The Fault in Our Stars: Book Review

The Fault In Our Stars by

John Green

Book Review

Gabrielle Smullen

She has thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs, forcing her to live connected to an oxygen tank. He has osteosarcoma which forced him to lose his leg. They both know they have limited time but they live their lives through each in a way that gives you hope for the both of them.

Though Hazel would rather spend her time in her room re-reading An Imperial Affliction and watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model, her mom forces her to go to a support group with kids living with cancer that she feels may help her make friends and come out of her depression of having cancer. She then meets Augustus, good looking and immediately head over heels for Hazel. In their exchange of each other’s favorite books, they become attached at the hip. From their trip to Amsterdam to meet Peter Van Houten, Hazel’s favorite author, to their ridiculously romantic adventures that come after will have readers giddy after every page.

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the author John Green is known for writing young adult fiction. He is an award winning best seller with other books such as Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, Will Grayson, Will Grayson etc. Paper Towns is a very popular book about seniors that go on a road trip to explore themselves and their relationships. Some say that it is similar to his other book Looking for Alaska, which is about a man who leaves boarding school to go and find a dying poet named Francois Rabelais. John Green’s book favor adventures and all tend to have a specific meaning and destination throughout and in the end of the book. They tend to change your point on things, they make you think about the world in ways you wouldn’t think of at first thought. The characters represent real life situations and thoughts. They emphasize life and it’s mysterious ways and how people live through that. His books have won the Michael L. Printz award, Los Angeles Book Prize, Best Book for Young Adults, Teen’s Top Ten Award, Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, A Booklist Editor’s Choice Pick, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection and Borders Original Voices Selection.

The author describes each character specifically with unique dialog, by reading the book you can tell how each character talks and what they sound like. He structures the book as a devastating but powerful story with plot twists that will require tissues. Each character has their own style of language making them believable from the main characters to the parents. Everyone is uniquely significant and relevant in their own ways. The question John Green explores in this novel is: What do oblivion and living mean? The question is touched on a few times by Hazel and Augustus throughout the book as Augustus says “ I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.” and Hazel eventually follows by saying  “And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.”

The Fault In Our Stars shows true love through two teenagers that accept their lives and each other. I recommend anyone to read this book, whether it’s your type of book or not I think anyone would enjoy it. This book shows that yes, life is short but it also explores how much you can do in such a little bit of time, especially with the person you love which makes it even better. It’s basically your average boy meets girl and they fall in love with a few twists, kind of book. They have extreme chemistry which is what makes it so sentimental and full of life. It’s a book that you immediately fall in love with and like Hazel, will want to read it a thousand times.

The Fault In Our Stars

John Green

2012

313 pages