A review by marshmallowbooks
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
3.0
While I never received a specific recommendation to read any of John Green's books, I felt for some reason that they did come highly recommended. I'm not sure where I got that impression, but something about it led me to reading this, which is the first of his books I've gone through.
I listened to the audiobook which I feel is sometimes risky if I haven't read the book before. The one thing I can say for certain about any audiobook I have ever listened to: the quality of the narrator can either make or break it for me.
Luckily, in the case of this book, the narrator was fantastic. She even eclipsed my generalization that females are terrible at providing the voice of males and make them all sound like dumb jocks. She was, in fact, quite excellent at voicing both the main character of Hazel Grace, as well as Hazel's boyfriend Augustus and their friend Isaac. Plus, she did a very nice job of adding the additional expressions that were necessary for this story: Hazel uses and oxygen tank, and if she was short of breath, so was the narrator. I thought that was very well done.
Narration aside, I felt the book was pretty good. It seemed to be very well researched, as far as the situation of the characters, who are in various stages of having serious, and sometimes terminal illnesses. I was impressed by that factor.
Other than that, to be honest, the story didn't stand out to me a whole lot. It was good, but not to the point that I'm rushing out to read everything else John Green has written. Although, I think that might be more of a sign that maybe I'm [finally] starting the beginning of outgrowing YA fiction. A little bit. Perhaps. At least to the point that I'm a little more selective of what I'm willing to read from that section.
I listened to the audiobook which I feel is sometimes risky if I haven't read the book before. The one thing I can say for certain about any audiobook I have ever listened to: the quality of the narrator can either make or break it for me.
Luckily, in the case of this book, the narrator was fantastic. She even eclipsed my generalization that females are terrible at providing the voice of males and make them all sound like dumb jocks. She was, in fact, quite excellent at voicing both the main character of Hazel Grace, as well as Hazel's boyfriend Augustus and their friend Isaac. Plus, she did a very nice job of adding the additional expressions that were necessary for this story: Hazel uses and oxygen tank, and if she was short of breath, so was the narrator. I thought that was very well done.
Narration aside, I felt the book was pretty good. It seemed to be very well researched, as far as the situation of the characters, who are in various stages of having serious, and sometimes terminal illnesses. I was impressed by that factor.
Other than that, to be honest, the story didn't stand out to me a whole lot. It was good, but not to the point that I'm rushing out to read everything else John Green has written. Although, I think that might be more of a sign that maybe I'm [finally] starting the beginning of outgrowing YA fiction. A little bit. Perhaps. At least to the point that I'm a little more selective of what I'm willing to read from that section.