From the Bookshelf of ~Can't Stop Reading~…

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

Start date: April 1, 2014

Finish date: May 1, 2014

Discussion: Current Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Regular April group read.
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What Members Thought

Feb 17, 2012 Booknut 101 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: heartwarming, favorites, kleenex-tissues-required, too-many-feels, heartbreak-and-loss

My great-aunt's father-in-law, a jovial Italian, used to have a favourite saying of his: "How are you tomorrow?"

He used to ask it with genuine feeling and curiosity, waiting for you answer as he sat in his usual chair, my great-aunt's dog Sam curled up at his slippered feet.

At the time, I never understood it. I used to tug at my mother's hand and say, "Mum - how can you know how you'll be tomorrow?"

My mother brought up the memory to me a few months back and she said to me, "He was telling us, ...more

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May 02, 2013 Farah Hamandi rated it it was amazing

amazing book. i really loved every line, every page, every word. i felt like the author wants me to indulge in the story of hazel and Augustus, to be their friend and to listen to their complains, dreams and wishes. This book makes me laugh and cry hardly and i rarely have this kind of juxtaposed feelings. a book that makes you feel that way is absolutely a great one. thank you John Green for writing such a book.

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2013 Julesmarie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: m-f, young-adult, new-favorites

Okay, so I just looked at some reviews for this (I purposely didn't before reading the book) and I have to say that while I can see where people who say it's unrealistic emotional blackmail might be coming from, and perhaps I was emotionally blackmailed, the truth is that I don't honestly care.

This book was beautiful and the things it had to say were good and true and powerful and special. I never felt like the author was trying to get me to cry (although he did... made me a sobbing blubbery mes Okay, so I just looked at some reviews for this (I purposely didn't before reading the book) and I have to say that while I can see where people who say it's unrealistic emotional blackmail might be coming from, and perhaps I was emotionally blackmailed, the truth is that I don't honestly care.

This book was beautiful and the things it had to say were good and true and powerful and special. I never felt like the author was trying to get me to cry (although he did... made me a sobbing blubbery mess!), I never felt like the author was trying to force-feed me platitudes or life-lessons either (although they were there in abundance for the taking if I chose).

Honestly, part of what made this book so remarkable to me (and this is my first John Green novel, so perhaps that gives me a different perspective) was that I honestly didn't feel the author's presence at all. I felt, rather like the blurb says about Hazel, that I was taken on a long-needed journey and arrived at an unexpected destination. But it was the characters and the honesty and uniqueness of their voices who took me there.

One reviewer complained that Augustus's voice and Hazel's voice were indistinguishable. While I did, at first, find it highly improbable that teenagers would use the words or phrases that they did, within the context of their lives I found it made perfect sense. And I personally thought that the way they both spoke and thought--so differently from everyone else, but so similarly to each other--beautifully reinforced the idea of them being soul mates. Perhaps this is just the romantic sap in me, but I was too deliriously happy that they'd found each other to really care exactly which of them was saying what. All that mattered to me was that they GOT each other, in ways nobody else could.

I also really liked that none of the adults in the story turned into a type or a caricature. They each had their own unique personalities and each added to Hazel's story and her journey in a fascinating way. I loved that we got to understand a little bit more about her dad near the end, since he'd been virtually absent much of the book. (view spoiler)

Which brings me to Augustus. Another reviewer said we need more Augustus Waterses in this world, and I wholeheartedly concur. Fantastically brave and patient and selfless and loving and hopeful and forgiving. He's one of those people who make other people better just by being near them.

And I think the thing that makes this one of my new favorite books of all time is that he found Hazel. And she did the same for him.

Yeah, yeah, fictional characters... yes. Whatever. I do have a firm grasp on reality. Just their story is the kind of story that makes me want to have faith in the innate goodness of the universe. Their story is the kind of thing that makes me want to believe in fate and hope and karma and soul mates.

And THAT, is why I don't care if I was somehow emotionally blackmailed. If renewed faith in the rightness of the universe is the result, why should I care? This book was beautiful enough I'm honestly looking forward to returning to it over and over again. Bring on the lovely emotional blackmail!

Some Favorite Quotes (There are rather a lot... starting even from the Author's Note, which is a first.)

The idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the foundational assumption of our species.

Depression is not a side-effect of cancer. Depression is a side-effect of dying.

Like, I realize that this is irrational, but when they tell you that you have, say, a 20 percent chance of living in five years, the math kicks in and you figure that's one in five... so you look around and think (as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards.)

Look, let me just say it: He was hot. A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy... well.

"If the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does."

"Okay so I went into the clinic this morning, and I was telling my surgeon that I'd rather be deaf than blind. And he said, 'It doesn't work that way,' and I was like, 'Yeah, I realize it doesn't work that way; I'm just saying I'd rather be deaf than blind if I had the choice, which I realize I don't have,' and he said, 'Well, the good news is that you won't be deaf,' and I was like, 'Thank you for explaining that my eye cancer isn't going to make me deaf. I feel so fortunate that an intellectual giant like yourself would deign to operate on me.'"

I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die.

I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really, really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I liked that he took existentially fraught free throws. I liked that he was a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a Voice That Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin.

Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.

(view spoiler)

"Sometimes people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them." I said.
Isaac shot me a look. "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.

