In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

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In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Fri Jul 04, 2014 12:36 am

This is a crazy idea I just had. I started reading this book today, and thought about reviewing each chapter as I read it. It's not a novel idea, I know, but I never did anything like that. Why am I doing this? Two reasons: first, I feel like writing about something; and second, I want to use this as motivation to keep on reading. I mean, I have started reading about half a dozen books in these last several months, and yet I couldn't finish any of them. At some point, I just wanted to give up. For some bizarre reason, reading books is turning into a grossly excruciating experience, like it was back in high school when I was forced to read crappy, boring books just to do well in a literature exam. Maybe by keeping this review running, I have a good reason to keep on reading, and maybe this activity will be tolerable again.

Anyway, this is The Fault in Our Stars, by geeky YouTube superstar John Green.

This review will probably contain spoilers as it goes, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

First chapter

The prose already puzzled me. It is written in first person by the protagonist Hazel, a 16-year-old cancer patient who starts attending a support group to fight depression. The prose puzzles me because I don't know if that is the character speaking or the author speaking. I mean, I already watched his videos on YouTube before I realised, with utter shock, that this book was his. And I know he tries to appeal to the quirky-nerdy types who fancy themselves as highly literate and cultured though they take most of their culture from Star Wars and xkcd. And I'm finding this character a little hard to relate to; with some effort, I can picture her as a shy and depressed teenager who uses all this snarkiness to evade her real problems, but it doesn't feel terribly natural. She has a bitter sense of humour and a dark outlook of life (well, coming from a teenager cancer treatment I can perfectly understand that -- I'm not an insensitive asshole or anything!). She hates support group, because it's depressing, nothing helpful seems to come out of it, and people just repeat the same stories over and over again. Yet she keeps attending it to make her parents happy. Nothing too hard to follow. One fine day, she meets romantic interest also-cancer-patient Augustus, who is basically her but minus the depression and with a teenager bravado sort of thing. He falls for her, she falls for him, he compares her to Natalie Portman and invites her to watch a movie with him in his house. At first, she accepts, but freaks out when she sees him put a cigarette in his mouth. She storms off but then he quickly reaches out for her, saying he never lights the cigarette: it's a metaphor, because he never gives the killing thing the power to kill him. Then she definitively falls for him.

That's it. I'll say, I had no problems making it to the end of the chapter. Green has a fluid style, and he sprinkles the narrative with details that make it obvious he did his homework on cancer patients and treatment. But he also makes it obvious that the characters are basically mirrors of himself. I can't blame him, because as they say, we write about what we know. I have also written mirrors of myself more than once. What I think is important is that, when doing that, the author must have a sense of critique in order to comment on what that mirror really means. In this first chapter, it's way too early to decide whether that's Green's case, but I'll say nothing here was unbearable. The descriptions and snarks are generally quite good, with only the occasional misfires like "Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then, if it likes you, it takes the rest." But overall, so far, I'll keep on reading. I'm not yet gripped and eager to see the rest, but I'm open to it.

Rating so far: three faults out of five stars.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by c_nordlander » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:15 pm

Interesting. I'll keep an eye on this. I've heard a lot of hype about this book, so I'm interested to see whether it lives up to it.

You're not the only one who finds reading a bit of a chore. I used to love reading when I was a kid; then university happened, and now it can take me months to slog through a book, even a good one.
Don Cobra wrote:Rating so far: three faults out of five stars.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Fri Jul 04, 2014 7:26 pm

I'm still on it.

Chapter two

Here we basically get to know a bit of the male protagonist's life, house and family. But we also get the backstory on the protagonist Hazel's illness, which is quite well written. We get some good dialogue between them; it shows pretty well their personality as angsty teenagers trying hard to sound sophisticated and smart. His parents are all modern and liberal, and use words like "vegetarianize". Augustus talks about how playing basketball made him feel like a 2-year-old, and tells Hazel that she cannot become the disease. Some good storytelling, with maybe a bit too many pop culture references (I totally like this movie, and I totally like this band, and I totally like this novelization of my favourite video-game and so on.). Yeah, I know the narrator is 16, but it still feels suspiciously like authorial intrusion. The prose bugged me less this time, but it still has this overly teenager tone -- not Catcher in the Rye teenager, but "I, like, totally understand you" teenager. But so far, it's not bad at all. I'm not yet enjoying it, but the potential is there.

Rating so far: three The Price of Dawns out of five V for Vendettas.

