Love in the time of cancer: an unlikely teen best-seller

Books that are loved by teenage girls tend not to be taken very seriously, unless they start selling millions of copies.

American author John Green's early books were critical and commercial successes, but the mind- blowing success of his sixth book, The Fault in Our Stars – which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide since it was published in 2012 and has just been adapted into a hit film – led to lengthy interviews in the New Yorker and the Economist's Intelligent Life magazine.

The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel, a teenage girl with terminal cancer who meets and falls for Augustus, or Gus, a boy she meets at a teenage cancer-support group. They go to Amsterdam in search of the reclusive author of Hazel's favourite novel, but the meeting doesn't go well, and, on their return, we discover that Gus's cancer has returned. This time, he's not going to get better.

There are many things to like about the book, particularly its witty, unsentimental depiction of serious illness and death. Ultimately, however, it leaves me cold. Clearly I'm in a minority: last week the book sold 4,612 copies in Ireland alone, 3,561 more than the next best-selling paperback, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. The week before, it sold 3,749 copies here; Dan Brown's Inferno was at No 2, selling 896 copies.

In Pearse Street Library in Dublin, four fans of the novel have gathered to explain its appeal. Lia Cummins (12) from Newbridge, Co Kildare, read The Fault in Our Stars after seeing the trailer for the film. Anna MacNeill (13) from Dublin 7, picked up the book in the library after reading a review in Kiss magazine. Laura McDunphy (17) from Raheny and Aoife Mitchell (14) from Phibsborough both read it thanks to recommendations from friends. They all read it in one sitting, and most have read it multiple times, although Lia has only read it once "because I couldn't take all the crying".

So why do they love it so much? The main reason is the novel’s emotional impact: the tragic ending left the girls stunned. “If a book can play on your emotions and make you feel something, then it’s definitely a good book,” says Aoife. “It’s words on paper that can make you feel things.”

Laura agrees. “I think that’s a sign of a really great book; that you feel something.” She is also impressed by Green’s ability to write convincing teen characters. “You could swear that a 16-year-old wrote these books, because he seems so familiar with how teenagers feel.”

Roping in friends

The girls have all pressed the book on their friends. “You want to hear other people’s opinions and then argue with them if they’ve got an opinion that’s different to yours,” says Aoife.

“I was away on holiday when I read it,” says Laura. “I finished it and I sat there for about an hour trying to weigh up what had just happened. Then I texted my friend and said, ‘Look, before I come home you need to pick up this book and read it’. She finished it in about a day and I got a text that said, ‘I love you and all, but I hate you for this’.”

The girls agree that humour is a crucial part of the book’s appeal. “[The funny bits] make it very human,” says Laura. “It means that the characters aren’t defined by their illness – you see that they have this illness but they’re capable of having a normal teenage life.”

The book's witty tone also stops the book from being too depressing. "I'd read really sad books before, but the thing about The Fault in Our Stars is that it's a sad topic but it's written really light-heartedly," says Anna. "A lot of it is really funny."

They all think the characters’ illness elevates the story above the usual generic love stories, in which, as Aoife says, “not much else is going to happen” besides the romance.

"Without the cancer and that bit of sorrow, it would just have been stereotypical, and it wouldn't be as famous as it is now," says Lia. "It would be more like Twilight without the sparkly vampires. But the fact that their relationship was imperfect kind of made it perfect, if that makes sense."

A new look at illness

They all say it has made them reconsider how they look at illness. Lia says the story “opened my eyes. [Young people with cancer] don’t look for your pity. They have a life of their own and they don’t need pity in order to survive.”

All the girls praise the book's sad ending. "It made it more powerful, that it didn't end the way you expected," says Lia. "It was more like Romeo and Juliet, except not both of them died."

Both Aoife and Anna think a happy ending would have been a let-down. “When I was reading it I was hoping it wouldn’t be all happy-ever-after at the end,” says Anna. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t sad, but because it did end so sadly, it gave it more weight.”

Lia thinks the ending wasn't totally unhappy. "I think the way John Green carried it out [meant that] they did have a bit of forever, and that was fine. They did both have what they wanted."

I’m almost afraid to tell the girls that I found the supposedly witty, charismatic Gus so affected and smarmy I didn’t care whether he died or not. They obviously don’t agree but, to my surprise, they understand what I mean.

“I didn’t really like him at the beginning; I thought he seemed kind of fake,” says Anna. “But then he becomes more real and develops, like a proper character, and you actually see his personality.”

Lia says “he was a bit pretentious at the start, but then he grew on the reader. He was witty and playful, but at times he went too far. I see what you’re saying but I wouldn’t say he was annoying.”

By the time the girls have left clutching film soundtracks and copies of Green's and David Levithan's co-written novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, what is striking about their relationship with The Fault in Our Stars is how nuanced it is. Although they all love it, they can see its flaws – most share my discomfort with the tasteless scene in which Gus and Hazel kiss in the Anne Frank house, applauded by tourists.

The book makes them feel, but it also makes them think. In a world where teenage girls’ cultural tastes are often dismissed as mindless hysteria, these four teenagers have reminded me of how complex fandom can be. Even if they haven’t changed my mind about Gus.

Find out more about Dublin City Libraries' Summer Reading Buzz programme at dublincitypubliclibraries.ie, or via Twitter at @SummerBuzz

BRIEF JUDGMENTS: ONE-LINE REVIEWS

Aoife: It has an excellent plot and it will make you feel things.

Laura: It'll make you feel a lot of powerful emotions and it'll stay with you for a long time after finishing it.

Anna: It's not a generic story, it's very different and it touches everyone.

Lia: You will feel things you never thought that you would feel.