Introduction
This Friday, The Fault in Our Stars hit movie screens across America. It was a big book (Time Magazine’s #1 fiction book of 2012), and looks to be an even bigger movie.
The story has been on Redeemedreader’s radar for quite sometime. Janie did a fantastic review a while back, which you can read HERE. I was also able to review the movie for World Magazine, as well as produce a radio piece. Here’s that audio, if you’d like a summary of what’s below:
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Coffee and Conversations
Because this book is aimed at teens, I feel that perhaps the strongest witness may come from teens themselves. And for that reason, we’ve developed this series called Coffee and Conversations. Below, I’ve enlisted two intrepid young college students to discuss the movie with me:
- Hayley, of course, is our Older Readers Assistant Editor, and when she’s not reading books for us, she’s a student at Boyce College. Hayley is the oldest in a large homeschool family, and she blogs at her own website, Catsinboxes.wordpress.com.
- Amos is our current Redeemedreader.com intern. He just finished his first year at Boyce College, and while he’s eager to try his hand at writing, he also hopes to go into ministry after graduation.
If you want to know more about me, Emily Whitten, check out RR’s About page.
Take a Listen!
So, with those introductions out of the way, we hope you’ll pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and listen to some of our thoughts on this book-to-movie phenomenon. And of course, let us know what you think in the comments!
Coffee and Conversations, #1: The Fault in Our Stars
Join our Summer Reading Challenge
If you like book discussions, we also invite you to join us this summer in our Summer Reading Challenge. We’ll be hosting a number of contests and discussions like this one throughout the summer.
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So problematic in so many ways, and the dialogue was pretty unbelievable. (I taught high school. kids do not talk like that. At all.) And yet there was something really compelling about the book and I loved the characters. I still really enjoyed it. And I liked that, since there was a sex scene, it at least wasn’t graphic–a lot of YA these days milk the edginess of that and I can’t stand it.
I bawled when Gus died. I think, for me, this book just highlighted the hopelessness facing this upcoming generation of kids. Despite the dialogue, it’s just so…accurate, you know? Of a life without Christ? Because the hope Green writes about isn’t real. So it’s sad in the end. I think a lot of this resonates with teens today…they’re probably wrestling with Big Questions and just don’t have a real framework for answering them.
An odd book for me.
This was a thought-provoking discussion. Thanks, all three of you, for taking the time and contributing your thoughts. And Thank You, Steph, for chiming in on this. You bring up an important point: this is probably just where kids are today, and why they look to John Green as some sort of prophet or guru. It’s easy to get angry with the present culture, but our attitude really should be one of compassion. Like Jesus, who saw the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd.