The Fault in Our Stars in Mock Newbery 2026

Dec 06, 2012 Claire Caterer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, favorites, home-library

The last book of 2012 for me, and a great note to end on. I hate to sound clicheed--because this book ended up on so many "Best of" lists--but it truly is a fantastic read. One might ask if the subject matter alone--a love story about two kids with cancer--is in itself ripe for greatness. But quite the opposite is true. There are so many pitfalls, so many ways such a novel could go wrong. It could be maudlin; it could be pithy; it could be just ... nice, but not great. But if a writer writes abo ...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Susan Dunn rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-fiction

I didn't LOVE this book, but it was good - and very sad. Teenage Hazel is dying of cancer. At a support group for young cancer patients, she meets Augustus. The two fall in love, despite Hazel's attempts not to do so. She is afraid to get to close to anyone b/c she knows she'd going to die and she doesn't want them to get hurt. But through her relationship with Gus she comes to realize that being loved - even for a short time - is worth it.

I think my main problem with John Green is that, like Ch ...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Brandi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: teen, favorites, random-reads-column, re-read, librandian-blog, school, 2012

Thinking about your future can bring up a variety of questions. The questions can be serious like:
What are you going to be when you grow up?
Will you have kids?

But, the questions can also be mundane and insignificant like:
What color house will you live in?
What TV shows will you watch?

Hazel knows she shouldn’t consider any of these questions. Living with thyroid cancer that has spread viciously to her lungs should have killed her years ago, but with the help of an experimental treatment, Hazel Thinking about your future can bring up a variety of questions. The questions can be serious like:
What are you going to be when you grow up?
Will you have kids?

But, the questions can also be mundane and insignificant like:
What color house will you live in?
What TV shows will you watch?

Hazel knows she shouldn’t consider any of these questions. Living with thyroid cancer that has spread viciously to her lungs should have killed her years ago, but with the help of an experimental treatment, Hazel is living on borrowed time. However, instead of sitting in bed watching hours of episodes of an America’s Next Top Model marathon, Hazel’s mom forces her to go to a cancer support group. Hazel has gone to the group before and listened to the empty words of wisdom and hope. Her only friend was a boy named Isaac who was about to lose his sight to cancer until Augustus showed up. Gus also has cancer, but after losing his leg, the cancer seemed to be under control. While living in a kind of stasis, Gus makes it his mission to make Hazel experience life.

At first, Hazel was reluctant to allow Gus to become close to her as she had almost died several times before and did not want to ruin someone’s life with her death. Gus’s persistence defeated Hazel’s stubbornness and soon they were spending every minute together. When Hazel introduces Gus to her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, a book about a girl with cancer written by a reclusive one-time author, the duo try everything in their power to get in touch with the author in hopes that he will reveal the cliff-hanger ending and give them closure. Their search leads them on a trip to Europe and both Hazel and Gus realize that the ending provided may not be the ending they were seeking.

The Fault in our Stars will make you laugh, cry, sigh, gasp aloud, ponder, and love. Green’s characters may seem a bit mentally mature for their age, but it’s evident that their respective life experiences outweigh the average adult’s life experience. Green did not write a cancer book; he wrote a book about a girl who happened to have cancer. This specific distinction will sing true as you dive into the life of Hazel Grace.

...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Anna rated it liked it

The author excels at witty dialogue and makes a cancer story less sad and tragic with unconventional twists. However, the real telling point for me is that when my daughter picked it up to read it, I did not want her to read it at all because of sexual content and language. She asked me if it was so funny, why she could not read it as well. It made me realize that being briefly entertained is different than being enriched as a reader. This was not the former, not the latter.

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Apr 30, 2012 Whitney rated it really liked it

Great read. Great great read. The writing is raw and honest while powerful at the same time. It's a young adult, cancer romance, lacking the cheesy Nicholas Sparks issues. (A Walk To Remember). I laughed out loud many times, and cried at the same time. I did think some of it was fairly predictable, but I still enjoyed it. Because of some of the language, I would be careful who I give the book to. There is also some innuendo and some off page sex, but I did like the book. A lot. ...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Brenda rated it liked it

Shelves: ya

I wanted to throw this book across the room several times, just to get away from the precociousness of it all. John Green, you're good but and it seems like you think you're so good, which makes it all the more irritating. It was just too....too twee, too precocious, too much. Tone it down. I would totally enjoy a toned down version of Hazel and Augustus. Good but not great, not near perfect. ...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Beth Given rated it liked it

This book was incredibly witty and insightful. It's well-paced, it has likeable characters (although the majority of them seem to have the same sense of humor -- John Green's sense of humor, probably), and it made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

Then why only three stars? Well, there's quite a bit of language and sexual references, and that it made me pretty uncomfortable -- I spent most of the book wondering if I'd read the worst of it yet or if it was going to cross that "line." (Maybe it ...more

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Mar 13, 2012 June rated it really liked it

Shelves: love, tragedy, death

This is a very poignant, sad, laugh out loud book. It took me a while to pick it up. It is a very difficult topic for me. However, I found Hazel to be a very well rounded character as well as her friends.

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Apr 13, 2012 Deanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, grief, realistic, 2012

Gush, gush, gush. I simply cannot say enough good things about this perfectly amazing book. It is raw and refreshing in its honesty, the characters are real and smart and oh so loveable. Gush, gush, gush.

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