It’s irrational to think that no book has flaws. It’s silly to imagine it. Alas, I was still in the stage after reading a book where you haven’t quite processed everything, and you can only think of either brilliant praises or detestful criticism. My original review of The Fault in Our Stars on the blog was skewed in the former. This is my redo.

Needless to say, I still love this book. I didn’t have a complete change of heart like that, but now I am more able to recognize faults and places where the writing fell short.

My biggest gripe upon rereading and rethinking is that while there are some great, really quotable, and flowy lines, they don’t always fit naturally into the dialogue. if you can suspend your disbelief and accept that all of this is apparently normal people things for these teens, you can really enjoy the poeticism of it all. Seriously though, they pull monologues as normal conversation starters. In particular, the cigarette metaphor was not resonant with me

Fortunately, for the most part, I was able to overlook this and let myself sink into the writing.

I enjoyed Augustus’ character over Hazels, the trope of “We can’t be together cause I could die!” is particularly grating but thankfully the plot graces over this fairly quickly.

Again, there were some monologues and dialogue that really, really, REALLY worked for me. It wasn’t all a bit meandering, I promise.

For all of the criticism that this review seems to hold, I promise you that this book still holds a place in my heart. I merely wanted to present that this book, like all others, has flaws. What worked for me might not work for you, or vice versa.

Either way, you should still check it out. A lot of what I said in the first review still applies. It’s beautiful writing, a beautiful story, and it’s a beautiful experience to read. Do check it out.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.