In which the BGS Library team, each with very different tastes, read and review John Green’s latest YA novel The Fault in Our Stars:
Hazel Grace Lancaster is 16 years old, preternaturally intelligent and has terminal lung cancer. She spends her days taking Community College courses (she dropped out of High School shortly after diagnosis), worrying about her parents worrying about her, trying to breathe and attending ‘cancer kid’ support group. Until she meets Augustus Waters. Hazel meets Augustus, a cancer survivor, at support group and her life changes. Where her post-diagnosis life has been abnormal, defined by her illness, Augustus lets her be normal. He lets her fall in love. ‘Filled with staccato bursts of humour and tragedy’, claims the blurb. But what will our librarians make of it?
Mrs Osafo
This is ultimately a love story about two teenagers. The fact that they both have cancer does have a bearing on the tale but it does not overshadow it. Hazel and Augustus are very likeable; intelligent and witty; using gallows humour to great effect. I really enjoyed this book and found it uplifting in spite of the potentially depressing back story. It didn’t make me cry but it did make me smile…a lot.
Ms Shepherd
I apply but two, simple criteria to whether I rate any particular book:
1. whether I just cannot put it down (more often than not I abandon books these days - unless I have to read it -that do not ‘hook’ me by page 30)
2. whether it had such a profound impact that I can remember much of the content 3 months later!
The Fault In Our Stars definitely met my first criterion, but failed the second.
Here is a man who can write, I thought, when I settled down with this book. He manages to capture the essence of teen characters, portraying them with quirky humour, empathy and emotional intelligence. Given that the main characters are living with terminal illnesses one might have supposed that the story would be a roller-coaster of misery. But no, somehow we are guided along through the highs and lows of their state by deft writing that never allows the storyline to falter, nor the ultimate ending to be unbearable. The book was definitely unputdownable. But can I remember it three months later? Only just! The essence remains in my mind, but not the detail. I know that John Green has a HUGE following. I will join that throng, but remain on the periphery rather than be in its centre. Will I read more of his work? Maybe, maybe not. But I will follow his progress up the fiction charts with interest, and would not be at all surprised if he achieves cult status from his teen following.
Mrs Godden
Loved this book. Strong female lead, love interest with a cute boy, sad and uplifting at the same time but very real. Didn’t cry but then only one book has made me do that this year.
Mr Hancock
Full disclosure: this is not my sort of book. Teenagers falling in love? Yawn. And they have cancer? Depressing! But after a glowing recommendation I agreed to give it a go. Initially, I was very glad I did. The characters are witty and insightful (perhaps unbelievably so for 16 year olds…) and Green delivers on dark humour that makes you laugh out loud, but never makes light of terminal illness. But as the book wore-on, the humour became much less frequent and things became frankly depressing. By the final pages I was, admittedly, blinking back tears so I can’t fault the book for not being genuinely affecting, but I felt as though the book wanted me to be crying, and this heavy-handedness somewhat ruined the effect.
Student Librarian: Maeve
This was my first experience of John Green’s writing. I felt that for a man of relatively advanced years, he captured what it is like to be a teenager with unbelievable accuracy. As far as the story goes, I thought it was inspiring if a little implausible at some points. The star-crossed lovers aspect was not as sickening as it could have been and, unlike some of my more hard-hearted colleagues, I cried like a baby.