"Saved the kids," he said.
"Temporarily," I pointed out.
"All salvation is temporary," Augustus shot back. "I bought them a minute. Maybe that's the minute that buys them an hour, which is the hour that buys them a year. No one's gonna buy them forever, Hazel Grace, but my life bought them a minute. And that's not nothing."

"That's why I like you. Do you realize how rare it is to come across a hot girl who creates an adjectival version of the word pedophile? You are so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are."

As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."

(view spoiler)

We made the story funny. You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice.

I couldn't unlove Augustus Waters. And I didn't want to.

"You say you're not special because the world doesn't know about you, but that's an insult to me. I know about you."

(view spoiler)

'You are going to live a good and long life filled with great and terrible moments that you cannot even imagine yet!'

My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.

"You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you." ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Shannon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, favorites, love-is-all-you-need

I loved this book! This is my first time reading John Green, but I loved his writing style so much I will be reading his other books for sure! This book had me laughing and crying. About the whole "they don't talk like normal teenagers" thing....I would never have read this book if they had sounded like normal teens. After all these kids have been through I expect an extra dose of wit and wisdom and I would have been very disappointed if Green hadn't delivered! Loved this book!! ...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Anam (Novelholic) rated it really liked it

Shelves: will-read-again, favorites, 2011-read

Most times in your life, you couldn't help but start feeling the victim of day-to-day grind. You start to question yourself, "what is the purpose of all of this? I'm working hard, putting all my effort into getting out of bed in the morning, so that i can go on with my life. So that i can be counted among the living. But what is the purpose of all of that? Why do i have to go on, when its so much easier to just quit? Stop everything and be still for some time?..."

I guess, it's these kinds of boo ...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Kristy Brown rated it it was amazing

With tears running down my face, I have no words....

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Jan 05, 2013 Lea rated it liked it

Shelves: mainly-romance, young-adult, contemporary

Let me start by saying that I now realize why people think that this is a tear-jerker and one of the top sellers of 2012. Reading this book definitely puts you on an emotional rollercoaster. I didn't tear-up myself, but I'm not the most emotional person out there. I definitely could relate to some of the things that the author writes in this book especially in regard to the illness (cancer) that he describes. It really helps me to remember those that I have lost to such battles and how important ...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Thomas Acland rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: set-in-the-usa, 2010-s, 21st-century, humor, young-adult, romance, set-in-holland, to-see-film, indies-choice-book-award-winner

So being the goodreads choice award winner for best young adult novel of 2012 and coming highly recommended from a number of people this book really did have a lot to live up to and I'm glad to say that it didn't disappoint. As with all books where there has been huge amount of media hype there is always the dread that when you finally get round to reading the novel it will be spoilt by unrealistic expectation of is amazingness. With this book I tried not to expect too much and enjoy the book fo So being the goodreads choice award winner for best young adult novel of 2012 and coming highly recommended from a number of people this book really did have a lot to live up to and I'm glad to say that it didn't disappoint. As with all books where there has been huge amount of media hype there is always the dread that when you finally get round to reading the novel it will be spoilt by unrealistic expectation of is amazingness. With this book I tried not to expect too much and enjoy the book for what it was instead of what I hoped it would be.

I'm not going to use this space to give a description of what the book is about
a) because I will end up saying something that will spoil the story line, and
b) the author has put a blurb on the back of the book that is a far better synopsis than anything I could come up with at ten o'clock on a Thursday evening.

So what I am going to do is mention a few unconnected thoughts that I had while reading the novel.

Firstly although everyone talks about this being a really good literary novel (which I have to concur it is), this does not prevent it from being easy to read, emotionally it may be difficult to read but the writing style is refreshingly fast flowing. I read the book cover to cover in the space of six tube journeys so my no means did it take a long time to read. One of my pet hated with literature novels is that often the author seems to get too involved with the writing style and forgets that there needs to be a good storyline to make it interesting, this book feels the other way round, the story is good and then it has been very well written.

The book deals with some very depressing concepts and just about remains humorous enough to prevent it becoming morbid but never too light to make you forget this serious side. I loved this part of the book as the author seemed to know exactly when he needed to but a lighter moment into the book and bring a smile to the readers face but never allowed the reader to loose track of the situation the characters were in.

In general I thought characters in the book were well thought out and the mix of different people all in different situations really worked to highlight the battles that everyone had to face not only those of the lead characters but also those on the periphery of the story. My only disappointment was the author, it wasn't even because I though the author had got him wrong, I had no problem with him being terribly flawed and almost becoming the villain of the piece. However there was just something about him that didn't click with me, some way in which his character had not developed into the story but always felt like an intrusion that as a reader you were glad to be rid of. I cannot exactly put my finger on what it was but it irked me every time he made an appearance.

Finally (and this is a Spoiler) I spent a large part of the book worrying that the author was going to finish the book mid-sentance and am so glad that he chose not to. ...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-own, five-stars

I guessed the ending pretty quickly but it still didn't stop me from bawling my eyes out, a sign of a good book if ever there was one. ...more

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May 03, 2013 Kiel rated it it was amazing

One word-- GRAND!

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Nov 26, 2012 Rhonda rated it it was amazing

This book must be read with a box of tissues. It is heartbreaking, funny and a whole lot more. I can't really put it into words. Read it but be prepared for the emotional roller coaster. (And don't say I didn't warn you) ...more

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