Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Info: 
Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Books
Publication Date: January 1, 2012
Source: Purchased
Synopsis:
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Review:
So I am basically the last person on the internet to read this book. I feel like when a book has a ton of hype, it's at a disadvantage. So I will try my best to review this book like any other book, instead of subjecting it to the high expectations I had.

I liked this book. It was intelligent and interesting and unexpected. I don't read many (any?) illness books, but with all the hype surrounding this one, I thought I'd give it a try.

It's clear to me that John Green is a intelligent man. Despite the fairly simple writing style of in this book, some sections or sentences or phrases are really very good and helped remind you that you aren't reading just any book.

What I enjoyed about this book is that it more about LIVING with cancer instead of living with CANCER. Events happen other that the main character being sick. This was absolutely necessary to my enjoyment of the book. The characters do things and have conversations and fall in love, despite the presence of cancer in their lives.

The thing that bothered me a little were the characters themselves. They just did not seem likes really people. Well, Hazel I could most understand, probably due to our shared love of ANTM. But I am fairly certain that no teenage boy like Augustus has ever existed. People don't talk like that. People don't act like that. At least, not any teenage boy I ever met. And the cigarette thing. I don't get it. It strikes me as completely idiotic. Or pretentious. The latter is probably more likely.

Regardless of my small qualms with the characters, I did enjoy this book overall. While it's not a new favourite personally, I think I can see why it has gained such a following and fandom. 

Find the Book:

Goodreads | Amazon  | The Book Depository | Chapters

Find the Authors:

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Movie Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Info: 
Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Director: Josh Boone
Writers: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (based on the book by John Green)
Stars: Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort
Publication Date: October 6, 2014

Synopsis:
Two teens, both who have different cancer conditions, fall in love after meeting at a cancer support group.

Review:
I thought the movie adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars was really well done. It was relatively faithful to the book, which is always important to me. Of course, they couldn't include every little thing, but they got the important bits.

I think Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort did a great job portraying their characters. It only took me a few minutes to warm up to them as Hazel and Gus and I enjoyed both of them in the film. I did find Hazel became a bit more snarky in the beginning of the film than in the book, but it was not an issue.

I did cry a bit in the film, but definitely cried harder in the book. I felt like Hazel's pain came through more strongly in the book than the film, but I now others I talked to found the film more emotional, so who knows.

Well, film reviews are hard! Here's few more random thoughs. Peter Van Houghton was definitely fat in my imagination. The woman who played Lidewij (Lotte Verbeek) was flipping gorgeous. And did anyone else find it kind of awkward when they realized Shailene and Ansel played brother and sister in Divergent?

Cover Compare: The Fault in Our Stars

Oh, The Fault in Our Stars. I'll read you one day, I promise. Until then, here's a cover compare.

Wow, this one has been translated a boat-load of times. Some are lovely (Hebrew anyone?), some are ugly (sorry Dutch) some look like every other YA book ever (Lithuanian and Spanish) and some are just bizarre (the strangle childlike Indonesian cover). Overall, I think my favourite is the Hebrew. I do like the US cover, not neccessarily for the cover, but for the way it looks on my shelf. I can pick it out immediately when I glance over due to it's beautiful bright blue spine. Which is your favourite?

US

German

Portuguese

Italian

Dutch

Indonesian

Spanish

Finnish

Danish

Polish

Norwegian

Lithuanian

Hebrew

Chinese

You Had Me From Hello: The Fault in Our Stars

You Had Me From Hello is a biweekly feature where I share some of my favourite opening lines. You know, the ones that have you on the hook immediately and have you flipping the pages as fast as you can?

Today I'm featuring another unread book from my TBR list: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I've heard really great things about this one, with almost every review I've seen being 4 or 5 stars. And this opening line gives insight into why everyone loves this book.

"Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death."

Wow! What a crazy first line. I'm totally sucked in and want to keep reading right now. Although from this line I can definitely see what people mean when they say the main character doesn't speak like a regular seventeen-year-old. So excited to read this one!