Review: The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

I read The Fault in Our Stars pretty much in one sitting with a Memorial Day BBQ break in the middle of it. And in all honesty, if my appearance at that event wasn’t absolutely necessary, I would have closed myself up in my room and read the whole book cover to cover. However, seeing as it was my husband’s family’s thing, I pretty much had to make an appearance or suffer the wrath of the Hubs Death Stare. So at said BBQ, I pretty much raved about the book that I HAD NOT YET FINISHED READING to my nieces, assuring them that, yes, this book will CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

Well it has changed my life. It actually has RUINED my life. This book is officially a life ruiner. I’m done for, kaput, sayonara, buh bye. Why? Because I know in my heart of hearts that no book that comes after it will ever dare to compare to a quarter of the greatness that this book was. Don’t you hate it when you finish reading a truly great book? I certainly do. I go through this mourning period where everything around me is gray and dull and the only happiness I could possibly find is in the pages of the book I’m currently hugging. It’s been a week and I’m still hugging the book. Well, technically I’m hugging my eReader (in this case, a BN Nook Color) but the other day I was at Target I picked up the physical book and gave it a little squeeze. I may or may not have cradled it like a baby and cooed at it too.

So what is it exactly about this book that turned me into an insane (ok, more insane than usual) person in public groping at books and crying out to anyone who will listen that “CANCER SUCKS!”? Where do I start? This book is basically about a bunch of cancer kids. But to pigeonhole it into that simplistic category does the story no justice. John Green has an amazing gift: as a 30 something married man with a baby son, he sure does know how to channel the heart of a dying teenage girl. Hazel Grace Lancaster is that girl and Augustus Waters is the boy she meets at a cancer support group changes her life. The harsh realities of cancer are highlighted in all its ugliness amidst this tender coming-of-age story of Hazel and Augustus, but what it doesn’t do is overshadow the delicate, oftentimes, hilarious, way John Green tells a great story.

Let me just give it to you straight, you will cry when you read this book. I don’t care who you think you are, if you have ever possessed an ounce of feeling in your lifetime, this book will BREAK YOU. You end up falling desperately and hopelessly in love with all the characters and you hope against hope that they survive this wretched disease and live happily ever after. And maybe they do? Highlights for me were Isaac, Augustus’ best friend and fellow cancer survivor who is not only plays the supporting role well, but true to John Green form, is a hilarious sidekick to one of the main characters.

I’m going to interrupt myself a bit here. TFIOS is actually the FIRST John Green book I read. It’s been a few weeks since I finished it and since then I have read or am in the process of reading several of John Green’s books. As suspected, nothing yet has come close to rival the brilliance of TFIOS but they are all well thought out, funny, and poignant stories about being an awkward teenager.  Hence why I am able to made the broad brush statement: “True to John Green form.”

The hilarious sidekick is practically a John Green requirement for his stories. And even though they serve a similar role as the comic relief and supporting buddy, they are all different enough that don’t feel like you’re reading about the same guy in a different book each time.

John Green

There were truly as many laugh-out-loud moments as there were sadder or more serious moments in TFIOS which surprised me to a degree, since I had never read any of John’s books before. The ability to take something like kids with cancer and turn it into a teenage character study that makes me laugh? If that’s not sheer genius, I have no idea what is. The truth is, I could spend this entire review talking about how great John Green is and how I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read his books but I will spare you that. (T here: I’ve been telling Jeannie for a whole year to read a John Green book!) Instead I will say that reading TFIOS may not change your life, but you will be thankful you have the life you do and maybe, just maybe, be more appreciative of each breath you have.

One final thought to leave you with, Hazel and Augustus will become real to you at some point and when that moment finally happens to you, and it could be anywhere, from the first day they spend together to maybe their epic evening on their adventure abroad, you will never want to let them go. Just go with it, don’t fight it. And let me know if you need someone to cry with.


DFTBA!