In Which I Review The Fault in our Stars (Movie)

Some infinities are bigger than others

Over a year ago, when this blog was brand new, I did a series of books reviews. One of the fist books I talked about was John Green's "The Fault in our Stars." I gave it an A- and a rave review. I admit I am biased when it comes to John Green products. I've been a big fan of his for a long time, both as an author and as a vlogger. When I heard that Hollywood was adapting his New York Times best selling novel, I was both thrilled and incredibly apprehensive. How could they possibly hope to match the beautiful story John Green wrote? They couldn't manage to cast people who would do Hazel and Gus justice, right? Most of my fears were assuaged when I saw the trailer for the film--if the 1 minute long trailer could make me cry, then it had to be on the right track. You should know going in that this is going to be a rave. Honestly, this might be one of the most faithful adaptations of a novel I've seen in years. But, fair warning, if you go to see the film, take some tissues, you'll need them. 

Hashing the Plot

Let's do a quick overview of the plot before I get into what I liked and didn't like. Hazel Grace Lancaster is 16 years old and dying. She was diagnosed very young with cancer, stage 4. She wasn't expected to survive long but went through all the treatment options we assoiciate with cancer: chemo, radiation, more chemo, and finally a "miracle" drug that managed to prevent the cancer from spreading any further. Despite the miracle, Hazel is still dying, just more slowly now. Her lungs "suck at being lungs" and she needs a constant stream of oxygen supplied by a tank. When the film picks up, Hazel is just living her life day-to-day as one might expect: she watches TV, she goes to the doctor, she hangs out with her parents. But her mother and father are worried that she's depressed, a side of effect of the cancer. Hazel's voice over tells us that it's a side effect of dying, but almost everything is. Her doctor and her mother encourage her to go to a support group. The group serves as a cliche piece of any "cancer story" you read about--a group of young people who must strive to find the beauty in life despite all the odds. They sit in the literal heart of Jesus Christ and talk about how they are doing today. Hazel hates every second of it. Unlike the plucky young heroine of other cancer novels, who's illness causes them to struggle admirably, Hazel has accepted that she is going to die and that oblivion is inevitable. Then Augustus Waters bumps into her.

Augustus Waters is a boy who lives for the symbolic and the metaphorical. Take the cigarette, put it between your teeth but never light up, thus taking away the power it has to kill you. Augustus Waters, trying to take back control of his life, one non-puff at a time. Gus is both like and not-like Hazel. He had cancer but has been cancer-free for over a year; he lost half a leg because of the disease but for the most part he sees his life "on a roller coaster that only goes up." His only fear? Oblivion, which is cute and pretentious, but so is Gus. This is a boy who only does something if it's symbolic and metaphorical, after all. Hazel finds this fear of the oblivion silly and tells him so at their first meeting while sitting in the Literal Heart of Jesus: there will come a day when all of humanity is wiped out and everyone and everything will be forgotten. But if this bothers you, just ignore it. That's what everyone else does. Gus is drawn to Hazel instantly but Hazel is more reticent. She wants to just be friends because Hazel sees herself as a grenade, and one day she's going to explode and harm everyone around her. It's her responsibility to lessen the casualties. But as Gus smiles and says, "you keeping your distance from me in no way lessens my feelings for you." And so, a friendship is formed. One of the ways they bond is over the novel "An Imperial Infliction" by one Peter van Houten. Hazel swears by this book; it's her totem that she carries around because it accurately describes what it's like to die but the author is someone still alive, something Hazel responds to as she lives her in-between life. The book ends mid-sentence because that's how life goes, but that doesn't stop Hazel from wishing she knew what happened to the character's friends and family. Sadly, Mr. Houten refuses to speak to his fans and lives a life of solitude in Amsterdam.