P.S.: I'm a bit more relieved that reading is not difficult only for me. Interestingly enough, I used to read quite bit during college. Then, it kind of died out. I guess laziness kicked in and left me like this. Hopefully I can fix this.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Sat Jul 05, 2014 7:23 pm

I'm on a real roll! Three chapters in three days!

Chapter Three

We take a break from the teenager romance to focus on the protagonist alone, and how she is totally getting into bloody novelizations of sci-fi video games -- but, of course, only because I was borrowed from the male protagonist. She is the kind of girl who keeps count of the number of deaths in the books she reads, even when it gets to over one hundred. We read about how she's celebrating her "33rd half-birthday" by going shopping with a friend from school. Reading about two girls shopping is about as painful as watching two girls shopping, at least in this instance. The focus here is to show the awkwardness of Hazel's social life in face of her illness, the lung condition and the ever-present oxygen tank, but it's better when she narrates it in her own voice. It's very short and almost slight, so I guess this topic will be resumed later. I found it a very interesting point, and I hope it gets fleshed out better. Other than that, the chapter spends an inordinate amount of time showing how much Hazel is enjoying those violent sci-fi books. I mean, I already get the point, man. Ah, yes, and one of the characters texts the word "awesomesauce". At least this is the first occurrence of the word "awesome" so far, if I'm not mistaken. Thankfully.

Rating so far: 3.1 prices out of 5 dawns.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Sun Jul 06, 2014 4:04 pm

Chapter Four

This is a pretty busy chapter; same length as the others, but more difficult to summarise without being spoilery. I'll try, anyway. At the beginning, John Green goes a little meta describing Hazel's favourite book, which is also about a girl who has cancer; but Hazen assures us that "it’s not a cancer book, because cancer books suck". Subtle. Anyway, she gets back in touch with Augustus, and it turns out he also totally got into the book and is totally shaken by the book's deceptive ending. But something bad seems to be going on. She rushed to his house and finds him playing a video-game with his friend, Isaac, who is going through massive troubles with his own illness and a break-up. It's a pretty intense scene, but the way it's written, it seems to dilute the intensity somewhat. I does help us get a little more into the characters, but the scene feels almost perfunctory. Well, at least all these books and video-games are having actual relevance to the plot, and are not just the author showing off his creativity. There is actual meat in this book.
Now that I'm on the fourth chapter, I'm coming to the conclusion that this book is written for people with short attention spans. It seems to try really hard not to bore teenagers, because after all, the target audience of this are teenagers. It doesn't dwell on situations and descriptions for too long, and hops along from scene to scene as if not to lose momentum -- even without having any momentum so far. Maybe this is what's stopping the book from truly grabbing me by the throat: this kind of hopping around feels unsatisfying. But at least it's going somewhere.

Rating so far: Coca-Cola.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Tue Jul 08, 2014 12:13 am

Chapter Five

Here is where the story starts to thicken, it seems. So I guess I can't help but start spoiling the story, so proceed with caution.
We start out with male protagonist Augustus telling Hazel that he managed to get in touch with the reclusive author of her favourite novel, An Imperial Affliction, who lives in the Netherlands and hasn't published anything after his first and only book. It is a major point in the story the fact that the novel ends in mid-sentence (which strongly hints how the actual novel I'm reading is going to end -- but then again, I'm already being very cynical, and maybe Green isn't really all that fancy on meta-writing), leaving a lot of its major plot points unfinished. Hazel tried unsuccessfully to reach him for years, and Augustus finds out he has an assistant. After that, she sends him an e-mail asking about what happened after the end of the book. He replies, saying he could only possibly tell her in person, if she happened to be in Amsterdam. From here on, you can deduce where the story is going. It turns out there is an organization that grants wishes to young cancer patients, one wish per person, but Hazel used her wish when she was 13 going to Disneyland (which makes the first genuinely funny scene in the book). Augustus meets her at her home, meets her parents, takes her off in a heavily Netherlands-themed picnic, and tells her he wants to spend his wish to take her to the Netherlands.
I'll say that, probably, the most striking thing about this chapter is how non-cathartic and emotional it is. There are brief moments showing the developing affection between the characters, but the narrative doesn't develop that at all. Having read it once and skimmed through it once more, I realise the chapter is very stingy with emotional stuff. Considering what I've read of the following chapter in advance, that might be intentional. Even though the direction the story is taking is quite feel-good, it seems the book is careful when advancing in that direction. I am interested.

