I decided to read The Fault In Our Stars for this six weeks. The book was first published by John Green in 2012. It's a Realistic Fiction book, and is basically a simple yet moving love story with a twist, but is also able to make the reader break into short bursts of laughter, so be prepared! It all starts with a teenager suffering with terminal cancer in her lungs and is forced to join a support group, where she meets a boy she quickly falls in love with. Throughout the story they are making hilarious remarks on seemingly depressing situations and eventually the two teens fall in love, sticking together through the ups and downs of cancer and life in general.. I think the story and theme really revolve around the concept that anything good can overcome anything evil, no matter how big or small. In this case, the evil was obviously a big complication, but Hazel and Augustus's love for each other overcame it in every way.
The story is brilliantly told, and done so in third-person-point-of-view. The narrator was Hazel, so the readers would only get to know exactly what she was feeling, and not so much what every other character was thinking and experiencing at the same time. Hazel goes through all of these conflicts and experiences that are not particularly pleasing, but she doesn't seem to phased by them after she meets Augustus, who also deals with the whole cancer situation pretty well. Also, the two are literature nerds so they are always talking in lengthy, heavy worded sentences, but non the less this book is probably targeted towards teens and/or young adults. Though i had some trouble understanding a word here and there, the author kept me so interested i literally could not put the book down. He was always throwing in a a joke or funny comment within all these serious situations that it was hard NOT to laugh after every other page. Green also has an interesting style... he made a conflict appear and then when it got better, everything seemed to get better, then one little thing went wrong and it was like a line of dominoes from there. As tragic as it sounds, it really works, and it's something that teenagers also crave when reading. They want problems and solutions and jokes and love and hatred and John Green was able to throw everything into one book.
Honestly, the book had me over thinking everything. I felt like the whole world just kind of tumbled down and crushed all of my previous thoughts and inferences. It made me realize a few things that i hadn't thought about before as well. It showed me an inside perspective of cancer patients, or more like one patient specifically, and that introduced me to the idea that there is more to cancer than getting sick, making a charity, and dying, which is what Hazel hated. She hated the thought of everyone looking at her like she was a charity case, ready to be disposed of at any moment in time. And of course now i feel like I hate it when people think that too, because all of what Hazel had implied makes so much sense. Also,because i had relatives with cancer, that whole idea made them seem that much more spectacular of people. They were always happy and carrying on with life with a grin on their faces, just like Hazel and Augustus had. Everything i thought i understood about sacrifice and lost and illness to that extent was diminished and replaced with new ideas and that's actually pretty weird, to have all of your thoughts replaced with completely new ones.
Anyway, the book overall was absolutely fantastic and hilarious beyond belief and so moving that i cried at the end. And don't try to tell me that you didn't/wont cry when you read or will read this book because you are either lying to yourself or you have no soul. It just has such a great plot ans story line as well as it is beautifully written its hard to think of any reason to hate it.The only thing i didn't like about it was the ending. i hate sad or unresolved/cliffhanger endings it bothers me so much but other than that it was great. I recommend that you go straight to target or Barnes and Nobles and buy this book now because you will probably love it so why not.
Taylor Johnson
11/7/13
RATING: ***** 5/5
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