Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Title: The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green
Year Published: 2012

Genre: Young Adult fiction and romance

Pages: 213

Rating: 5 out of 5

Challenges: What's in a Name 5 (something in the sky)
Geography Connection (my Google Reading map): USA (Indiana)


FTC Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my school library.

Summary (from the inside flap of the book): 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 a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about tho be completely rewritten.

Review: I just finished this book about 20 minutes ago and have so many thoughts going through my head that I don't think that I can coherently write paragraphs that will do it justice. So, I am going with bullets in order to get my thoughts out before they disappear.

• That is the shortest summary description of a book, yet the book is anything but cursory.
• I have never read a John Green novel before, what was I thinking? He is fantastic!
• I have read books before where the teenagers seem too sophisticated, too worldly, or too intellectual and it seems fake. So how come Hazel and Augustus get to be insightful and have amazing vocabularies and it seems perfect?
• Taking on the task of writing about teenagers who have terminal cancer and making it a book of love, hope, and life is truly a talent. Though there are many, many tragic and emotional moments in this book, it isn't a "downer." Rather it gave me hope and I feel as if I have been let into these people's lives for a brief time. We don't know how long Hazel lives, or what the end is like for her and her parents, but I know that she will handle it all with dignity. I loved that Hazel, Augustus and Isaac (their good friend who also has cancer) while they had a sense of humor about illness, life, themselves they also faced the depressing, the hurtful, and the inevitable.
• As a mom my mind was with the parents in the book. At one point Hazel's mom laments that when Hazel dies, she won't be a mom anymore. I think that is my fear, well any parent's fear: that we will outlive our children. And that is just not the way it is supposed to be.
• I love that this book combines love, illness, family, and friendship. The characters say the things they should, they don't hold back. They can't, since they don't have time.

Now, go and read this book. I don't say that often, but this one is really worth the time, the energy, the emotion it takes to read it.