Rating so far: e
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:08 am

Chapter Six

The story takes a very promising route from here. Hazel reminisces the picnic with Augustus, and her feelings are well fleshed out, and she seems convincingly conflicted about it. It finally seems as if the characters are coming across as humans, not as nerdy archetypes with a tacked-on drama. Hazel realises her best friend Kaytlin has a bit of a history with Augustus, and for some reason, goes to find out something about his ex-girlfriend, who also had cancer and died due to a brain tumour. The reaction of people around her leads her to realise she is, in her words, "a grenade", about to explode and hurt everyone around her. This makes the first seriously dramatic, compelling moment in the book -- and well, considering we're only in chapter six, this is a good sign. As an added bonus, Hazel starts suffering with a headache, which makes her think she might have a brain tumour herself.

Rating so far: Germany 7 x 1 Brazil. F**k you, Neymar!
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by c_nordlander » Thu Jul 10, 2014 12:41 am

Sounds pretty interesting. Maybe I should read this at some point.
SirMustapha wrote:Rating so far: Germany 7 x 1 Brazil. F**k you, Neymar!
This made me laugh. My sympathies.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:46 pm

A long pause. Yeah, my reading kind of reached one of those unexplained, pointless halts, but I just didn't get too worked up. Today, I just decided it was time to read another chapter, and off I went.

Chapter Seven

The story reaches a dramatic, harsh left turn when Hazel wakes up in the middle of the night with her head in terrible pain, which she believes is due to a brain tumour. She is rushed to the hospital and into the ICU. It is revealed that Hazel has no cancer growth, and her headache was caused by lack of oxygenation due to her failing lungs. She spends a week in hospital, where she gradually gets better. Turns out Augustus was restlessly waiting for her, and in the interim, received a hand-written correspondence from the reclusive author. He also says that the wish to travel to Amsterdam was granted, though they'd have to wait until she is physically able to do it. It's a short chapter, and it feels almost slight in the face of such a horrible event. It's also bogged down with that smarty-pants style of writing. I admit, I was pretty fascinated with the medical side of it, but I just couldn't relate to the situation. It also ends with the line "Can we call Dr. Maria and ask if international travel would kill me?". I almost want to slap these characters and demand them to talk like human beings. I'm sorry, but I can only handle so much quirkiness at a time.

Rating so far: 3 out of 5.1
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:12 am

Chapter Eight

A sorta fillerish chapter. Hazel has a Cancer Team Meeting, in which doctors reunite to discuss the next steps. Her trip to Amsterdam is put off, because the genies demanded a full consensus of the doctors to let her leave. This makes Hazel go depressed, and she starts crying after seeing the swing set on her backyard. She calls Augustus, he goes over to her house, and they decide to give away the set to some guy. Next day, she sees an e-mail from the writer's assistant talking about the final arrangements of her supposedly cancelled trip. Turns our she is allowed to travel, after all. And we all shed tears of joy. Not really.

Chapter Nine

An extremely short chapter, basically to get us up to date with Isaac, who lost his eyesight completely a few chapters ago. She attends the support group and goes to his home, where they play an audio-and-voice adventure game, and talk a little about her relationship with Augustus. And that's it. Not much to talk about.

No rating.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:02 am

Chapter Ten

This is probably one of the "big" moments of the book. It's a long chapter, and it mostly narrates the very beginning of the trip of our heroes to Amsterdam, where they shall meet the reclusive author of Hazel's favourite novel. I can't really precisely define why, but the beginning of this chapter is terrible. It feels artificial and awkward, but not intentionally so. It's like the author tries to use frivolous details as anchors to build up towards something important, but it doesn't work. It doesn't follow very well from the rest of the book. And the way these characters talk? Yeah, it's becoming a real obstacle in my enjoyment of the story. I can't relate to these characters. Even Hazel's mother, which could have been used as a kind of "antidote" to the pseudo-intellectual teenager geek-chic of the two main characters as a stand in for us "normal people" wondering what the hell are these kids talking about, well, no. It's quite the contrary, in fact. It's like the book is so enamoured with this geek-is-the-new-hip movement that it sucks the life out of everything it touches. On a more positive notes, yes, there are some poignant mentions to the uncomfortable side of the trip, being a "special" passenger with huge oxygen tanks being awkward on the metal detector and making everybody stare on the terminal, but they just go away as quickly as they came. The review quote on the cover refer to these as "staccato bursts of humour and tragedy", but me, I refer to those as "trying to be a smartarse". I really hated the flow of this chapter, even the moments it is (I guess) building up to. When the plane takes off, Augustus goes out of character and gets genuinely excited with what he's seeing, and Hazel gets enamoured with that. Even that feels fake. The tail end of the chapter, the huge, tender moment we've all been waiting for, I'll admit, is nicely done, and the teenager smartassery actually feels justified. But I definitely don't feel it compensates for the rest. Maybe I'm in a bitter mood (though I actually am not), but this one left a bad aftertaste. I was looking forward to this moment, and to be blunt, I was frustrated. I came out to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.15
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:39 pm

