Booklist: The Fault in Our Stars

It’s hard to put into to words how I felt overall after I was finished reading John Green’s wonderfully written The Fault in Our Stars. The story itself centers around two young teens with cancer. Hazel Grace Lancaster is the narrator of the story and the object of her eventual affection is the affable Augustus Waters. Hazel suffers from a terminal form of thyroid cancer that has severally damaged her lungs to the point of requiring the use of an oxygen tank to help her breathe. While attending a support group she meets newcomer Augustus who has joined the group to support their mutual friend Isaac. Prior to his arrival in the group, Augustus lost a leg to a malignant bone tumor and the story begins from there.

While cancer and its “side effects” on its characters is a central theme of the book, it is not so much a book about cancer as it is a book about the big questions of the universe and desire from all of us to find answers and meaning from it. I love the way in which Hazel and Augustus handle the circumstances of their situation with such humor and witty sarcasm. The book is filled with passages and skillfully arranged prose that will alight your face with the widest of grins and give rise to easy laughter as you progress through its pages. While this works in making Hazel and Augustus easy to like and connect with as characters, it is ultimately the honest truths they reveal to each other and the reader that make us fall in love with them.

It’s been awhile since I have read something so honest and affecting that I can only really describe it by quoting Augustus from the book:

“That’s the thing about pain,” Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. “It demands to be felt.”

And indeed, it does. But, luckily for us love does as well and I found a whole lot to love about The Fault in Our Stars.

Book via Amazon

Source amazon.com