The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This was a buddy review with the fabulous Sarah from Book-A-Holic. You can read her fabulous take on the book here!

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Series: N/A
Source: Traded for
Publisher: Dutton Books
Publication Date: January 10, 2012
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Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Just stop and think for one second before you read this review. Think about all of the books that you've read because people have told you that you will cry. How many of them have actually made you cry? Really, truly, just bawl your eyes out. None. I have never bawled at the end of a book. I've cried, though. And that's all that I did in the end. Just a few short tears.

I'm a little disappointed. I was expecting this big, earth-shattering, bawl-inducing kind of event, and that was taken from me. I kind of wish...that I could have loved it more. I liked it, that's for sure, and I honestly can't find any flaws with it, but I wasn't exactly blown away by the beautiful writing or anything. I had myself built up so far about this book that it only disappointed me because I didn't  get to have a good cry. I really think that.

I really think that it could have been better. Don't get me wrong, the ending was good. The story was good, and the execution was good. But I...I'm a victim of my own build-ups.

Hazel was a really good character, but sometimes I couldn't help but wish that she wasn't such a debbie downer. She has this life, these few extra days or weeks or even months  for her to live, and she acts like it's this huge curse that no one should have to endure. Then she meets Augustus. Who is the ultimate swoony type of guy that you know  that every girl who's ever read this book has fallen in love with. He brings out the best and worst in all of us. ;)

For the sake of not revealing spoilers, I can't tell you everything that makes him such a lovable chum, but he just is.  I honestly don't want to go into more detail, because that's really all that I can say. But just know that this book made me laugh. It made me smile, and in the end there were tears involved. Maybe there weren't as many as I would've liked (eh, I'm weird), but it is what it is.

And Isaac? Man, he just needs a hug. I really wanna hug him, and I want to beat his girlfriend to death...and...well, I might be embarrassing myself, but he's just a sweet guy. Who's funny. And no one else is mentioning him, so there.

All in all, I did like The Fault in Our Stars,  but I do feel like it could have been something better. So shoot me.

“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” ~ Pg. 155