I have always avoided jumping on the bandwagon of the latest must-have books, especially when it comes to young adult-y type books that seem to be flooding out of publishing companies. This is good, because when I do get around to it, I can enjoy it witho
ut being influenced by the hubbub of the thing. This is bad, because when I fall in love with something, other people have more or less moved on.
Both things hold true now that I’ve finally read THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. Finally.
In my defense, I couldn’t put it down and I read it in three days flat. So there’s that.
Anyway, this book gets four stars out of five from me:
One star because, although there was no ugly sobbing involved, my heart is heavy and my mind is a little bit changed for having read this story of dying children with no power to save themselves.
A second star because a book about dying made me laugh and smile and hope and dream.
A third star because the characters supporting Hazel and Gus; Isaac, Hazel’s parents, Gus’ family, Lidweij, Patrick, and even Peter, are so well-developed and beautiful in their own fallible human way.
A fourth star simply because I didn’t expect to like this book so much.
It falls one star short because now I want to read “An Imperial Affliction” and I can’t (I’m fairly sure it doesn’t exist to anyone but the characters on these pages).
