The Fault in our Stars Film

The Fault in our Stars Book Review

I managed to finish reading the book and see the film in the same day. Here are some of my thoughts about the book to film adaption of John Green's The Fault in our Stars.

Spoilers Ahead!

Lol

Imagine if that went to her spam filter.

The texting that happens throughout the book is animated bubbles on the screen. While I dislike it because it looks juvenile, I also can’t suggest a better way to show the audience what they are texting. The emails were jarring as well, but you don’t want a camera zooming in on all those emails, either.  

Hazel’s thoughts are absent, and for me, that is a huge plus. They seem more like normal people on an adventure that most of us will never experience. Occasionally their dialogue quotes the book, but it doesn’t always work when two people actually try to say these words to each other. 

I’m glad they kept Hazel’s cannula. I wondered if they would cut that detail out because it is a constant reminder that she is very ill, and it is difficult to give the audience the standard of beauty they are used to. I don’t want to imply that people with cannulas can’t be pretty, but the all-powerful media doesn't usually associate them with beauty. They associate it with sickness, and then we tend to treat people as a different class of citizen that is completely unsexual.

Caroline is absent in the film, and I can say that I don’t mind. To me, she didn’t add much to the book. Yes, Hazel sees how traumatic it was for everyone when Caroline died. But she doesn’t need to be aware of Caroline to understand how people will be affected when she dies. She knew that before.

Kaitlyn is also cut from the film, and I think it works better. Hazel’s friendlessness solidifies that she has been placed in this separate group, the ill, the temporary inhabitants of this earth, and she is depressed. Or she possibly removed herself from her old friends. Either way, it works.

Most of the videogame scenes are gone. As a videogamer and reviewer, I am disappointed. Although Hazel doesn’t play (or at least that I can recall), she bonds with both Augustus and Isaac when they play. Plus, we got to see how Isaac gets to play after his surgery.

Their meeting is different: in the film, they just bump into each other. I thought it was awkward, but it is less awkward then noticing a guy staring at you relentlessly like Edward Cullen.

John Green had a cameo appearance in the film, but it was cut to maintain a better narrative flow. Good news is, you can still see the small clip:

The film has to hurry along events that transpire over days or weeks, but that is normal for films. It even works to its benefit, as I liked how Van Houten gave Hazel the pages. Yet we don’t really see Augustus’s decline, apart from the G-tube infection.

The best scene is when Isaac throws the eggs. Luckily, I have a clip of that too:

They cut the scene where Augustus’s illness is foreshadowed! This is what stood out to me the most after the film.Why cut the foreshadowing? I read that part of the book, and I wondered if Augustus's parents didn't want him to get involved with another terminal girl. Even though I joked to myself that I knew where the plot was headed and how the book would end, I didn't see exactly that when Hazel and her mom accidentally hear Augustus and his mom fighting.

Unfortunately, I have already seen Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort play brother and sister in the Divergent film, so I kept thinking of that. In The Fault in our Stars they also look alike to a degree, especially with Hazel's short hair.

Should you go see the film?

Do you like to get the warm and fuzzies when a young couple is in love?

Do you like your heart to be broken/do you think the world is just too bloody cheerful?

Do you like Amsterdam (aside from the red light districts)?

If you answered "yes" or "sure" or "sometimes", then YES! Go see the film. Go cry like a baby.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

 

The Fault in our Stars Film Review

 

Published: January 10th 2012 
Publisher: Dutton Books

Websites: Author’s Website, YouTube Channel (posts with his brother, Hank Green)

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.

My Tweets

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.      

            Further Reading: A YALSA article and a KYD article.

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.

a.       Nope, never happened, according to John Green.

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.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The Divergent Trilogy Reviews
Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant
The Divergent Film Review 

Published: October 22, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Series: #3 of the Divergent Trilogy 
Website: Author’s Blog

Introduction:

The last installment in the Divergent series revolves around the consequences of the bombshell reveal that ended the last book. The city has learned the truth and the Divergent have been called to leave the city, to meet whoever created their city. However, the Factionless have declared that leaving the city is forbidden. First, they must escape the city. Then they have to survive and comprehend the new world.

Tobias and Tris

            Again, I was rolling my eyes at the arguments erupting between Tris and Four. As the pages were turned and terrible things happened, I was like, Whoa, what is this? Actual conflict? Turmoil that could easily tear two people apart? And it makes more sense than Katnis and Gale in Mockingjay?

