Published: January 10th 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books
Introduction
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in
ourselves, that we are underlings." Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 2
Hazel has always been terminal,
even after a miracle that has prolonged her life by a few years. Now she is
connected to an oxygen tank on wheels to help her lungs function. After
displaying a cynical temperament and obsessing over the book An Imperial Affliction, her mother makes
her attend Support Group. While she detests the charade that is Support Group,
she meets Augustus Waters, and he gives her experiences she never thought she
would be allowed to get.
Originally, I was going to
practice hype aversion and read this book when the hype had passed so I could
get a clean perspective on it. Then I was asked to have a teen outing at the
theatre to see the film, and the book was thrust upon me prematurely.
Story
This story is, at its core, a
teen romance with a touch more literary flare than the usual mainstream YA
book. It is sad. It’s after your heart. It wants to break it. It wants to ruin
your day, lift you up just a bit with romance you’ll never have, and throw you
in a blender while it laughs.
No
hyperbole.
Hazel and
Augustus meet, fall in love, and bond over reading. Then they want to meet the reclusive
author of Hazel’s favourite book to ask him how it ends after the book ends. During this time, you have to remember that
both of them are cancer survivors, though Hazel is terminal.
Characters
The main characters definitely are different, and I believe that most
of that comes from their experiences in life. Having characters live with the
cliché one foot in the grave attitude
and are witty is a nice change of course for me. Hazel is so unbelievably smart
and Augustus is so unbelievably amazing at planning dates and he’s charming
with his outstanding charisma and he always knows what to do.
On the other hand, both Hazel and
Augustus have know-it-all Enlightened attitudes. Their literary and
philosophical references made me smile (and hell, made me feel smart), but I
think if they were real people, you’d find them pretentious. This makes them
both feel unrealistic. How many teenagers speak and think in long monologues? I
assume because they have cancer they are supposed to have this wisdom that
healthy people cannot acquire because they aren’t aware that they are dying (which I find silly, of course).
The other problem that I have is
that Hazel and Augustus are too similar.
Like she is Rosalind to his Robert. Their differences are slight and go mostly
unnoticed.
Peter Van Houten was by far my
favourite character. Interestingly, I think that if Hazel and Augustus lived to
be his age, they would probably end up like him: pretentious and egotistical
curmudgeons. Also, he had a character arch! Hazel and Augustus had arches, but
they felt a little unnatural and forced, maybe because their sicknesses drove
them to it.
The parents I found to be mostly
realistic. Augustus’s parents don’t want him to be alone with Hazel, and they have uplifting messages posted
throughout their house. Hazel’s mom constantly hovers, and her dad cries easily,
but they are unbelievably (near) perfect. They are a tad smothering, though I
would be too if I were them. Minor
Spoiler! However, there is a moment when they want her to stay home and I
was stunned as to why, after trying to get her to leave the house, they would
try to keep her home during such a crucial time. To me, that scene was forced
by Green to make conflict and have another discussion about the future.
Sick-lit
(The following is full
of snark)
This term is being thrown around
in conjunction with this book, though the term itself is nothing new. Some people
have a problem with this genre, and they feel that it is exploitative to the YA
audience (but not adults who read YA, I suppose, because adults don’t read YA?).
Some people don’t want teens to read sad books (
Diary of a Young Girl has been
banned for being too depressing).
Their
argument: If you’re terminal, you better be out changing the world, finding a
cure, and not having a fun adventure with experiences. And you better not “come
to terms” with your mortality, either! You better not be making the best of the
time you have left, because you better not come to terms with having a limited
time left.
In a
library setting, I am an open-minded person. It takes a lot for me to even
consider pulling a book from the shelves (and I haven’t done it yet). So, there
is no way I’d consider pulling The Fault
in our Stars or other books in this sick-lit genre. If you’re telling teens, or children, or adults, that they cannot feel sad or acknowledge reality as it is,
you’re telling them that they are inherently incapable of experiencing life and
interpreting it for themselves. Then you get flocks of sheeple who don’t know
how to think for themselves.
While the
characters are unbelievable in some respects, their plight isn’t. It’s sad. It
doesn’t mean that we can’t read about it and develop empathy. Refusing to
acknowledge these issues doesn’t make them any less relevant.
Final Verdict
Overall, it is a charming and
insightful book about teenagers who are ill. Some people are up in arms against
sick-lit right now, but don’t let that
keep you from including it in your library and using it in teen book clubs! The
characters are largely unrealistic, but if you’re looking for a tearjerker,
then this is it. If you want a realistic book about teens with cancer, there
are (probably) better out there, though I haven’t read any other YA books on
the subject.
SPOILERS!
Read at your own
risk!
Rumours
1. John
Green has said that Hazel dies a year later.
2. Hazel
is pregnant.
a. Nowhere
does it say that she is. There isn’t even a hint at it. I am reading a lot of
“BUT SHE HAD SEX!”. Despite what your abstinence only sex-ed high school
program teaches you, sex does not automatically make you pregnant. If you don’t
use protection, you might end up pregnant, but it’s not absolute (and just to
be clear, you CAN misuse protection and end up pregnant too). There is a lot of
fan fiction about this topic, and fan fiction is not canon, no matter how much
you want it to be. Also, nobody in this book dies because they had sex.
