The Fault in Our Stars: a (spoiler free) review
Green, a young adult fiction writer, has a reputation of finding that perfect blend of comedy and heartbreak. The Fault in Our Stars is by no means an exception.
The book is about sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster, who has “never been anything but terminal” with thyroid cancer. Hazel’s mother, concerned that Hazel is depressed, sends her to a cancer support group, where she meets Augustus Waters. Augustus, a boy with 1.4 legs and the charisma to rival Prince Henry of Wales, is instantly enthralled by Hazel, and the pair is inseparable from then on.
The plot of the story is, in many ways, comparable to the disease afflicting both Hazel and Augustus. From the very beginning, the book itself battles a kind of literary cancer; the prognosis is clear from the first page, and even though you can see the toll it’s going to take from miles away, the blows the book deals hurt more than it’s possible to anticipate.
That said, the more painful moments in the story are softened by Green’s signature sense of humor. You laugh about the dedication of scrambled eggs to morning meals; you cry over the grip the cancer has over Hazel and Augustus’s lives; you smile at their banter; and you mourn their inescapable fate.
Green has said on several occasions that The Fault in Our Stars is the result of his work as a chaplain at a children’s hospital and his friendship with Esther Earl, a young cancer patient who passed away in 2010 to whom the book is dedicated. The Fault in Our Stars is a beautifully written testament to the myriad of affects a terminal disease can have on its victims and their loved ones.
Comments
Got my Copy, Too
I loved the book, too. Very much a story that actually makes you laugh and cry a bit. I believe most of my apartment is queued to take a turn reading it themselves, after I read passages for days. My signature's in green. Yours? :D
DFTBA!