My Love/Hate Relationship with The Fault in Our Stars: Okay, Okay

7/19/2014

I have to admit, I cheated. I saw the movie before I read the book. The movie, is an excellent and very close adaptation of the book, and yes, I cried a lot. Although seeing the movie first did not prepare me for the onslaught of constant tears streaming down my face, while I read my way through the book in the middle of the night. Be prepared to stay up late with lots of tissues!

Now if you don’t know what The Fault in Our Stars is, it is today’s equivalent of Nicholas Sparks’s book A Walk to Remember, also a movie starring Shane West and Mandy Moore, which I watched endlessly when it came out. I have to say, John Green, I prefer your version. It is less schmaltzy and saccharine, seeming to be a more realistic romance story.

Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley in The Fault in Our Stars

Mandy Moore and Shane West in A Walk to Remember

What I loved:

The character names ─ Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters.

The characters are as cool as their names. Hazel is slightly jaded, yet a realist and Augustus is charismatically cocky, yet completely lovable. They both have a unique voice that is carried throughout the book. The actors are perfectly cast and live up to the characters, especially that crooked smile.

The romance between Hazel and Augustus seems true. Like all real couples they have highs, lows, they have blue days and happy ones, they don’t put up with each other’s excuses, they support one another, they laugh, they cry and they love each other despite everything. John Green beautifully and slowly unfolds their love story.

The vocabulary. John Green peppers his book with wonderful words from the English language like ghettoization, contemporaneity, anomaly, eviscerated, ontologically, numinous, vitrines. I don’t know any teenagers who talk like this, and I certainly didn’t, but if it makes them pick up a dictionary, great. It doesn’t seem forced or highbrow, these words naturally form part of the character’s discourse.

The universal love story transcends its YA audience and is something all people should read.

What I hated:

I didn’t want the inevitable to happen to my beloved characters. I sobbed because John Green made me fall in love with them. I didn’t want Hazel and Augustus to face the same ending as the book, An Imperial Affliction featured in the book, The Fault in Our Stars.

How I survived:

I am someone who likes to read ahead to see everything will work out just fine. However, I already knew how this book would end. A major disadvantage of seeing the movie first.

Strategy: Find your favourite parts, bookmark and re-read them every day to make it through the book.

Favourite passages

“’Mother’s glass eye turned inward,’” Augustus began. 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.”

Page 206

“Everything tastes like pennies. Aside from that, I’m on a rollercoaster that only goes up, kids,” Gus answered.

Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.

My favourite romantic leads

Mr John Green, this is how I know you really captured my heart, despite breaking it. My favourite romantic leads of all time choose feisty, intelligent women, they don’t put up with their rubbish and they love them with such loyalty. Here are my top three:

1. Gilbert Blythe, Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Gilbert dearly teases Anne Shirley. They match each other through teacher’s college. In the end she could not resist her kindred spirit, Gilbert.

2. Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. After all the respectable barbs and long walks, Elizabeth Bennet falls head over heels when the truth emerges and Mr Darcy is revealed as the true hero. I also love Mark Darcy (mainly because he’s based on the Austen version and is played by Colin Firth) in Bridget Jones’s Diary. However, I will never come to terms with what Helen Fielding did to him in Mad About the Boy.

3. Augusts Waters, The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. The quintessential love interest teenage girls deserve to date.

Mr John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, has made it to the top of my classics that I will re-read again and again. No doubt it has won you numerous fans forever, including me (or should I say infinities).

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