Despite John Green's much-beloved reputation in YA literature, I've never been a huge John Green fan. Looking for Alaska has always been overrated for me - I've never been too fond of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. The Fault in Our Stars, although it still employs a MPDG in the form of Augustus, is an earnest look at a hard situation. Green manages to poke humor at cliches of the cancer genre, and his sincerity becomes moving. You could yawn and dismiss the book as predictable, and the characters as too precociously self-aware to be realistic - both legitimate criticisms of the book. Or you can go with it, and revel in the raw truth of the emotions he evokes.