Holy crap, it's been nearly a month. Though, to be fair, this has been a pretty busy and convoluted month, but things are (hopefully) settling by now.

Chapter Eleven

Our heroes arrive in Amsterdam, there are some trivial descriptions of trivial things. It's alright. Turns out our two heroes have a dinner in a pretty fancy restaurant, paid by the reclusive author, and they dress all fancy for the evening. There's some good dialogue, some of those awful "asides" about how delicious the food is, and some more poignant moments about the characters' cancer story. There are some good bits here, but to be honest, this is not a chapter that fills me with the urge to keep on reading. It's pedestrian, and doesn't seem to build a lot on what we already know of the characters. Oh, yes, they're really bonding together, and Hazel is still scared of being a destructive force to the people that love her. And they keep on building to that big moment when they'll meet the reclusive author, and frankly, I could not care less about it. I got sick of the endless mentions and citations of their favourite novel, and by this point, I really don't give a crap. Yeah, I guess this book is really souring on me. Maybe it's just the hype, but by now, I don't see anyone talking about the book or the movie anymore. I think it's not even on the theaters anymore. But, eh. I want to at least get to the end of the book.

Chapter Twelve

We get the long awaited (yeah, right) meeting with the reclusive author. We learn, with much shock (sure) that he does not reveal what happens after the end of the book. Turns out he never expected our two heroes to actually go over there and meet him, and he's an old, lonely, drunk and extremely mean guy that rambles about Zeno's paradox and tries to hurt our heroes as much as possible. Hazel, however, demands the answers she had been promised, and refuses to get hurt by his words. His assistant quits her job in horror, takes the protagonists to Anne Frank's house, where they have their long awaited (really) kiss. And then they go back to the hotel and get laid. Yay.

Fuck this book.

Rating so far: 2 out of 5
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:42 am

Chapter Thirteen

This is where the drama kicks in with a vengeance. Augustus reveals that, before the trip, a medical exam showed that he was taken over by cancer, in several places. The dialogue is quite good, and the fact that Hazel was going through exactly the things she wanted to avoid other people to go through, and that she told him things she didn't like hearing herself, is quite well explored. To the book's standards. That is, about two sentences for each topic.

Chapter Fourteen

The couple goes back home, meet with Isaac -- the friend who lost his eyes to cancer -- and decide to throw eggs on the car of Isaac's ex-girlfriend, who dumped him due to his illness. The tone is getting darker and denser as the text moves on. I guess I should be relieved by that, but honestly, it is not now that I will finally connect to these characters. I am only finishing this book because, well, I need to learn how to finish books again. Other than that, I really don't care much.

Rating so far: screw ratings.
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by SirMustapha » Sat Aug 16, 2014 5:16 pm

I finished the novel. Basically I just wanted to get over with it as soon as possible. Surprisingly, it wasn't tough. The story picks up steam at this point, but in terms of my complaints, it never gets better.

