Book Three Review

I’m reviewing The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This book is about two young cancer patients. One’s name is Hazel Grace Lancaster, who has terminal lung cancer, and the other is Augustus Waters who suffered from osteosarcoma, but has been in remission for a couple of years now. They meet at a cancer support group and quickly take a liking to each other. Over the course of this book, Green takes you through their growing relationship and through their cancer battle at the same time. You’re with them through many of their firsts, and their lasts, riding an emotional rollercoaster the whole way through.

What sets apart this “love story” from another is that there’s no sugar-coated, happy ending. Green takes you face to face with the harshness of reality and the fact that sometimes, things don’t end the way we want them to. The Fault in Our Stars predictably ends with a death. Now saying this you may think the entire book is tragic and tear filled, but John lights it up. He takes their presumably doomed romance and adds life and happiness. He makes you smile and laugh and blush, while at the same time feel for these characters. As crazy as it may seem, it may almost be a happier book then others. If any of you have read The Notebook, you know Noah and Allie go through many hard times throughout the book, mainly pertaining to Allie deciding her fate. It all ends up creating a lot of conflict between them. Now, while The Fault in Our Stars indisputably has conflict, it’s handled much differently. Hazel and Gus both know they aren’t going to live a full life, and they come to terms with that, so throughout the book they live like there’s no tomorrow rather than fighting over stupid little things. The majority of this books tone is on the happier side! This came as a shock to me, as it’s not what’d you’d expect after reading the prologue.

            As for theme, Green has some pretty clear cut themes. They’re not ones you’d have to sit down and think for a long time about. For that reason, if you’re a reader who loves getting deep into the mind of an author, this book probably wouldn’t be for you. Not saying this novel is an easy read, there’s just not a lot of deeper meaning hidden throughout it. It’s more of a simple story, and in some ways it can be predictable. That’s where the author is the weakest; he has a typical plot without any major climax that stops your breath. It doesn’t take away from the characters and their story, it almost adds to the theme. Hazel and Augustus both don’t believe in miracles. They know they’re love will have an end and there may not be an eternity. As Hazel says in chapter 1, “There will come a time, when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything.” This shows how she knows she won’t be cured and how she’s accepted it in a beautiful way.

            Like I was saying before, the predictability of this book, doesn’t at all take away from the characters in this story. I have never read a book where I felt like I’ve know the characters their whole life, until I read The Fault in Our Stars. Hazel and Augustus are very similar with their views on the world, but often ‘agree to disagree’ on many subjects. There’s never any bickering between each other because they respect each other’s opinions. I definetly admired that about them. Hazel has a very strong mind and both of them are extremely intelligent. Their conversations would make you think they’re much older than they really are. A passage that definitely caught my attention was Gus’s words on page 153, “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things, I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout in 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’m in love with you.” Just from this passage you can get a glimpse of how real Green makes these characters. You definetly feel for them in ways you wouldn’t think you ever would.

            On an overall 1-10 scale, I’d rate The Fault in Our Stars a solid 9. Mainly because of how true to life this book is. The characters themselves are so wonderfully crafted and Green has a flawless writing style. This book is indisputably the best love story I have ever read. It’s an outstanding novel, although it may not be incredibly thrilling, it’s definitely worth a read.