Book Review: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

What it’s about:

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 gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

The Fault In Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heart-breaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Review (Spoiler alert):

I have never before had such an unclear opinion of a book. I both adored and despised this book. I wish I could write a review without giving anything away for the people who haven’t read it but I simply can’t so I’m sorry in advance. This book is about terminally ill, Hazel Grace. At sixteen years old she is wise beyond her years and knows full-well that she is going to die young. Then one day she meets cancer survivor, Augustus Waters, in one of her Support Group meetings and they quickly fall in love. He introduces Hazel to a whole world of possibilities until one day when tragedy strikes and Hazel and Augustus might not get their happy ending after all.

It was pretty obvious what was going to happen. It’s a cancer story – someone’s bound to die. But the matter of who left me dumbstruck. I’ve watched a fair few films similar to this book e.g. Now Is Good but they didn’t have as much of an effect on me. I shed a few tears at the end and that’s about it. This book was different. Although you didn’t write it, you essentially make up your own story in your head. You imagine the characters and places exactly how you want them to look and form connections to those you identify with so this book had me in absolute pieces at some points because I’d come to know these wonderful characters inside my own imagination. The book is written from Hazel’s point of view which definitely adds to the emotion. At first I really wasn’t sure about this book. I felt like I was reading a more depressing version of Perks of Being a Wallflower and I found the first few chapters extremely uncomfortable and I frequently had to stop reading because all the talk of cancer, death and oblivion was too over-whelming. As the story went on however, I kind of got used to it. It’s an hugely delicate subject and not something you want to “get used to” but it gave out some really important messages and by the end made me think about life and death and everything in between completely differently to how I did before. It also has some fantastic quotes and you know me – I love a good quote.

If you haven’t read the book yet and don’t want any spoilers then I suggest you stop reading but like I said I simply cannot write this review without giving some of the main parts away. I really liked how during Augustus and Hazel’s happy days the chapters were quite long but then as it neared the end for Gus the chapters got noticeably shorter – to a mere 3 pages during one chapter. I’m not sure whether anyone else noticed this but it made an impact on me. I also liked how the first 3/4 of the book were mainly Hazel’s struggles then the tide dramatically turned and all of a sudden it was all about Gus and Hazel seemed to put her problems aside. The last part I need to make a comment on is the bit that destroyed me. I have never cried so much at a book than I did at that one part. The deterioration of Gus. I found it much worse than his actual death. He went from this lively, charismatic, somewhat cocky character to a frail, incompetent cancer patient and it was absolutely heart-breaking and as sad as it is, I love the way he doesn’t pretend to be a hero and doesn’t pretend that there’s anything glamorous about illness. Because there’s not. This book is so raw and is guaranteed to break your heart. (The part when he gets stuck at the petrol station and couldn’t work out how to use his G-tube and he’s crying down the phone to Hazel and she turns up and he’s covered in his own vomit and keeps saying he just wants to die. I just didn’t know what to do with myself, seriously).

I also found out that John Green served as a chaplain at a children’s hospital which is where the idea for the book flourished. It’s devastating to know that there are children/young adults out there actually going through the same thing but nevertheless I think it’s a good source of awareness. I don’t know what else to say expect read it for yourself.