Chapter Fifteen - Seventeen

These chapters are very short, so I see no use in splitting the review up. When I started fifteen, I wanted to kill myself. First off, there is this bizarre decision by the author to, at certain times, write the dialogue in a pseudo-stageplay style, which has utterly no explanation. He does this about three times, and it always feels awkward. I think he's trying to read like a teenager that doesn't have much patience to elaborate in these topics, but this doesn't fit at all: when it's convenient, she is very smart and quirky and extremely articulate; and in fact, this specific dialogue focus exactly on how the protagonists are very smart and quirky and extremely articulate, even when merely describing food. It's a nonsensical dissonance that only makes me hate these characters even more. And to close off the dialogue, Augustus's father concludes that their children are weird. No, sir, they are not weird: they are LOL QUIRKY. Note, not just quirky, but LOL QUIRKY, in the "author jumping up and down going look at how nerdy and quirky my characters are! don't you wish everyone was like this?" sense. And that is plainly annoying. After that bit, we learn he is taken to the hospital with chest pains, and is forced to stick to a wheelchair to avoid physical effort. Chapter sixteen, in the narrator's own words, simply describes a typical day with her and Augustus. On seventeen, Hazel finds him on bed, having urinated himself. Then they take on a discussion that has been explored earlier in the book, but never given too much weight (like pretty much everything else): that Augustus desperately needs a reason to live or die for, and he is depressed by finding out he will die for nothing. It causes a bit of temporary drama, but it's quickly brushed aside.

Chapter Eighteen

Augustus calls her in the middle of the night. He is stuck on a highway, having taken the car to go out and buy cigarettes. She goes and finds him in the driver's seat with his G-tube getting infected, and has no choice other than calling an ambulance -- something he didn't want her to do. He nearly dies, and the author chooses this particular moment to boast about how much he is breaking the mold by having his protagonist in a weak and vulnerable moment, instead of being strong and full of dignity; and sure enough, he does that by having the narrator boast about how the author is breaking the mold. Honestly, I found this extremely tasteless. Yeah, sure thing, John Green, the best way to convince your readers about your cleverness is by rubbing it on their faces in the most dramatic point of your book. Gee, shouldn't everyone do that?

Chapter Nineteen

Augustus is rescued and taken home. By this point, he is stuck to bed, on heavy medication. Hazel meets his older sisters, with their kids and husbands. She hates the way they treat him as a baby, and decides to "rescue" him by talking to him the way he likes. And remember in chapter eighteen, when the narrator boasted about the fact that the cancer patient was being fragile and scared, and not holding to his sense of humour? Well, guess what he is doing now? Yeah, sure thing: just after you boast about how much you're breaking the mold, you quickly fit yourself right back into the mold, and nobody notices. I mean, you cannot really break the mold if you want to secure the movie rights to your book, right? Oh, wow, I am an asshole.

Chapter Twenty

Augustus calls Hazel and Isaac to the church where they hold the support group meetings, in the night. He wants her to write him an eulogy. And here, we have a pretty strong moment between her and her parents, when they complain that she hardly spends time with them anymore and don't want her to leave, and she cannot even storm away into her room because she needs to hook up to her oxygen tank. It's a pretty strong scene, and I wonder why we have so few of them in this book. As much as I find the adults in this book as hard to believe in as the teenagers, I find their interactions a lot more interesting, Anyway, such a good scene could not go on for too long, so Hazel just spits at her parents that Augustus wants an eulogy, and so they just let her go. There are only the three of them there, and Augustus asks them to make his pre-funeral. In Isaac's eulogy, he says pretty much everything we would want to say about Augustus -- except not, because he is being facetious and friendly, so we are supposed to like him for all those reasons. Then Hazel speaks some stupid pseudo-nerdy stuff about mathematics, because NERD IS THE NEW COOL, and nothing is achieved.

Chapter Twenty-one

So, the inevitable happens. Augustus dies, and Hazel is terrified by everything. In a bit of a twist, she decides to look at the "wall page" of his pseudo-Facebook and sees a lot of sad condolences from people she had never seen before, and that didn't even see him in those last months. She gets very annoyed by some of the particular comments, and about the sentiment of sadness coming from people who didn't even know him well and didn't bother talking to him when he was alive. It's actually a pretty believable moment, and even the pretentious reply she writes to one of the comments is believable. The chapter ends with a sweet, but criminally brief moment between her and her parents.

Chapter Twenty-two

She goes over to the funeral, and sees a lot of people she doesn't know. The minister speaks and says things Hazel finds utter bullshit (and this moment really connected with me, because it wasn't too different from other funerals I've attended, and the bullshit she hears is bullshit that I have heard and found bullshit as well, so yeah), and to her shock, behind her she finds the asshole reclusive writer. I admit this caught me by surprise, but I didn't know if I should be moved or outraged. Later, I find I should be outraged. Hazel doesn't want to watch the burial, not only because she's tired, but also because of feelings I guess many of us have felt in such situations. But she ends up going anyway, for the sake of his parents. On the way back, the writer asks for a ride down the hill, and says that Augustus specifically invited him to his funeral. He gives a very elusive and meaningless "ending" to his unfinished novel, but Hazel scolds him off the car. At the end, there is another sweet scene between her and her father, which again makes me wonder why these were not given more focus.

