The Fault In Our Stars

I just finished the book The Fault In Our Stars last week, which is sweeping the teen world by storm. It's a young adult novel by this John Green, and it sounds like ALL of his books are sweeping the teen world by storm. Teen super fans of his call themselves "Nerdfighters" and they are obsessed.

The book is about a girl and a boy who meet at a cancer support group. The girl has lung cancer, the boy had cancer that made him lose his leg. They like each other, and the story goes on from there. You can probably guess how most of it goes, quite frankly.

I became interested in the book once I started hearing about the movie buzz. The movie version just
came out a couple weeks ago. With images of a girl walking around with oxygen tubes in her nose, I figured 'Hey, I can relate to that. I'll read about a character with lung problems.'

The book was good, though nothing too ground-breaking. I only cried once, and supposedly this book makes everyone cry multiple times. Honestly, I feel this has something to do with the fact that a lot of what she talked about—dealing with hospitals, PICC lines, and oxygen concentrators—is quite familiar to me, whereas I assume a 'normal' teen might find it totally-oh my gosh-that's so awful-heartbreaking, whereas my internal thought is a flippant "Yeah... that sucks."

However, I do think one thing the book has going for it is a no-BS approach to disease. The girl herself is written as very witty, wise beyond her years (a little too wise, actually), and intolerant of bullshit cheesiness. I have a hunch his other books are written in the same voice, and I also suspect that's why teens are loving them to death. Since the book is written from her perspective, she lays it on the line as to how she feels and what things are like. I think that is helpful, and it in no way covers up the hardships of cancer or dealing with your lungs failing you.

So for that, I'm thankful for this book. I'm also glad this book/movie has taken off with teens like it has because maybe, once I start wearing oxygen full-time in future, I won't get stared at so often and it won't seem so out of place for a young-looking person to wear oxygen 'nubbins' in their nose. Granted, I don't have lung cancer like Hazel does, but still.

The characterization in the book is what disappoints me. It is very typical in teen fiction to have an extremely witty (not just smart but really witty) character. In this case, there were 2 or 3 witty teen characters, and their wisecracks and never-ending philosophical takes on the world get a little old. No one, in real life, is like that. I felt the same way about the movie Easy A; it's a good movie, but every single character was funny and witty. Teens like to think of themselves as quick-witted, I remember that, but in reality hardly any of them actually are. However, I realize that a book about boring ol' characters is also, well, boring.