The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (4.5 stars)

After reading Ruth Graham's literary snobbitribe on slate, and infuriated counter arugments, I immediately went out and bought The Fault In Our Stars to see what all the fuss was about.

My first observation while reading this novel was that the line for Young Adult seems to be extremely fuzzy. Is just having a teenager's POV enough to make it YA? What if said teenagers have a better vocabulary than most literary critics and razor-sharp acidic wit?

Kaitlyn, you're the only person I've ever known to have toe-specific dysmorphia

But of course there is always a hamartia and yours is that oh, my God, even though you HAD FREAKING CANCER you give money to a company in exchange for the chance to acquire YET MORE CANCER

...but he didn't die and now here he is, a full-grown adult in a church basement in the 137th nicest city in America, divorced, addicted to video games, mostly friendless, eking out a meager living by exploiting his cancertastic past, slowly working his way towards a master's degree that will not improve his career prospects, waiting, as we all do, for the sword of Damocles, to give him the relief that he escaped lo those many years ago when cancer took both his nuts but spared what only the most generous would call his life.

These words are unlike any I have heard come out of the mouth of a 16 year old, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief on that account and swallow the line that two teenage literary, sarcastic geniuses were thrown together by fate, because the result is fascinating. According to Graham, the thing that makes YA is presenting:

...the teenage perspective in a fundamentally uncritical way. It’s not simply that YA readers are asked to immerse themselves in a character’s emotional life—that’s the trick of so much great fiction—but that they are asked to abandon the mature insights into that perspective that they (supposedly) have acquired as adults.

While that makes complete sense when talking about something empty-headed like Vampire Academy, it seems much less obvious here. In any case, defining YA is going to remain complicated, especially when some presumably respectable pundits consider LOTR to be YA.

In any case, meta-discussions aside, this is a fantastic book and I'd recommend it to all adults and teenagers alike. The dialogue is brilliantly written, savagely sarcastic and ironic, and a joy to read. The cancer isn't central to the book, but requires the characters to drop all of the normal teenage concerns and pursue a really interesting journey together, including a realisation that ultimately they may make little to no mark on the world.

A minor point but something I found annoying was Van Houten's strange appearance in the final act of the novel. It was completely out of character for Van Houten and implausible. Perhaps Green felt the need to show that Hazel had moved past her obsession with the novel, trivialised in the face of the recent events?

I have no idea what having a terminal illness is like, but the experiences of the "cancer kids" and their families rang true to me. I really liked Gus and Hazel, even if they sounded a little like male and female versions of the same person.

4.5 stars