The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

[Stephanie]

I'm not giving this any stars because I feel like that is going to "LABEL" the book on an easy degree (I get to pick 1 - 5 on a scale of how good it was.) So instead I'm just going to briefly talk about it, my thoughts, and maybe someone can choose an appropriate star rating for me.

Sidenote: I have had a hard time with cancer stories. Perhaps it's because I have never experienced a relationship with cancer in the way friends and family of those who have cancer or an illness or know someone with cancer or an illness do. Perhaps that's why I have a hard time "buying' into these sorts of things. I think what John Green did was ambitious -- I would never attempt to write something to this degree. However, I think the idea was overwrought, in the simplest terms.

To make this short because I could ramble forever, if this didn't have the 'terminal illness element in it' what is this story about? Rhetorical question, not really looking for an answer, here. I think that's where my bias or tastes come in -- I want to feel something for these characters, and not because they were dying to begin with. I think, because I'm me (and others might not have felt the same way) but because I was inundated with this whole 'cancer-terminal-illness-always-on-the-verge-of-dying' right away, I couldn't look past it, and felt that many of the interactions and experiences with Hazel and Augustus were contrived.

Ho hum.

Someone's review of this book said: "But ultimately, what pissed me off was the fact that the book gets so deep, and at the same time says absolutely nothing"

I tend to agree.