumour-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.
Insightful, bold, irreverent and raw, The Fault In Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heart breaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Hazel Grace Lancaster is 16 years old and has terminal cancer. It started in her thyroid and spread to her lungs but thanks to a wonder drug called Phalanxifor, the tumours aren’t growing (although she does have to carry out an oxygen cylinder with her to breathe). When her parents talk her into going to a support group for kids with cancer she meets Augustus ‘Gus’ Waters, an 18 year old cancer survivor who lost a leg to the disease. Good-looking, smart and charming Augustus changes Hazel’s life but given the uncertainty of her condition, she doesn’t know whether she’s willing to take a risk on him …
John Green’s multi-award winning YA novel is a heart-warming, funny emotional rollercoaster of a novel. This isn’t ‘sick-lit’ – it’s a thoughtful, well-constructed novel that never descends into easy mawkish sentimentality even though it is treading over a well-trodden subject in the genre. Sometimes Green’s teenage characters sound older than their ages, there’s a bit of a self-conscious hipster feel to the text that didn’t quite gel at times and Gus is just a little too perfect and funny. However this doesn’t detract from the overall power of the story and it’s easy to understand why it’s had such critical acclaim.
Hazel is a very believable character and Green does very well at showing the fears and emotional complexities that come with her condition. I liked the way she shows her frustration and anger and I totally believed in her reluctance to become involved with Gus. By contrast Gus is funny, charismatic, and both bookishly and emotionally smart. For me there were times when he was a little too perfect but I loved his relationship with Isaac (who faces losing both his eyes to cancer) and I also loved his correspondence with Peter Van Houten, the author of Hazel’s favourite book who quit writing after its release and has never answered Hazel’s fannish emails. The plot loosely follows Gus’s and Hazel’s decision to visit Van Houten in Amsterdam and without spoiling it, I thought it was great how Green shows that heroes have feet of clay.
Some of the dialogue didn’t convince me and there is a hipster feel to some of the scenes that at times feels self-conscious. That said it’s a really well told story that’s well executed and it well deserves its plaudits.
The Verdict:
John Green’s multi-award winning YA novel is a heart-warming, funny emotional rollercoaster of a novel. This isn’t ‘sick-lit’ – it’s a thoughtful, well-constructed novel that never descends into easy mawkish sentimentality even though it is treading over a well-trodden subject in the genre. Sometimes Green’s teenage characters sound older than their ages, there’s a bit of a self-conscious hipster feel to the text that didn’t quite gel at times and Gus is just a little too perfect and funny. However this doesn’t detract from the overall power of the story and it’s easy to understand why it’s had such critical acclaim.
Despite the tumour-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.
Insightful, bold, irreverent and raw, The Fault In Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heart breaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Hazel Grace Lancaster is 16 years old and has terminal cancer. It started in her thyroid and spread to her lungs but thanks to a wonder drug called Phalanxifor, the tumours aren’t growing (although she does have to carry out an oxygen cylinder with her to breathe). When her parents talk her into going to a support group for kids with cancer she meets Augustus ‘Gus’ Waters, an 18 year old cancer survivor who lost a leg to the disease. Good-looking, smart and charming Augustus changes Hazel’s life but given the uncertainty of her condition, she doesn’t know whether she’s willing to take a risk on him …
John Green’s multi-award winning YA novel is a heart-warming, funny emotional rollercoaster of a novel. This isn’t ‘sick-lit’ – it’s a thoughtful, well-constructed novel that never descends into easy mawkish sentimentality even though it is treading over a well-trodden subject in the genre. Sometimes Green’s teenage characters sound older than their ages, there’s a bit of a self-conscious hipster feel to the text that didn’t quite gel at times and Gus is just a little too perfect and funny. However this doesn’t detract from the overall power of the story and it’s easy to understand why it’s had such critical acclaim.
Hazel is a very believable character and Green does very well at showing the fears and emotional complexities that come with her condition. I liked the way she shows her frustration and anger and I totally believed in her reluctance to become involved with Gus. By contrast Gus is funny, charismatic, and both bookishly and emotionally smart. For me there were times when he was a little too perfect but I loved his relationship with Isaac (who faces losing both his eyes to cancer) and I also loved his correspondence with Peter Van Houten, the author of Hazel’s favourite book who quit writing after its release and has never answered Hazel’s fannish emails. The plot loosely follows Gus’s and Hazel’s decision to visit Van Houten in Amsterdam and without spoiling it, I thought it was great how Green shows that heroes have feet of clay.
Some of the dialogue didn’t convince me and there is a hipster feel to some of the scenes that at times feels self-conscious. That said it’s a really well told story that’s well executed and it well deserves its plaudits.
The Verdict:
John Green’s multi-award winning YA novel is a heart-warming, funny emotional rollercoaster of a novel. This isn’t ‘sick-lit’ – it’s a thoughtful, well-constructed novel that never descends into easy mawkish sentimentality even though it is treading over a well-trodden subject in the genre. Sometimes Green’s teenage characters sound older than their ages, there’s a bit of a self-conscious hipster feel to the text that didn’t quite gel at times and Gus is just a little too perfect and funny. However this doesn’t detract from the overall power of the story and it’s easy to understand why it’s had such critical acclaim.