Juvenile Fiction
Penguin
2012
Paperback
318
TIME Magazine’s #1 Fiction Book of 2012! “The Fault in Our Stars is a love story, one of the most genuine and moving ones in recent American fiction, but it’s also an existential tragedy of tremendous intelligence and courage and sadness.” —Lev Grossman, TIME Magazine Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
WrensReads Review:
Read this book in less than a day.
This story was very touching in the sense you get to see what people go through when something is ‘wrong’ with them that they can’t control.
Lonely.
Not that this is anywhere close to the hurt and pain and problems that the beloved Hazel Grace, Augustus and Isaac (because he does deserve a blurb here) went through, but mental disorders have a side-effect to people too. I mean, if you have a mental breakdown in front of friends, do they always stay around? Sure they will check in with you here and there, but do they ever act the same around you? Don’t they always ask that annoying question, “how are you feeling?” or “how are you doing?” like it is something that can easily be overcame? Don’t you just feel like a burden to those around you?
Anyway, I related a lot to that part of the story. I can’t relate to the cancer aspect of it because I haven’t had friends who had cancer and haven’t had it myself. I loved reading into the fictional mind of someone who is dealing with it and the worry that she had for those who would be left behind, but (as of right now) it is something I can’t really relate to.
This story, as anyone who doesn’t live under a rock knows, is a very sad story. Yes, the ending was spoiled yet again for me (and this time I didn’t have to look it up myself). I haven’t seen the movie yet and I am not sure if I am going to.
So, Green is a genius (as anyone and everyone should know). He knows exactly how to talk to the crowd he is aiming for. You wouldn’t have thought that a grown man wrote this book: a teenage girl dealing with cancer, anger and love.
Unlike the media and stupid people, I don’t see this as something gross. Green isn’t a weirdo for writing books in this fashion, he is literally a genius. He has mastered an art not many guys can. He goes to what he is strongest in. Anyone that thinks he is strange or gross needs a reality check. When a girl writes from a guy’s perspective she is considered a good writer, but turn it around and the guy is messed up? Give me a break.
Those people who wrote on Gus’s wall after he died saying they will miss him, yet Hazel didn’t even know who they were? I feel like that “people” sometimes. That’s something I don’t want to feel like. I want to know people who I am close to. If they get sick, I don’t want to be the friend who writes on the wall. I want to be the friend making jokes at their side.
Did I cry at the end of this book? Yes.
Was it because of the ending of this book? Not completely.
Green brought up feelings that I didn’t know were unresolved just from the problematic scenarios he placed in the book. And for that, I would consider him a phenomenal author.
Just because someone has a problem they can’t control (cancer, illnesses, mental illnesses, etc.) doesn’t mean they are any different.
Sometimes they can’t control it. Sometimes they try and it makes them frustrated. Sometimes they give up because why fight it at all?
That’s when they need you.
That’s when you need to be cracking jokes and treating them like any other person.
That’s when they need normalcy.
This isn’t your typical love story. Which is why it deserves the credit it’s receiving.
This is a phenomenal book. Don’t wait till it isn’t the book of the moment like I did to read it. It deserves your time. You won’t regret it.
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