The world is not a wish granting factory, but sometimes you do get what you desire. Augustus arranges it so that he, Hazel, and Hazel's mother can visit Amsterdam to speak with Peter van Houten in his home, and hopefully get answers to what happens to family members after someone dies of cancer. Gus does the big bold romantic gestures a lot and you fall in love with him because of it--slowly, and then all at once. Amsterdam is both a success and a failure. On the one hand, Hazel and Gus grow closer and Hazel decides that despite life being a shout into the void, this is the only life she gets and she wants to spend it with Gus. On the other hand, it turns out that Peter van Houten, the man with the answers, is a drunk hack who refuses to speak to the pair or give them any sort of answers. He is, as Hazel so rightly put it, a douchepants.

I am going to stop the plot hashing here because I do not want to spoil the movie. Rather, go see it yourself or read the book or do both! To go any further means giving away some things that are very spoilery and this is a movie/book you should savor without knowing what happens next.

What I Did Not Like 

I have almost nothing to put here. Really. I have maybe 3 very tiny nitpicky things but that's it.

--There was one conversation between Hazel and her dad about the universe that I thought should have been left in, but it's not a reason to hate on the film as a whole.

--If you haven't read the novel, it might be hard to understand what "An Imperial Affliction" is and why Hazel and Gus love it. In the book "The Fault in Our Stars" Hazel uses it a lot as a benchmark of her life. She related to the lead, Anna, quite a bit (something that is important to van Houten as well).  For example, the line "the risen sun too bright in her loosing eyes" is a phrase that Hazel and Gus discuss frequently, but the movie doesn't spend a lot of time focusing on the fictional novel within a fictional novel. I think it works well for the movie if you haven't read the book, but as a book reader, you do notice it.

--This critque is to Hollywood in general: do yourself a favor and find a scholar who can speak Greek and Latin in order to teach your actors how to say things in that language. It is not pronounced "harm-may-sha" it's "harm-ma-tea-ah." It only bothers me as someone who reads Greek and Latin.

What I Liked

--Everything. My sad paltry useless words cannot accurately convey how beautiful this movie was. The movie was an almost word-for-word adaptation of the novel, which is what I was hoping for. Why change something when it works so well? There is a lot of pain in this film, make no mistake. I lost count of the number of times I cried. But if there is one lesson (there are several) in this book/film: that's the thing about pain, it demands to be felt.

--Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgot. Casting for TFIOS needed to be impeccable and it was. When Ansel was cast as Gus Waters, I was very apprehensive. He wasn't quite what I pictured from the book, but he sold it in this film. Clad in leather, with a beautiful smile and kind eyes, but moving through life from metaphor to metaphor, he did it perfectly. Shailene has really proven herself in the past few years of being able to do anything. Her history with the book is well known; she wrote a letter to John Green expressing her love for the novel long before the movie was cast. She brought Hazel to life

--The smaller story line of Isaac was given just enough space to make Isaac a fleshed out character but not to detract from Gus and Hazel. He was also some much needed comic relief without being simply comedic. In particular, I loved the basement scene where Isaac is raging against the world while Hazel and Gus try to have a serious conversation.

--The soundtrack is also really good and I enjoyed seeing the pair in Amsterdam for real.

Overall rating: A

Just go see it. You have no reason not to. This isn't just another YA adaptation. This isn't another life affiriming sick movie. This is something more.
So go see it.

Okay?
Okay.

