The Fault in Our Stars is another young adult novel in which the highlighted young adults speak/think/act/live well beyond their years. On the one hand, that makes the story appeal to a wider audience and romanticizes the two for others; on the other hand, though, it gave me too much of a skeptic’s eye in digesting the story.
Granted, Hazel and Augustus indeed have experienced life differently than I ever have and than most ever do. And we can be grateful for that. And I can be grateful for someone sharing this side of this life experience. But underneath that, it feels so contrived as a YA novel that eventually, I felt my eyes *really* wanting to roll.
That is not to say I did not enjoy the book. It is a good read. (I’d give it 3 1/2 stars if I could, but that level didn’t justify rounding up to four.) It doesn’t have the simplistic writing that some YA novels do; there is more beauty and talent in Green’s writing. Although it is not light in subject (I genuinely had to wipe tears away at one point), it has a wry humor that allows the tragedy to feel a little less bleak, and it reads so quickly (although nicely written, most everything is on the surface, allowing that quick read without needing to reflect more) that it was a grand weekend vacation read.
I selected this as one of the books coming soon on the big screen. But I cannot say I’m moved to see the movie. I suspect, perhaps unfairly, this will be another overly-(poorly)-acted summer teenaged tragedies that if I did go watch, even if I cried (which is not hard to get me to do at a movie), I’d leave without being able to resist the eye roll and looking for a glass of wine to go with what, no doubt, will be heavy on the cheese.