The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 

I know I am a little behind the times on this one: international bestseller and major motion picture...  But I was never really interested in this story.  Cancer, young love, international travel... Then - my kids wanted to read it.  So I had to read it first.  Would this be another Twilight? I knew there would be sex - two teenagers, close to death??  I read Romeo and Juliet.  I know what happens.

This was a surprisingly innocent book.  Yes, there is a sex scene, but beside stating the color of her underwear and mentioning fumbling with a condom, there was less to this scene than many kissing scenes in other books. I discussed my views on premarital sex, whether or not death is imminent, with my teens and then we talked about the book's quality.

All in all, it was a quick read and an easy plot to follow. We liked the conversations between the characters.  They spoke easily and true to who they were.  It was a redeeming feature of this tale.  But we were not fans of the predictability of the plot, nor did we like the ending - it just seemed like loose ends had to be cauterized quickly to prevent the story from bleeding out.

There were some quotes from the book I enjoyed, though. 
  Neither novels nor their readers benefit from attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story.  Such efforts attack the very idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the fundamental assumption of our species.

 The weird thing about houses is that they almost alwsys look like nothing is happening inside of them, even though they contain most of our lives.

Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom.  And in freedom, most people find sin.

What happened to them?  They all ceased to exist the moment the novel ended.

Some infinities are larger than other infinities.

Grief does not change you... it reveals you.

I am glad I read this with my children.  It covered important topics to talk about with teenagers, things that rest heavy on their minds.

book cover image fromhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Fault-Stars-John-Green/dp/014242417X