Publisher: Dutton Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 336
Source: Bought.
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| Image from Penguin.com |
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 to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. (From Penguin.com)
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. (From Penguin.com)
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The diction and characters in John Green's The Fault in Our Stars are as electric as the novel's bright blue book jacket. I finished reading this book a month ago*, and the funny, insightful Hazel and the adorably pretentious Augustus--who chooses his "'behaviors based on their metaphorical resonances'"--still burst in on my thoughts.
Hazel Grace Lancaster meets Augustus Waters at Cancer Kid Support Group. Hazel carries an oxygen tank everywhere she goes, because--in her words--her lungs "suck at being lungs." Hazel was diagnosed with incurable Stage IV thyroid cancer that had also spread to her lungs when she was thirteen. Miraculously, she's still alive at sixteen thanks to Phalanxifor, a fictional experimental drug that keeps the tumors in her lungs from growing. Phalanxifor grants Hazel some extra time, but no one knows how much. Augustus, on the other hand, is in remission from osteosarcoma that left him with a prosthetic leg. Augustus is long, lean, and hot. He invites Hazel to his house the afternoon they first meet, and she says yes.
The Fault in Our Stars is a love story: a beautiful, heartbreaking, luminous love story. While cancer plays a major role in the novel, Green never lets it consume the characters or the plot, showing that sick people are--above all--still people. At one point, Hazel remarks, "You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice." John Green makes the funny choice, too. The Fault in Our Stars is full of hilarious conversation and observations. And when I say hilarious, I mean so funny you want to roar with laughter and read the book out loud to everyone you meet. Or maybe that was just me.
Amidst all this humor, however, Green's characters face tragic, torturous situations. Life isn't fair in reality, and Green does not sugarcoat the reality of cancer. Hazel and Augustus are both forced to contemplate death more often and more seriously than average teenagers, and they are concerned with universal human desires to be remembered, to not truly die, to go on being people. The Fault in Our Stars asks readers to consider the definition of heroism and what it means to do something that matters.
The Fault in Our Stars is also a book about books. When Hazel goes to Augustus's house the afternoon she meets him, they talk about books. Augustus cajoles Hazel into revealing her favorite novel, An Imperial Affliction, which exists only in the fictional world of Green's novel. August announces that he will read it, but adds, "'All I ask in exchange is that you read this brilliant and haunting novelization of my favorite video game.'" Green's characters display an appreciation for different types of fiction, and the novel comments on the place of stories in the face of life and death.
The Fault in Our Stars is one of the best books I have ever read, and I recommend it to readers who enjoy romance, humor, and pitch-perfect prose. I was working at the library the day my branch received our copy, and it was all I could do not to rave about this book to every customer who approached me with a reference question. So I will rave here: The Fault in Our Stars is funny, addictive, quotable, deep, and lovely. And I hope many, many people decide to read it.
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*I happened to pre-order the book from the company that accidentally shipped its pre-orders early . . .
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