The Fault In Our Stars

I had heard a lot of buzz about John Green's novel The Fault In Our Stars so I was anxious to check it out. I wasn't even sure what the novel was about, but for a while it seemed like everywhere I turned I was reading something about its soaring popularity.

I learned before cracking it open that the novel was about Hazel, a sixteen year old girl with cancer, who meets Augustus, a boy in a support group for teenage cancer victims, and he turns her life upside down. It's a good story which is why the book has gained so much success. However, I did have a couple of problems with the book that made it hard for me to love it. First, the novel is written in first person from Hazel's perspective and though Green seems to be a capable writer, I didn't think he pulled off the teenage girl voice too well. As the novel went on it got better (or I became more able to ignore it) but it was hard to buy into the premise that it was a teenage girl telling the story. I also found the dialogue problematic at times because it could often be way over the top witty. There was one line in particular that I'd argue would never come out of anyone's mouth at dinner, much less a sixteen year old girl's. Good dialogue is supposed to be believable and in this novel it often wasn't. Then there was how as a reader it was difficult not to come to feel pity for the teen cancer victims despite how much they talked about not wanting people to feel that way. Is it a worthwhile read? Yeah, I'd say it is. But it's also chock-full of problems.