Hazel is living with cancer, and everyday she must carry around her oxygen tank in order to breathe. Her lungs just aren't doing well in her fight against the cancer she believes will eventually kill her. During this bleak time of negative emotions and physical struggle, her caring mother makes her attend a Support Group at a local church. Since Hazel doesn't even like Support Group that much, she didn't expect it to completely change her life forever. She didn't expect to meet Augustus Waters.
Together, the two of them journey through life exchanging books and ideas, even love.
The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's newest novel, and it is also the first I've ever read by him. After watching his
Vlogbrothers videos on YouTube, I had already determined that John and his brother Hank are perhaps the coolest people on Earth, so I was definitely looking forward to reading one of John's novels. However, I held off on this book for a while because I had a feeling it would make me cry, and I was right.
John Green is a remarkable man. Only he could write this a story in such a way where I might be sobbing one minute and giggling the next. Augustus Waters and Hazel Lancester are such unique and amusing characters (which is most evident in their dialogue, which I find relatable), and that's half of the reason why their relationship ended up being so engaging. The other half, unfortunately, is the tragic manner in which it all happens. With these utterly human characteristics, I couldn't put this book down; I flew right through it.
Of course, the complexity of Peter Van Houten was also an interesting factor to see play out among these pages. There was a lot of his character that I didn't expect, but I won't give anything away.
I already know I'm not the best journalist out there; my heart has always been with creative writing and I hope it always will be. Though I never considered myself to be the most astonishing writer anyway, after reading this book, I feel like a really crappy writer. John Green's just so... good. He'll grab your emotions and won't let go even if you already feel kind of miserable. But, that's not to say there's no hope in this book, because there is. Sadness isn't the only thing readers will feel when reading
The Fault in Our Stars. Like I said earlier, there's humor in this book. There's humor and friendship and love. There's life.
One of the many, many things I loved about this book is the honesty. Everyday, we hear the same things about anyone that dies, not only cancer victims. Once someone dies, everyone loves them. People that barely talked to them suddenly think that they were best friends. Everyone talks about how strong they were as they fought. But most of these people don't even know what they're talking about. The people closest to the victim do know how hard it all can be, how hard it was. I don't know why people get so weird when someone dies, so appreciative and caring of someone they didn't pay much attention to in life. If it were that simple, of course it would not be an issue. But there's an extremity to it that's just so melancholy and fake about it, and it makes me sick.
The Fault in Our Stars is one of my favorite books, and I really can't say enough about it. Words of appreciation don't seem to do it justice. Still, I can't stop thinking about it, how each element came together so perfectly. It deserves all the praise it gets; there will never be another novel like this.
5/5 Stars
Green, John.
The Fault in Our Stars
New York: Dutton Books
2012