In Which I Review Some Books

Confession: Back in December, before what was potentially my last Christmas break, I realized I missed reading. I was so caught up in academia and all the work that goes into being a full time Master's student, I had neglected fun reading, which was doubly sad as it has always been a hobby of mine. As an undergraduate, my friends and I used to drive to the local "dirt mall" (so named because of how tiny it was) and I would spend a good half hour in the bookstore, arms full of books I didn't have the money to buy but bought anyway. My friend Jenny used to think it was funny to add to my pile and then convince me that I should spend more money. Fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, fantastical historical fiction, romance, classic: you name it, I read it. So, upon realizing that my Christmas break was going to be full of still more research and thesis writing, I made a pact with myself that it would also include some novels. Five months later and I've read 30+ books. 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Without a doubt, one of the best books I have ever read, there is a reason why Neil Gaiman is one of the heavyweights of fantasy. I was familiar with Gaiman in general, though sadly I had not read anything of his until this book; he is credited with writing what is probably the best episode of Doctor Who of all time (The Doctor's Wife). This book is complex and thoughtful with a large mythology but enough magic that suspends my need to have all my questions answered. Shadow, the main character, has just been released from prison after a few years and is trying to make his way in the world once more. Along the way he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday who wishes to hire Shadow as a bodyguard, more or less. Wednesday, a prolific con man, takes Shadow across country, introducing him to his incredibly colorful friends. Eventually the crux of the novel is revealed to Shadow, though the audience has already caught on. Mr. Wednesday and his friends are gods from the old world, transplanted to America by immigrants and travelers because--quite simply--they believed in them. People carry their gods wherever they go and thus gods from Viking mythology (Mr. Wednesday is a specific iteration of Odin), Egyptian myth (Mr. Ibis and Mr. Jaquel), Slavic myth (Czernobog), African folklore (Mr. Nancy), and even Native American traditions are scattered across the American landscape. But the old gods, as they call themselves, have a problem: they are dying in the face of the new gods of technology and media. America, we are told, is a bad place for gods. What ensues is a cosmic con and battle in which Shadow is part hero, part sacrifice. As a student of religion, the take on how the gods still survive in a land such as America was fascinating. How are mythologies and the figures of those myths transformed in new places? Can myths of the old world that so informed a people and a culture of long ago survive in land fueled by "new" and "innovative?"
Overall grade: A+ (Just read it!)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

If you look at any list of the top YA fiction for 2012, you'll find this book. Chances are if you look at several lists for the best books of 2012, this book is on there. For a time, you couldn't turn the corner in a bookstore without running into TFiOS. I have to admit, I was already predisposed to like anything John Green wrote, even though I was rather late in the game with reading this book. When he's not writing compelling young adult fiction, John Green is one half of the YouTube channel, the Vlogbrothers with his brother Hank, who have been trying to decrease world suck since 2007. I've been a member of their community (the Nerdfighters) for sometime. Communicating with mainly teenagers and young adults a few times a week, it's no surprise that Green knows how to write a book that is both funny and heartbreaking and altogether real. TFiOS tells the story of two cancer patients, Hazel and Gus, who meet in a support group. Sounds depressing, I know, but this not a cancer book. A cancer book would have our two young heroes struggle through their disease, coming to accept it and learn the value of living life to the fullest before quietly making peace with their inevitable death. No so with Hazel and Gus who are sarcastic and quick witted and who hate everything about their cancer. Life is not a platitude and knowing pain does not increase your feelings of joy. Hazel recognizes that someday, after she dies, she'll be forgotten, just as everyone else will. Oblivion is there, accept it. But along the way, these two souls find one other and even though they know that their deaths will affect the other in horrible ways, the choice to love one another was a simple one. You will laugh and you will cry and this book will stay with you.
Overall Grade: A

