The Fault in Our Stars

I have two words to say about John Green's The Fault in Our Stars: Holy crap. What a celestial body of a book. It shines. It sparkles. It's intelligent and hilarious and absolutely stellar and it makes you believe in love and in other worlds and I will never forget it.

If you haven't heard about it or seen the movie trailer, The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters. They meet at a cancer support group. They fall in love. They experience life together. Maybe you can guess how it ends.

There's no "best thing" about this novel, but one of the great things was how fantastic the characters are. They're the kind of characters you wish desperately were real because they're so much more interesting to talk to than most of the people you actually go to school with. And they're more than their cancer; they don't let their sickness define them and they don't just go around feeling sorry for themselves. I was worried when I started to read this book that the whole thing was just going to be a cancer sob story, but the characters made it far less about the disease than it was about the human experience, which I appreciated.

Another thing I thought really added to the book was the great dialogue. It's very realistic; Green's word choice makes it sound like stuff real people would actually say, which can be difficult to find in a book. It also has a tendency to be quite profound, especially coming from Augustus. Since you can't see the characters' eyes, their dialogue provides a little window into their souls.

Please don't write this book off just because you hate crying; I was actually too sad to cry for most of the book. However, if you hate being sad, are offended by occasional foul language and semi-sacreligious remarks or are intimidated by brilliant and charismatic boys, this book is probably not for you. Also, full disclosure, there's a mild sex scene.

Despite it's few flaws, I loved The Fault in Our Stars and frankly think everyone should make time for the experience of getting to know Hazel Grace and her marvelous cast of supporting characters. A+.

The Fault in Out Stars by John Green

This is a book about cancer, but it's not a cancer book, because according to Hazel, "Cancer books suck." They're all about starting charities and finding hope.

Hazel is our main character. Hazel Grace. She has thyroid cancer, and "he lungs stink at being lungs," they have too much fluid in them, so she has to carry oxygen with her. Unwillingly, she goes to a cancer support group where people share their story, but there she meets Augustus (Gus) Waters, who lost a leg because of osteosarcoma. He asks her to come over and watch a movie with him. At Gus's house they exchange their favorite books. Hazel's is An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten (which is not a real book. I know, I really wanted to read it.) Hazel says that Van Houten seems to understand her, and what it feels like to be dying slowly. It is a book about cancer, but also not a "cancer book". It's about a girl living with it and about her divorced mother and a tulip man. An Imperial Affliction ends mid sentence, suggesting that the girl passed away. Gus reads this book and really really enjoys it. The cliff hanger ending kills him, so he writes to the author asking what happens. Peter Van Houten wont tell him. Then Hazel emails him. He won't tell her either, but he personally invites her to visit him in Amsterdam to talk about it. Hazel and Gus have some difficult times trying to find a way to get to Amsterdam. How would they pay? How would they get there? And with the unpredictability of cancer, will they be okay going?

To start off, I really like John Green's YouTube channels. They're very informative, and they just make me happy because John Green is like an older, more intelligent, male version of me. It was strange to know the author before you read the book, and then he writes a book from a teenage girl's point of view. However, this book sounded just like him! There was some swearing throughout the book, which bothers me a little. It also uses a lot of big words that I did not understand, but the way he puts all his words together is really really special. It's touching. It's funny. It's sad. I could feel this book. Everything that Hazel was feeling, I could feel it too. There was just perfect word choice.

I loved the characters so much! Hazel acts like most teenagers, not the annoying type, but the funny, sarcastic type. It was hard for me to feel the connection between her and Gus until one part about a third of the way through the book. They flirted a lot, but it didn't feel like they were in love until Hazel is crying in her backyard near her old swing set that she played with as a healthy, happy child. So Gus comes over to help her sell it and he makes her less sad.

To sum up, I really enjoyed this book. The characters had great personalities that made me laugh. But being inside Hazel's head, and feeling her pain, and hearing her thoughts, made me legitimately cry. The Fault in Our Stars is also one of those books that just makes you think. It sparks questions to ask yourself, and there is just some deep dialogue that sticks with you. Once I finished, I wanted to start the book over again. A+

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+.