The Fault In Our Stars review: Believe the hype

Disappointment is an unfortunate by-product of anticipation. Over the years, countless books and movies have failed to live up to their lofty aspirations and perished, forgotten, in musty second hand booksellers  or charity shop DVD sections. And after the remarkable successes of author John Green's short teenage novels and with a film deal in the works even before the book's publication, anticipation could not have been higher for The Fault In Our Stars. But is the book powerful enough to survive the hailstorm of hype which sent it straight to the top of The New York Times bestseller list, or is it just another predictable lesson in how best to patronise young people?

Glancing at a plot synopsis, you'd be inclined to suggest the later option. Green employs the tried and tested formula for teen drama of combining Romeo and Juliet with a serious and current issue, be that teenage pregnancy, racial prejudice or eighteen-year-old vampires with supple skin and impressively toned muscles. The Fault In Our Stars breaks no moulds by using cancer as its villain; it's social impacts having being explored across numerous novels in the medium; albeit usually without narrating from the perspective of a cancer patient. Sixteen year old Hazel Grace Lancaster is that patient, a girl apparently on the mend after surviving a seemingly deadly tumour. After reluctantly agreeing to join a support group, Hazel meets the charismatic and inevitably attractive Augustus Waters, who's now cancer free after having his leg amputated, and the pair begin a relationship which comes to dominate the book's plot. Again, the plot appears formulaic and almost dull, you might even see the only mildly interesting thing John Green has to offer as a character who unfortunately shares his first name with the morbidly obese and chocolate infused child in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And of course, these immediate pre-perceptions collapse into nothingness the very moment you open the book.

Green's writing has a certain drug-like quality: he knows exactly how to draw a reader in. This is partially due to the superb pacing and focus of the plot, which features literally zero throwaway scenes as each page outdoes the last in developing the novel's characters and relationships. Then there's his sly confidence in writing from the perspective of others; every line of dialogue and moment of thought is believable to the letter. Mostly however, Green's addictive style stems from his grasp of the importance of character. Hazel and Augustus are two of the most memorable figures in recent literature, Augustus in particular is a strikingly charismatic individual. Rather than filling the book with endless unnecessary minor characters, Green chooses to include only a handful of people, which allows him to create deeper and more believable relationships between them in addition to morphing their personas as he chooses. While Hazel and Augustus's relationship is the main focus of the story, the friendship they share with fellow support group attendee Isaac creates a number of situations both cautiously funny and downright shocking, which lead to him being almost as fully fleshed out as the others by the conclusion. It's the relationship that Hazel shares with her mother however which is the second key theme, as the fear and difficulty of raising a child affected by a life threatening disease receives exceptionally rare attention. The plot itself is almost secondary to characterization, and Green deliberately increases the predictability of events in an effort to show that characters can still be well-crafted and intelligent within the confines of a simple storyline.

One of the wonderful things about Green's novel is that it is only a teenage story in that its central characters are teenagers; the author carries such respect for the intelligence of the intellectually maligned demographic that The Fault In Our Stars reads like it was written for adults and deals with deliberately emotionally intense themes. Despite its dark subject matter, Green's strength is in drawing almost every emotion possible from the reader in a short space of time. There's tragedy of course, and the feelings of loss, desperation and anger that stem from it, but in places the story takes truly beautiful turns, dealing explicitly with love, hope and simple, impossible happiness. It's even funny at times. In a market crowded with one dimensional stories, burying so much emotion within the pages of a book aimed at teenagers is a startling and welcome achievement.

With intense themes and genuinely unforgettable characters, The Fault In Our Stars is a rare example of anticipation being justified and even exceeded. Forget teen book of the year, this is one of the most intelligent and emotionally powerful novels we've seen past the turn of the millennium.

10/10