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In the wake of wildly successful and popular Hunger Games, it seems that post-apocalyptic dystopia novels are everywhere, and mostly found in the Young Adult section of the bookstore. The Divergent series follows in that wake. Dystopian literature is a personal favorite, Brave New World being one of the high school books that I actively remember and one that stayed with me. However, I remember hesitating before finally picking up this book: how could it be better than the Hunger Games (which is simply phenomenal, even though I don't agree with the ending)? However, Roth takes a different approach than Collins with her heroine; where Katniss knows that her society is tragically flawed and wrong, Beatrice Prior (Tris) spends the first half of the novel in passive acceptance of the society in which she lives. Somewhere in the not too distant future in Chicago, humanity has divided itself into factions based on virtues: candor, erudite, amity, dauntless, and abnegation. At the age of sixteen, a young adult chooses to either stay in the faction of their birth or leave for the one they feel fits them. Factions rarely interact with one another, so choosing to leave the faction of your birth possibly means never seeing your family again. Tris, born to Abnegation, is torn when the test taken at school reveals that she could potentially belong to several factions. This "affliction" is known as Divergence and is feared and prosecuted. Tris is told to keep it to herself for fear that she'll be harmed. What follows is a coming of age story as Tris struggles to accept her differences, her new faction, but also as she uncovers a plot that seeks to rip the society apart. Naturally there is a romance, though thankfully we are spared the typical love triangle that so often accompanies young adult literature these days. The concept itself is interesting though I found myself often wondering how someone could possibly be just ONE of those virtues and I have a sneaking suspicion that might be Roth's point, what drives her novel. Trying to separate out those virtues is next to impossible not only because of how hard they are to define but also because, for example, being brave can also mean being selfless or honest or smart. It's amazing more characters aren't Divergent. This is the first of three books, the third due out this year. The second book picks up where the first leaves off and then turns everything upside down so that the wait for the final book is close to excruciating. The middle section where Tris is learning how to be a member of her new faction drags on a bit and the secret plan she uncovers is a bit confusing, but it is well worth the read.
Overall Grade: B+

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

An unbelievably strange book that combines myth, fantasy, time travel, pocket universes, and vernacular photography, this is a very interesting debut from Riggs. After the death of his grandfather, Jacob Portman is convinced that something terrible happened to the old man. His grandfather's stories of monsters and special children on a magical island seem the ravings of a senile mind until Jacob begins investigating. On a small isolated part of Wales, Jacob discovers a place pocketed away from time, where children who are "peculiar" live in a time bubble during World War Two. Some children can float, some can control fire, some have bees covering their face, and one child is even invisible. There are creepy monsters and an entertaining plot, but what really makes this book worth the read are the black and white photos sprinkled throughout. At first, I thought I would find them annoying but it's amazing how well they work with the narrative, fitting into the story at just the right moments. It was obvious that Riggs spent countless hours hunting down these photos to use, pouring through garage sales and personal collections. The photos are strange (like the cover photo of a girl floating) and are obviously "faked" but that is washed away in the explanation of who the children in the photos are. A very delightful read, I look forward to the sequel.
Overall Grade: B+

The Beautiful Creatures Collection by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

 Vampires, werewolves, succubi, inccubi, magic, witches, prophecy, and Southern manners surround this series of four supernatural novels. Typical gender roles are reversed in this series; instead of the guy being the supernatural creature with whom the young girl falls madly and inconsolably in love, Ethan Wate is a normal guy living in the deep south, in a tiny town where nothing exciting ever happens and all he can do is hope to escape. That is until Lena Duchannes comes to the town of Gatlin. Lena, it turns out, is a Caster (witch) and a super powerful one at that. On her 16th birthday she will be claimed (against her will) for either the Light or the Darkness. If she goes Dark, chances are she will not remember her love for Ethan. On top of the world's worst birthday present, Lena's mother is out to make sure her daughter goes Dark. The series is supernatural mythology run amok. Every conceivable supernatural trope you can think of is present and at times not well put together. It felt, occasionally, like the authors simply inserted crucial new information at just the right moment for our heroes, but information which had never been even so much as hinted at in earlier pages. The first book--Beautiful Creatures-- is interesting and gets the series off to a good start. However the middle two--Chaos and Darkness--suffer heavily from "middle book syndrome," especially the former which I had to force myself to "just get through." The final book brings back some of the things I liked about the first book. Supernatural books are in high demand right now and there are stronger series out there, but setting the series in the deep south and then making the ideals and customs of that local like another character in the book does make this series stand out. Lazy summer day or beach read at best.
Overall Grade (as a whole): C

This is just a small sampling of some of the books I've read. I think I'll try to review most of them sporadically as I continue blogging. In the meantime, just go out and buy American Gods already!