The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
Published: January 10, 2012
Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
Oookay. I was just kidding. That wasn’t my actual review. That was really an excerpt from the book, though of course I have to change the title of the actual book discussed. I know I’d probably get sued for copyright infringement or plagiarism or whatever for copying the passage, but this is just exactly how I felt about the book. It’s like you develop a deep spiritual and emotional attachment with the book after reading it, and after that you just keep on reflecting your life to the book. Not that we all get to fight cancer and instantly relate to the moving story of Hazel and Augustus, but the message and the values planted in the book are just damn priceless.
When you come across a book and learn that it is a story about teenage cancer patients falling for each other, you’d think it’d be all sorrowful and tragic and romeo&juliet-ic. That is so not this book. It’s loaded up with just the right amounts of humor, romance, tragedy, and brilliance. It’s also very philosophical, but not too deep as to make it boring and unenthusiastic. I just loved how John Green created very smart and funny characters, like how Augustus Waters is a big believer of metaphors, and how Hazel Grace Lancaster is supposedly sophisticated and unprecedented and hard-core intelligent. The way the story ended was also just PERFECT. It was so certain and definite that wouldn’t leave the readers hanging or wondering and guessing for the right conclusion. It all settled down to Gus’ obsession with leaving a mark in the world and Hazel’s opposition to it, and whether they lived up to these purposes.
The Fault in Our Stars is simply the best of the books I’ve ever read. This book really gets into you and becomes a part of you. It is the kind that gives you a whole new perspective about the world. One that inclines us to truth, existence, reality, causality, freedom, and time.
*This review is written by my sister, Hannah.
I agree with this review completely. I think all the humor and just sheer amount of life in most of the novel makes the ending all the more heart-wrenching. I remember sitting in my rooat 3 A.M, still reading, and crying out before throwing the book down on the bed next to me. It took about thirty seconds for me to pick it back up, clutch it to me like it was a living thing and not just ink on paper, and devouring the last few pages with tears in my eyes. It is just THAT good.
ReplyDeleteFantastic review of a fantastic book.
Thank you, Kelly! I can't ever forget this book.
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