Usually I don't go for the romance genre-- at least not after I read The Twilight Saga and felt my brain turn into mush. I just found written romances a bit too stereotypical, and often failing to deliver the emotions that I really look forward to when I think of a love story.
In the past, I've always gone for the mystery of the fantasy world, or delving into fictions about a dystopian future. Usually romances written in these stories are not completely forced upon the reader, and they seem to come off a little more naturally. (And if I don't care about it, it's not what I have to focus on.) I'm also quite obsessed with classic books like The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye because I absolutely adore the hidden meanings the authors snuck into their books. When I heard of The Fault in Our Stars, I really thought it was just going to be another YA novel. I was pleasantly surprised.
Going into The Fault in Our Stars, I found the beginning a bit dull. Typical girl who can't see how beautiful she is, and her cancer is the backdrop of the story. Enter cute boy with a flaw, and off we go. There's the rejection, the "I love you's" and the inevitable relationship.
Once you realize you've reached a happy conclusive ending, you still realize there's 100 pages left. And within those last 100 pages, John Green takes the story and creates something wonderful. There's little lines, and moments in the story that I didn't pay attention to much when I started it. But the little lines and the moments, they build up. There's foreshadowings, hidden meanings, little throwaways that give you a satisfying story.
Well done, John Green.
Little things I noticed/want to mention:
- Amsterdam and the way John Green describes it makes me want to go there. There's a lot of meaning behind the place, and that I thought was incredibly clever.
- I was slightly annoyed by the "Okay?" "Okay." bit throughout the book. Guess I'm not too much of a mushy romance person.
- I'm glad Green acknowledges the promise made between the writer and the reader. So many authors these days refuse to acknowledge that pact.
- If you end up reading the book, and you're still feeling a bit underwhelmed, I would suggest reading John Green's FAQ about the book. You'll see some genius things that John Green snuck into the book, and you'll appreciate it more.
