THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, is probably one of the best books ever written. This review doesn’t do it justice. It has wonderful insight on Hazel’s life, and many teenagers can relate too. (Even if you don’t have cancer.) It’s a young adult, realistic fiction novel, and it is definitely realistic fiction. The main theme of this book is that life happens, and you can’t predict it.

                                                                                                                                     

Hazel Grace Lancaster is 16, and has thyroid cancer. She was diagnosed when she was 13, and was taken out of school for treatment. She hasn’t gone back to school, and her only real contact with people outside of her family is her cancer support group. She goes to the support group, and only has one true friend there, Isaac. Isaac brings his friend, Augustus, to the support group with him. Augustus has osteosarcoma, another form of cancer, and he lost his leg because of it. Hazel and Augustus get to talking, and she ends up going over to his house and watching a movie. While there, Hazel tells Augustus that she really likes a book called An Imperial Affliction, by Peter van Houten. This might seem like a random tidbit, but it will become more important later.

As time goes on, they become closer and closer, but Hazel keeps trying to resist getting attached. She doesn’t want to hurt him when she dies, which she knows is going to happen, but Gus won’t give up. Hazel becomes even more worried about hurting him, and her family, when she is hospitalized for pneumonia. While she is in the hospital, she realizes she does deeply care for Gus, and he admits to her that he feels the same way. Now, Gus wants to do something special for Hazel. He still has a wish from “The Genies,” or the Make a Wish Foundation. He uses his wish to bring Hazel, her mother and himself to Germany to meet Peter van Houten and to learn more about An Imperial Affliction. They go to Van Houten’s apartment, and learn that, unlike Gus, he is not a stand up guy. He never opens fan mail, he doesn’t care about his book, and he is just an old drunk that doesn’t do anything with his life anymore. The book still has much more in store, but I don’t want to spoil it for you!

Usually when I get to this part of my review, I talk about what the author put in the book and what I think it means. This time, I’ll be pulling some information out of interviews that John Green has done, and talk about his opinions there, instead of infer what he meant. In The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel believes that people can hurt the world just as easily as they can help it. That becomes bigger in the end of the book, though I can’t tell you why. When John Green was commenting on this, he said, “Trying to do good is not the same thing as doing good. Many, many people have tried to do good and in the process done harm.” This is incorporated in The Fault in Our Stars, and is directly mentioned by Gus in the end of the book. I think this is completely true. People too often try to help, and they make a bigger mess then there already was. This is only one example of the wonderful things Green put into his book.

I can’t tell you my feelings about this book. I feel like if I choose the wrong word, then this book wouldn’t be given the attention it deserves. Hazel mentions that there are no accurate cancer books in the world, and that authors portray their characters differently then what is true, and it makes it so she can’t read those books. Although I don’t have cancer, I feel like this might be one of the best cancer books now. If Hazel was a real person, I think she would love this book almost as much as she love An Imperial Affliction. This book shows people like me, who don’t have cancer, how difficult it is. It makes you think about how difficult life is for people. You don’t know what everyone else is going through. Keep that in mind before you judge someone.

I love this book. I could read it over and over again without it getting boring. It is clearly on its way to becoming a classic for teens and adults. Everyone needs to read this book, because it appeals to everyone. It’s not just a sappy love story. It’s adventurous, and is heart-wrenching at times. I give this book an A+.