The Fault In Our Stars

Book Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Number of Pages: 313
Genres: Romance
Books like it: This is a uniquely wonderful book and I refuse to compare it to any other book.
My favorite quote: There are so many! One of them is a picture (below to the right) and here is another one that I hope does not spoil anything:

"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "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 into 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 am in love with you.”  

Brief Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.

My Summary:

This post is being written mere seconds after finishing the Fault in Our Stars. I don't know what to say. My thoughts are stars which I cannot fathom into constellations. At first, when I was reading this book, I could not see why it was the Young Adult winner for 2012. But as I reached the last few hundred pages, I knew, oh, how I knew. You cannot put this book down, nothing else in life is worth doing until you read the very last words on the very last page. I read this book in two hours, which is indeed a record time for me. Another thing about this book, it made me cry. Not in an emotional sense, real actual tears. It is the only book in my entire reading experience that I have cried, and the words have blurred on the page. This book reveals the beautiful, tragic truths of life. And I loved every word of it, although I want to ask Mr. Green, why? WHY?

A small side note, none of the photos on this post are actually mine.




This might possibly be the longest post in the history of our posts. But you know what? If you have not read TFIOS, please plow through this. It will have absolutely no spoilers unless you hate quotes and you have to KNOW about this book. Please!

While surfing the internet of other reviews on our friend Goodreads, I actually found a very long and detailed review about how terrible this book was. Can you imagine that? Well, I suppose one could find fault in amazingness. The only thing in this book I really disliked was the SWEARING! Call me a goody-two shoes if you want to, but I absolutely HATE dirty language. You don't need to ruin a piece of literature with crude words. Ten pages toward the end, it dropped the f-bomb. I was ready to cry, like, really John Green? You just lowered my respect for that character.

Well anyway I do suspect that you want to know what this is all about, eh? Why is this book so popular? This book is gut-wrenching, and there is a sense of desperation because Hazel, the main character, is dying. And there is something that lures the human mind when there are two people in love and one of them is dying. It is cruel, and it is sad, but it is real life.

 Some of you are probably wondering right about now if this review is going to be longer than the actual book, but I promise you I am getting over the ranting and into the summarizing. Here it is, my official, heartfelt summary of the Fault in Our Stars:

The Fault in Our Stars is about a girl named Hazel who is past her deadline for life, by two or three years. She carries around a oxygen tank, and is ready to give up on life. Until she meets a boy at her Cancer Support Group. He is gorgeous, funny, and much to her surprise, interested in her. As she gets to know him better, she learns that cancer is not the ending of her story, it is only the beginning.

Hazel knows she is hanging on to life, but her one lifelong dream is to meet the author of her favorite book, An Imperial Affection, whose words she felt described her life. But at the ending of the book, it ends midsentence. Hazel assumes, since the girl in the book had cancer, that she died. But she desperately wants to know how the rest of the book goes on, and the only way she can know that is to meet the author in person.

When she was ready to give up, and she thought her life was over, Augustus Waters showed her that in reality, her life was just starting, full of endless possibilities she never dreamed could happen to her. Green spins a breathtaking tale of love, hope, and meaning in this novel about life.

This was the first book I ever read by John Green, and I must say, I HAVE TO READ MORE!! I loved his characters, and although Hazel was charming, I found Augustus quite funny.

"How about I call you when I finish this?"
"But you don't even have my phone number," he said.
"I strongly suspect you wrote it in the book."
He broke out into that goofy smile. "And you say we don't know each other."


 


 So, I have decided to do this new thing with my reviews where I tell parents who are concerned about what their kids are reading the cautions of each book.

Cautions for Fault in Our Stars:

Some language, including the f-word
Some puking scenes as one side effect of the cancer
Briefly described "safe sex" (it really only says that they get into bed, but still)


In conclusion  to this very long review, I would like to say that this book screwed up my emotions forever. Not really, but it did take me on and I quote "a rollercoaster that only goes up, my friend." If you read this book, bring a box of tissues. And your favorite teddy bear. And although this book was really sad, but maybe not in the way you might think, the writing was beautifully brilliant .And I loved it.

I just did basically all the pros and cons in the writing above, and since you are getting tired of this review, I will just say, this definitely deserves five stars.

XOXO

Sarah