Book Review: The Fault In Our Stars

It’s rare that I do book reviews but I just finished a book that I feel so fiercely passionate about I have to share. Plus it’s rare to find a book that can make you laugh and cry at the same time.

 

The Fault In Our Stars
Written By: John Green

“You don’t get to choose  IF you get hurt in the world, but you do have some say in WHO hurts you.”

The Fault In Our Stars tells the story of Hazel and Augustus. Hazel suffers from a terminal form of lung cancer. Destined to live with pain and on oxygen for the rest of however long her life will be. She knows she’s dying and her time on this planet is short but she chooses to be reclusive much to the chagrin of her overbearing, but well-meaning parents. At a support group meeting she meets the beautiful and now cancer-less, Augustus and immediately finds herself drawn to him. Hazel never meant to meet anyone but after meeting Augustus she knew her life would never be the same again.

John Green paints the picture of Hazel and Augustus so vividly that within the first few pages you immediately care for the characters. They feel real and realized as if they have existed all this time and we just didn’t know it. Hazel and Augustus are both bright with sarcastically dark sense of humors. Despite their grim outlooks, dark comments, and the sense they have the weight of their short lives on their shoulders, you, the reader, never really feel burdened. You don’t feel heavy or gloomy reading their story, instead you somehow feel hopeful.

Hazel is a recluse or maybe the better word for it is hermit. She spends her days reading alone and watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model or Top Chef. (Hey, that sounds like me!) She doesn’t want to make friends; she doesn’t want to get close to anyone. She just wants to die in peace causing as little damage to the people around her as possible. When Hazel meets Augustus everything changes. Though she’s reluctant to invite him into her life she finds herself forming a friendship. Eventually it turns into something more and to watch it happen (or rather read it happen) is bearing witness to something special. You want Hazel to want to love.

Hazel and Augustus have a relationship most adults wish they could have. Their sickness takes away their filter and in this way they get to know each other better than anyone could have ever thought. When Hazel becomes obsessed with a book that’s ending is left up in the air Augustus uses his “Make-A-Wish” to bring Hazel to Amsterdam to visit with the author and find out how the story ends. She wants to –no she needs to—find out what happened to everyone else once the main character passes away. And she thinks only the book’s author can bring her that closure on those people.

Fault In Our Stars is a story of courage, friendship, sickness, health, and love despite insurmountable odds. This story will make you cry and then catch you off guard with a hilarious statement so suddenly you are laughing and crying. And you’ll be thinking about these characters long after you turn the last page.

 

NOTE: I hear they are turning this book into a movie, but I urge you to read the book first because there is no way a movie will do this book justice. Especially if they try and turn it into a schmaltzy teen movie, if you know what I mean.