From the Bookshelf of The Reading Challenge Group…

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

Start date: March 1, 2014

Finish date: March 31, 2014

Discussion: Group Read Archive 2014-16

Why we're reading this: YA/Genre Group Read - March 2014
[close] YA/Genre Group Read - March 2014

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Group Read Archive 2014-16

Genre Group Read (Humour) - December 2016 - You Are Not So Smart
By Allison , Quest Hound · 11 posts · 30 views

last updated Dec 28, 2016 04:05PM

Alternate Group Read (Classics) - December 2016 - Mansfield Park
By Allison , Quest Hound · 5 posts · 18 views

last updated Dec 04, 2016 09:34AM

showing 10 of 35 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jun 22, 2014 Ivy rated it really liked it

Shelves: checked-out-from-library

This was a very sad book.

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 09, 2013 Cindy (BKind2Books) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I knew going in that this was a Cancer Book, but I had heard so much about it and I have enough distance to read these kind of books again. Why distance? Well, in 2004, my beautiful 12 year old daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of osteosarcoma. Remember Augustus talking about the 80% cure rate? Well, that's mostly true for the more common forms of the disease, especially when it's caught in time. However, my daughter had multifocal synchronous osteosarcoma - it basically appeared in both a ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 04, 2014 A B rated it it was ok

Shelves: never-read-again, pretentious-crap

Dang. That's the first Manic Pixie Dream Boy I have encountered in a book.

I cannot figure out why this book is so popular and highly rated. Perhaps it's guilt for disliking a book about kids with cancer? A scene that takes place at one of the most somber places on the planet is so disrespectful and cruel that I cannot understand why John Green, his editors, or his publishers permitted it to go to print. Perhaps it was ignorance or perhaps it was deliberate; if it was the latter, allow me to give Dang. That's the first Manic Pixie Dream Boy I have encountered in a book.

I cannot figure out why this book is so popular and highly rated. Perhaps it's guilt for disliking a book about kids with cancer? A scene that takes place at one of the most somber places on the planet is so disrespectful and cruel that I cannot understand why John Green, his editors, or his publishers permitted it to go to print. Perhaps it was ignorance or perhaps it was deliberate; if it was the latter, allow me to give them a big FUCK YOU right here (pardon my language).

So, take perpetually snarky Hazel, a teenage girl with thyroid cancer that's devastated her lungs. Make her attend a cancer support group. Make sure she mocks it as much as possible. Have her get cranky with her parents for - gasp - being sad that she's sick. Now throw in the obligatory Cute Boy who rescues her with witty dialogue, but let's give it a twist - make him a MPDB and have cancer, too!

Hazel and Gus have pseudo-intellectual conversations that sound narrated right out of late 1990s teen drams on the WB. Who cares? The only parts that I feel the book got right were Hazel and Gus's parents' grief, and the wretched unfairness that cancer brings to a minor character named Isaac. That's why I can hold my nose and give the book 2 stars instead of 1.

I have been to the (view spoiler) and found it to be a devastating but important experience. As I was reading that scene in the book, I remembered that the most emotional part of the visit was (view spoiler). Then I turned a page and found that's right when Hazel and Gus decide to kiss. What a horrific, inappropriate, monstrous thing to do. The only physical affection appropriate would have been a brief hug or perhaps discreetly holding hands strictly as a sign of comfort to handle the emotional intensity of such a place. ...more

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Dec 10, 2013 Mai rated it it was amazing

sad unexpected ending ! I really felt sad and sick after finishing it ;( :'( ...more

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Jan 07, 2014 Alison Flower rated it it was amazing

A must read book but inherently sad I felt, with no hope at the end. That said it reflects life in it's truth rather than sugar pasting it. Kids get cancer. Kids die of cancer. The families have to watch it happen and must feel pretty damn helpless.
This is more than a cancer story though. It's a love story. It's about finding happiness in the saddest situation and about fighting back with humour and dark humour at that. It is true I would feel, that cancer kids don't feel heroic. They have no c ...more

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Nov 15, 2013 Pamela Dae rated it really liked it

A wonderful young adult love story. My full review plus a menu for your book club's discussion and music suggestions is available here: http://daeandwrite.wordpress.com/2014... ...more

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Apr 30, 2014 Bianca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: challenge, checked-out

The ending though.. :/ the feelings it stirred up. Wish that wouldn't have happened! It was so tragic, oh the misery. I guess life goes on? NO! ...more

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