            I was thrilled that they had stopped fighting. After all, when two people break up, they find new partners, and the world goes on after heartbreak. I wanted them to make up or break up. I was tired of the constant fighting.

            Then Tobias participates in a plan that Tris doesn’t trust. It goes terribly wrong. The conflict that arose was realistic, and I had fireworks inside because finally, their relationship wasn’t going through artificial turmoil.

From this point forward, there will be spoilers!

Story:

            The story of Allegiant, at its simplest core, is about genetics. The people of the past discovered the genes that made people “bad” and they sought to fix it through genetic modification. Turns out, it made people worse, and they sought to fix it again. They classified the people as Genetically Pure (GPs, or the Divergent) or Genetically Damaged (GDs).    

However, I can’t help but feel that the premise is flawed. If you wanted Genetically Pure people, why didn’t they make a breeding program? How about taking genetic material from two GPs, or the best you got, and make “test tube babies”? Or using the genetic modification methods they already have and try again? Creating walled cities so the genetic damage will “heal” itself through the generations is not the best way to achieve their goals. Also, the science behind this theory doesn’t exist. You pass the genes you have to your children. Let’s put it this way: if cancer runs in your family, the genes will (probably) be passed to your children. It doesn’t just “dilute” in your children. We can’t heal ourselves. It would be nice if it did work this way, but it doesn’t.   

I feel that The Chemical Garden trilogy did genetics better. Not that the CGT should be a comparison, but at least I wasn’t rolling my eyes at the genetic talk.   

Length of the Book

            This book was too long. Not that I have anything against books that are 500 pages. The conflict with the Factionless and the faction loyalists was interesting, but ultimately it bogged the book down. Insurgent was guilty of the same thing, and it lowers my opinion of the book.   

The Theme of Self-sacrifice and Interesting Discussion

            An interesting point of discussion is Caleb’s choice to sacrifice himself. The tagline of Allegiant is “One choice will define you”, and this happened to Caleb’s when he betrayed Tris by working with Jeanine. So, is it “right” of Caleb to go on the vital suicide mission? Who else would do it? Would you have let him?

            On the other hand, should Caleb have let Tris go? The theme of the selfless act is glorified at the climax of the book.

            Caleb was looking for redemption, and he loved Tris as his sister. Was it right of Tris to take that away from him?

The End

            The Dauntless are all about being brave. I think it was brave of Roth to end the book as she did. The climax reminds me of the film Kickass – the good guys don’t always win. They put themselves in highly dangerous situations and risk their lives for what they believe in, and they don’t always walk away with minor wounds.

            Yet now that she is dead, I don’t think I want to read the books again. I’m like, That was stupid.

            I hope the spirit/hallucination of her mother after the hug was like, What the heck, Beatrix?! Caleb is supposed to be here. We made him a cake with his name on it and everything. Caleb defined himself, and what has he got going for himself? He needs his own redemption, and you took it from him!

            It was stupid of Tris to go. I can’t stress this enough. Just because it was bittersweet doesn’t mean I have to like it. Like other parts of this book, the logic is flawed. Of course, it was Tris’s decision. Fine. People make stupid decisions. But from a story writing perspective, it overshadowed the resolution of the book. In the epilogue, I wanted to know how the world/society/the genetic healing was going. You only get a brief taste of it because the book shifts its focus to grief. Funny thing is, tons of people died in this series. We are supposed to care, but Roth introduced too many characters without developing them, so when they died, I didn’t care. Plus, what did she actually die for? If she failed in her mission, then the people of the Bureau would still have their memories and other random people in the city, who were not related to the main characters, would have forgotten everything. She didn’t die to save lives. She died to…make it “fair”. Except the book got extremely preachy on the morally grey areas, like if it is right to take away their memories because they were going to take away the memories of the people in the city.    

Final Verdict

            It was a fun experience, until I realized how convoluted the plot was. And how the genetic healing stuff was illogical. And how long it the book was. And the end killed it for me. I think Roth had a good idea for the first book, was roped into make a trilogy, and had to grasp for something in the third book. If you have read the first two books, of course you’ll read it. However, if you didn’t even like the first two, I’d recommend you go read something else.