The Fault in our Stars
“Green writes books for young adults, but his voice is so compulsively readable that it defies categorization. The Fault in Our Stars proves that the hype surrounding Green is not overblown.” –NPR
Do you want to read another story about a sick kid, where you learn about a child who has a mature knowledge behind their eyes that is beyond their years? No? I thought so.
This is a story about a girl, who falls in love and has a limited time to enjoy it. It is about acknowledging and pushing past your disease and living life to its fullest.
Hazel is an erudite sixteen year old fighting lung cancer. However, thanks to a drug treatment she calls “the Miracle” Hazel’s cancer has been kept from spreading further. When she leaves the house she has to drag an oxygen tank behind her.
Hazel does not leave home very often though. She lies in her bed, day by day reading the same book (An Imperial Affliction) over and over, while watching reruns of “America’s Next Top Model”. When she is not doing all of the above, she ponders her death, cancer and the shrapnel she will leave behind when she departs. After watching this same scene every day, Hazel’s mother decides that her daughter is depressed.
Hazel is brought to a “support group” of teens fighting cancer, which meets every Wednesday in a church shaped like a cross. The gathering actually takes place in the middle of this, in the “heart of Jesus”. The support group was “depressing as hell,” Hazel’s apt description of the meeting. There is a rotating cast of characters in various states of tumor-driven unwellness.
Hazel only has one friend here, Isaac, a boy who lost one of his eyes to cancer. Isaac brings a friend to “support group”. He goes by the name of Augustus Waters. Augustus has a prosthetic leg, also thanks to cancer — in his case, osteosarcoma. However, he has been cancer free for years and he comes to support group mostly to give Isaac some company. He is quick -witted, handsome and cannot take his eyes off Hazel.
After the ordeal of listening to Patrick, the group leader, harp on about “the heart of Jesus” and how he survived cancer (and now lives with his parents with no social life), Augustus asks Hazel back to his house to watch ‘V for Vendetta ‘
Augustus’s house is filled with encouragers, things like “Everything has a silver lining” and “It will be better in the end, if it’s not better it’s not the end”. Soon Hazel and Augustus exchange their favorite books. Hazel’s favorite book in the world is An Imperial Affliction, a book about a teen with cancer, but one which eludes all the usual cancer novel clichés. She has read the book countless times and is a bit nervous about sharing it with Augustus, but he appreciates the book in the same way she does.
The end of this book stops mid sentence, indicating that the author died. However, this leaves the reader with many questions. So Augustus does something wonderful. He finds the recluse author, Peter Van Houten, who agrees to answer Hazel’s questions. So Augustus uses his Wish (the Make a Wish Foundation) to fly to Amsterdam to meet the author. Hazel is mortified to reveal that she used her wish on the generic Disney Land dream.
Hazel is thrilled, but then she reads the messages on the Facebook page of Augustus’s previous girlfriend, Caroline, a girl he met at the hospital who died of cancer. Hazel realizes that she doesn’t want to be “a grenade,” someone whose death will wound those around her. She does not want Augustus to love her. She does not want her parents to love her. But of course their love is good for her, and even knowing it will wound them, she cannot stop wanting them to love her too.
Things come to a head when Hazel ends up in the hospital because her lungs need draining (a side effect of the miracle drug). Life is short and Hazel doesn’t want to spend it all at home, particularly when she has the opportunity to go to Amsterdam and meet the author of her favorite book in the world. But if she goes, can she keep Augustus from loving her? And can she stop herself from loving him back?
I cannot give this book a high enough rating. The fault in our stars is a truly brilliant book that has touched millions and yet still continues to rise in the charts. John Green’s style of writing makes it accessible to all readers and I would recommend it to everyone.
It is one of my all time favorite books and is very close to my heart. I am continually trying to convince my friends (and everyone I meet) to read it.
Mary Duignan