Last week I read John Green’s new novel, The Fault in our Stars.
This is not a review.
After I had read the first twenty-one pages, I told my husband this was going to be the best book I’d read all year.
A little while later I went to the bookstore and bought the hard copy because if Amazon ever disappears and I no longer have access to my e-books, not having this novel would be a particular tragedy. Also, I wanted to hold the tangible printed version in my hands.
When I was twelve, I started writing a novel from the point of view a girl about my age who had been diagnosed as HIV positive. I didn’t get very far with it, but it has lived on in my mind ever since. So when I heard the premise of The Fault in our Stars, I knew I had to read it. It is a novel from the point of view of a girl of sixteen who has terminal cancer. It is a heart sister to the novel I never wrote, that I couldn’t write, and the fact that it exists makes me breathe more freely.
This novel is not a sappy issue book that makes you want to yell at it as if it is conscious before you hurl it across the room and mope.
This novel is not an easy book to read. I can only imagine what it must have been like to write.
This novel is not perfect. Our protagonist says at one point that the movie V for Vendetta is a boy movie. I completely disagree. Of course, one could argue that this slight blemish makes the book even more perfect.
If you talk like either of the two main characters and/or think about the things they think about, I want to be your friend. We can go to a coffee shop every week and have deep existential conversations in between making ironic statements that have us internally rolling on the floor even though on the outside we only cue our mirth with a certain type of smile. If you don’t live nearby, you should move here. It will be worth it.
Also, when you worry about what your life means or may mean or may not mean, I will hold your hand, if you will hold mine.
In the meantime, enjoy this novel. Its construction is a miracle to behold. It has layers upon layers, a story within a story (and then some). It plays with language. It is a brave book. It talks about things that matter that maybe most people don’t want to talk about, like death and dying and illness and meaning and love that lasts through it all. It does not flinch away.
This book punched my heart even while it fed it. Or it filled it up till brimming even while it broke it.
Thank you, John Green.
The Practical Free Spirit 
Thank you, Amy. I’ve been looking for a new book to read.
Get your tissues ready!
Do you follow John Green’s vlog? It was really fascinating to watch him discuss the writing process for this book over the last few years and then read it.
I did not know about that! I usually don’t follow vlogs and podcasts because it takes so much more time to watch/listen than it does to read, but I might have to make an exception in this case and watch some of them…
I enjoy following him, but it’s the only vlog I follow so I understand your point. I think it might be hard to appreciate the first few videos without a broader understanding of the vlog in whole, but here’s a Q&A on TFIOS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_FzrUXOZEc
“Our protagonist says at one point that the movie V for Vendetta is a boy movie. I completely disagree.”
If you asked me if V for Vendetta was a “boy movie” or a “girl movie”, I would say it is a “boy movie”. Yes, the primary viewpoint protagonist is female, but most of the other characters are male, including the masked rebel who blows stuff up and gets in a gun/knife fight. Perhaps the movie is ‘supposed to be’ about Evie not V (and it comes across more than way in the original graphic novel), but as a guy it certainly felt like a “boy movie” to me.
Unless you’re arguing it was neither a “boy movie” nor a “girl movie”, in which case I agree.
Curious about this since I assume your YA experience gives you a different perspective about how these things are defined.
I would argue that it is neither, yes. I don’t like the idea that some violence instantly makes a movie a “boy” movie, or that girls are automatically less likely than boys to enjoy such things. And in a movie like V for Vendetta, which balks the trend of Hollywood action adventure movies that are very male-centered, it bothers me particularly.
One of the things I really like about the movie is how the fact that Evie’s head is shaved means she is not even traditional eye candy and meant only to be seen by the male gaze. And really the entire movie is about her character arc. True, it would be EVEN BETTER if there were more female characters in the movie, but sadly, what we see here is better than most, IMO.
Now THAT’S a recommendation!
It’s nice to be able to recommend a book so unreservedly. 🙂
[…] Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. YA contemporary I wrote about this novel here. I am not the only person who thinks this book is […]