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A review by megtristao
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
5.0
To be honest, this book is a 4.5, but I figured I give a LOT of books 4 stars and I wanted this one to stand out. I think I mostly struggled between 4 and 5 stars because I'd heard so many wonderful things about this book for so long. On one hand, I was afraid I only thought it was 5 stars because I felt like I HAD to think that. On the other hand, I am typically underwhelmed by books I expect a lot from, not the opposite. Here are my reasons for 5 stars and 4 stars:
5 stars: Oh my gosh, the writing. The most annoying part of this book was how often I had to stop and note down a page number so I wouldn't forget a certain quote. I laughed out loud ("Please draw a circle. Now draw a smaller circle within that circle. The larger circle is virgins. The smaller circle is seventeen-year-old guys with one leg") and I cried out loud ("here it was, the great and terrible ten, slamming me again and again as I lay still and alone"). I appreciated the raw honesty of the writing, refusing to glorify sickness and those who suffer from it ("Illness repulses. I'd learned that a long time ago, and I suspected Augustus had, too"). The dialogue was genius ("You are fairly smart," I said after a while. "You are fairly good at compliments," he answered). In fact, the kids themselves were genius. It was almost unbelievable how smart and philosophical and unconventional they were ("Do you realize how rare it is to come across a hot girl who creates an adjectival version of the word pedophile?"), but I know it's possible! John Green really broke out of the mold of young adult romance with his characters, and I don't think he could have done it any better. Except ...
4 stars: I started out liking the side plot of the book (to avoid a spoiler alert, I'll just say AIA for those of you who have read it). By the end, though, I wanted it to go away. I didn't think it added that much to the last 70 pages of the book (except the very last pages, of course), and frankly I thought it distracted from all the parts of the book I loved (see above).
And I think that's officially the longest book review I've ever written. I could probably say more, but I'd like to hear your thoughts instead. Agreements? Disagreements? I am definitely glad I finally picked this book up and would recommend it to anyone who likes to read! Or maybe even those of you who don't. :)
5 stars: Oh my gosh, the writing. The most annoying part of this book was how often I had to stop and note down a page number so I wouldn't forget a certain quote. I laughed out loud ("Please draw a circle. Now draw a smaller circle within that circle. The larger circle is virgins. The smaller circle is seventeen-year-old guys with one leg") and I cried out loud ("here it was, the great and terrible ten, slamming me again and again as I lay still and alone"). I appreciated the raw honesty of the writing, refusing to glorify sickness and those who suffer from it ("Illness repulses. I'd learned that a long time ago, and I suspected Augustus had, too"). The dialogue was genius ("You are fairly smart," I said after a while. "You are fairly good at compliments," he answered). In fact, the kids themselves were genius. It was almost unbelievable how smart and philosophical and unconventional they were ("Do you realize how rare it is to come across a hot girl who creates an adjectival version of the word pedophile?"), but I know it's possible! John Green really broke out of the mold of young adult romance with his characters, and I don't think he could have done it any better. Except ...
4 stars: I started out liking the side plot of the book (to avoid a spoiler alert, I'll just say AIA for those of you who have read it). By the end, though, I wanted it to go away. I didn't think it added that much to the last 70 pages of the book (except the very last pages, of course), and frankly I thought it distracted from all the parts of the book I loved (see above).
And I think that's officially the longest book review I've ever written. I could probably say more, but I'd like to hear your thoughts instead. Agreements? Disagreements? I am definitely glad I finally picked this book up and would recommend it to anyone who likes to read! Or maybe even those of you who don't. :)