It has been more than seven years since I was first introduced to Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters. After a particularly rough month, it seemed like the right time to revisit this favourite, partly because it has been a while and my memories of it were beginning to fade, but also because my health hasn’t been great this summer, and it has been scary and debilitating. So reading about kids with cancer is helpful in putting my own situation in stark perspective (it did do that).
This time around I chose audiobook for this, and I enjoyed that experience a lot. It helped me lose myself in the story, and also meant I could continue listening as I did things throughout the day, which allowed me to get through the whole book in one go.
I have to say it wasn’t quite as impactful the second time around because I knew everything that was going to happen in the story, and I think that made me hold back a bit on emotional connection because I knew that it was going to hurt. I also had already read the funny passages, so they too lacked some of the punch of initial reading. But even though it didn’t hit me the same way as it did on the first reading, it was still a great read. I cannot help but love the two main characters, and even some of the side characters get me invested. I love that the parents in this book are neither absent nor antagonists. They are proper people, not perfect, but full of love for their kids, and a desire to balance out responsibility with allowing them to experience life (a hard task to accomplish when your kid has cancer). This is an aspect I can now connect to in a way I couldn’t the first time around. Then I connected with the kids, but now that I’m a parent, this time I felt more for the parents in the book. And though nothing was written from their perspective and they were not the main characters in the book, I nonetheless found them believable and liked them.
I’m glad I decided to re-read this book. It’s not quite as good the second time around, but still pretty great. And unlike many other books I’ve re-visited, it doesn’t have me wondering just why I loved it so much – I still do.
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. – Goodreads
Book Title: The Fault In Our Stars
Author: John Green
Series: No
Edition: Hardback/Audiobook
Published By: Dutton/Audible
Released: January 10, 2012
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Illness, Romance
Pages: 313
Date Read: August 31, 2020
Rating: 8/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.21/5 (3,517,194 ratings)
Orignial Review: May 12-13, 2013, link to original review here.
Hmmm, it’s been awhile since I’ve read this too! It’s always really interesting to me to go back and read books a second time several years later, and see how I view them differently. (And of course, it’s always fun to indulge in a book I really enjoyed the first time around, especially if I’ve been in a reading slump.)
Side note I hope your health is better this autumn and you’re able to enjoy spooky season!
Yes, I rarely re-read because I feel like I’m in this lifelong mad scramble to read as many of the books on my TBR as I can, knowing that, of course, I’ll never manage even a small fraction of them. But I think I’m going to try to do more as this was a good experience! Thank you, I hope so too!