Chapter Twenty-three

One week later, while visiting Isaac, Hazel learns from him that Augustus had been writing something for her, but he didn't know where it could be nor what it could be. When going to his house, she finds the reclusive author inside her car. She yells at him to get down, but he forces her to hear him anyway. He is drunk and pretty much pleading to her to hear. Then, she realises that the novel he wrote was inspired by his own daughter, who died of cancer when she was eight, exactly like the character in the book. Feeling bad, she encourages him to go out, stop drinking, and start writing again. In his house, she fails to find anything written by him, and lies down in his bed to feel his scent. Kinda awkward.

Chapter Twenty-four

Hazel learns from Augustus parents that they found a notebook, near his bed, with a few pages torn off, but they couldn't find those pages. Hazel goes to the support group to see if he could have hidden it there, and then has another argument with her parents, and her mother ends up letting out that, for a whole year, she had been studying and writing a paper for a master's degree. She didn't let Hazel know, so it wouldn't look like she was already replacing her daughter. But Hazel is extremely excited, and they watch TV together. A nice, sweet touch to the end of the novel. Honestly, I think this would have been a great point to cut off. But we still have loose ends with the pretentious dork Augustus, so let's move on.

Chapter Twenty-five

At last. Hazel receives a call from plot device friend Kaytlin who helps her realise Augustus must have sent the pages to the writer. She gets in touch with his ex-assistant, to see if he has received it. In the afternoon, she goes out with her parents, and on return finds a response from the assistant. Indeed the author received the pages, and said he had nothing to add, and just send them off to Hazel. The pages are attached to the e-mail, and she reads it. Augustus asks the writer to help him write an eulogy to Hazel, because since he wanted to somehow leave a mark in the world, he decided that was going to be his mark. And his mark is the anti-climactic, disappointing end to this novel, I guess. Le fin.

Conclusion

I definitely, absolutely did not enjoy this book. It's not that the story is bad, or even the idea of the book is bad. I like the idea of tackling a cancer story that alternates between raw and harsh on one side, and warm and lighthearted on the other. The problem, basically, are the characters and the prose. I guess the followers of Geek Chic will love it exactly for those reasons, but for me, the characters were forced, actively annoying and just not likeable or relatable. I mean, they are teenagers, and I wouldn't mind if the characters were intentionally unlikeable, but still realistic and well grounded. But they aren't. The kind of teenage pretentiousness aimed at is not delivered well. And the prose feels very phoned in and lazy at times. I understand the narrator was a teenager, you know, but for a teenager that is praised in the novel as very smart and intelligent and so on and on, the prose at times reads like a rush school assignment instead. Some of the most important points of the novel are hardly elaborated at all, and when the prose goes in detail to describe minute things and happenings, it doesn't gel at all. I honestly feel that the prose reads like this not because the author wanted it to sound like a teenager, but just that he aimed it at kids with severely small attention spans. I guess there's nothing inherently wrong with that, and I guess it's tricky to write a literary masterpiece that still appeal to hyperactive and easily distracted kids. And well, John Green pulled it off about as well as Brazil against Germany in this year's world cup.

But who am I to say, right? This book became a best seller -- even here in Brazil -- got a movie adaptation and all sorts of accolades. So I must be wrong. But it's not that I found it a bad book. Not really. I mean, there are good books and bad books. Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray are bad books by default, and this book definitely isn't. It's a good book. But it's a bad good book, you know? I didn't puke my guts out halfway through it. I finished it without wanting to kill myself. But if I had the option to warn myself in the past to not read this book, I definitely would do so. I wasted my time, and I think I should have just tried to finish reading On the Road instead.
"I know that the bourgeoisie stinks, but it has money to buy perfume."
-- Falcão
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c_nordlander
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Re: In-progress review: The Fault in Our Stars

Post by c_nordlander » Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:28 am

Thanks for doing this! I stopped reading the chapter summaries after a while, just in case I want to read this myself, but I enjoyed your review at the end. This'll be helpful to a lot of people here who are wondering whether to read this book.

I guess the solution is that writers shouldn't aim for creating a literary masterpiece. Also, I need to read On the Road...
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Pretty little monster
Went to the good school
Left with honours
Brand new tycoon
Sitting with a harpoon


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