The Fault in Our Stars

I feared this would be one of those overhyped YA books and read it only because my daughter was reading it, and I figured, why not, we could talk about it after.

To my surprise, it turned out to be really good, touching and funny and sad and everything you would hope it to be. Hazel is a charming and engaging narrator who makes what could be an over sentimental story reasonably grounded.

If I have any minor quibble with the book it's that Hazel's favorite writer, Peter Van Houten was a caricature, out of place in a novel full of believable characters. It was completely unbelievable to me that he'd show up for Gus's funeral Giving Green the benefit of the doubt, there must have been some literary device or point to this that escaped me.

This was an unexpected pleasure. I even teared up a few times when reading, an event which rarely occurs.