Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Title: The Fault In Our Stars
Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Books
Publication Date: January 10, 2012
Source: won in a giveaway hosted by Jessica @ The Firefly Book Loft

Summary from Goodreads: 

Despite the tumor-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.

My Review:

Hear ye, hear ye!  I bring you the 3,209,577th book review of The Fault in Our Stars!  I know, I know, let's try not to get too excited.

I put this book off for SO LONG.  Just so much hype, you know?  Although at this point, I have no idea why I put off hyped-up books.  Am I really afraid they won't live up to it?  Because that has not been my experience, like AT ALL.  I didn't get into Harry Potter until the third or fourth book was out...and then I became a total groupie.  I felt like the last person ever to read Gone Girl, and it was AMAZING.  The list goes on.  And I'm happy to add The Fault in Our Stars to it.

A lot has already been said about this novel, so I'll try to keep this short.

Honestly, I was afraid that people were mostly in this one for the romance.  I kept hearing about Hazel and Augustus, and how amazing they were, and *eyeroll eyeroll eyeroll* (because that's what I do with literary romances).  But for me, it wasn't about their romance per se (though I can see how that would make the teen set swoon).  It was their relationship as a whole, romantic or no.  Hazel and Augustus play off of each other so well.  Their dialogue is whip-smart and funny without feeling contrived, and they just have this chemistry that comes alive for you on the page.

Secondly, the writing.  I know that's a really generic thing to talk about, but John Green wrote this book so well, it made me a little depressed.  I know, you're like, what the?  Why are you upset about this?  BECAUSE.  Like so many avid readers, I have toyed with the idea of writing a book myself one day.  But then you read a book that's written as well as TFIOS, and it makes you say, "WELL CRAP.  I can never, ever, ever write anything with even half the mastery of the English language that John Green has used here, so goodbye, sweet writing dreams."  Seriously, John Green, way to just ruin it for all of us.  I would insert a really excellent quote from the book here to illustrate my point, but there are JUST SO MANY that you might as well read the thing rather than listening to me quote all of it.

I could get really lengthy here, but I'm going to try to put the brakes on.  A few more quick things: the ending was not predictable.  You WILL get emotionally involved with the characters.  There is an amazing balance between humor and sadness that John Green manages with impressive skill.  Pretty sure I've never laughed so much during a book about cancer before, and yet this is still one of the heaviest novels (emotion-wise...it's only 300ish pages, not that kind of heavy) that I've read in a while.

The obvious conclusion here is that The Fault in Our Stars lives up to the hype.  Every last bit of it.

Readers: what's the last super-hyped book you read that was worth the publicity it received?