I am starting with a review of a book I read a while ago, this was part of the work I did for my creative non fiction module of my degree :) Hope you like it :) This also can be seen on my goodreads account.
Book Review of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green
I went into the staff room at work to check for any notices and thats when I saw the Boston blue shade of the cover amongst an array of unfamiliar books. My heart skipped a beat as I took in the sight of thousands of pages full of stories and excitement. I have an obsession. The smell of new paperbacks makes me giddy at the knees. The book somehow found its way into my hands, it must of been the whiff of a good story.
I then placed the three hundred and thirteen page book safely in my bag. Now before you think that I am a crazy book thief, I would like to say, I wasn’t stealing the book at all. One of the perks of working in a bookshop is the staff books which sit on the window sill whilst I eat my cheese sandwich and they scream
“Read Me!”.
John Greene. I had previously read his other young adult novel ‘Looking for Alaska’, and in enjoying this, however not profusely, I thought reading this book would be intriguing to compare this authors writing. Plus I can’t help picking up a good book!
This book has been reviewed before as ‘Damn near genius‘ and it highlights on the back cover four different words ‘INSIGHTFUL, BOLD, IRREVERENT, AND RAW’. Now if that isn’t catchy, then I don’t know what else is!
The book’s blurb also told me that the story revolves around a teenager called Hazel and her experience and ongoing battle against the big C. Now, I have read many young adult fiction that focuses on the theme of cancer, for example Jenny Downham’s ‘Before I Die‘ and Alice Kuipers ‘Life on the Refrigerator Door’. So when I heard this was another cancer themed book, I was a bit sceptical. Like the vampire and dark romance themes, I have a feeling that the cancer theme has a risk of being over done. Therefore when reading this I didn’t want to see just another book on the same theme, I wanted it to have some resonance and show me something different.
And it did.
John Green’s story is not one just about battles and celebrating life. It’s one about chance and luck.
I actually started reading the book about a month ago, I read 22 pages and at first was not gripped. But I had to stop and catch up with my reading for English, so was unable to be hooked by Green’s fishing line. However, after a few weeks I picked the book up again and got past the first few chapters and struggled to put the damn thing down!
In the first chapter, Hazel meets Augustus Waters at a Cancer Support group situated in the basement of a church. Hazel has to have oxygen tanks to support her breathing and Augusts has an amputated leg from a previous encounter with cancer. Throughout the story these two characters spend a lot of time together harmlessly flirting and then ending up together as a couple. However their luck has a turn for the worse and fate creates a cruel twist right near the end.
To me the novel did look at the cancer from a slightly different light, however I felt it could of been better. The book although having the plot twist, followed a similar storyline to other books that looked at this illness. The character is ill, she falls in love and then a tragedy occurs. On the other hand though, the characters depth made the book much more entertaining. The intelligent banter between Augustus and Hazel made for some aspects of humor within the novel. Also the use of the Cancer support group enabled readers to see more than one type of cancer and one type of character. As well as this, the use of the group listing all the names of the characters who had lost their battle to cancer emphasised the struggle that many people are going through today. The list of the people affected by cancer is endless and the illness has become a universal theme that most people can relate to. We all know someone who has had cancer or at least know someone who has known someone who has had it. Therefore, despite the story being similar to so many others out there, it highlights a important aspect of todays life.
When I look back at the book which I read at the beginning of the week, I find it difficult to remember particulars that I enjoyed or disliked. However, the story is one that I will keep in my head forever due to the amount of emotion that I managed to conjure up from the black print. I went from smiles, to laughter, to fear and then from all that to a hideous state of sobbing. Now when I say sobbing, I mean the works, the downpour of tears, the downright hideous runny nose and an array of tissues littered across my double bed spread. Now, I know what your thinking, this girl is probably emotionally unhinged, and maybe I am. But John Green’s hand had managed to reach out from the pages of his hope stealing book, grab on to my heart and rip it to pieces.
Despite going to bed at three in the morning with tired eyes and a mind full of despair, a book had wooed me once again. Maybe I am just an easy critic and a sucker for anything fiction. But this novel has been written beautifully and although there may be ‘fault in our stars’ , there is very little fault in Green’s writing.
And some quotey images to tempt you more to read this book :)
