The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Release Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books
Rated: YA 14+
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borrowed – thanks Ippy!
Buy: Amazon ❘ The Book Depository
Goodreads ◆ Website

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.

This book made me do something which hundreds of others couldn't. 
It made me cry.

The Fault in Our Stars was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I don't think there are so many words which can describe this magnificent book. It has completely rendered me speechless. These very words which you are reading now do not do justice to this book. It was striking, and I gloriously devoured this novel in one sitting. It made me laugh, till I could giggle and chuckle no more, full of wit and sarcasm that made me smile like a maniac at the words on the page. It also made me ache inside, my heart pounding so loud that it was the only thing I could hear, unable to grasp the deafening conclusion which melted me into a puddle of tears and sadness. This book is not like any other.

Unlike Green's previous books (well, the ones I've read anyway) this one features a female narrator and main character. He's captured her perfectly. Flawlessly, the author has managed to make this girl come alive, her emotions screaming out on every page, forcing the reader to empathize against their own will. Hazel is a character like no other: sarcastic, charismatic, outspoken, headstrong, and yet completely like a normal teen.
Augustus (also known as Gus) electrified my soul. I gnawed on his words, hungry for more. He was so sweet, and funny, and optimistic about everything that you can't help but fall in love with him like Hazel does. I'm still getting that warm, bubbly, tingly feeling when I think about him. Despite his disability, he still comes out as very, very hot, and made me swoon with every crooked smile and goofy grin.
One thing that made me love the book even more: the supporting characters. I honestly did not find one character which I hated. From the hysterically hilarious Isaac, to Hazel's sweet and concerned mother, all of them have such original personalities that you can't help connect with each of them, despite minor flaws and all.

What is this heart-shattering conclusion which I keep talking about? Well you'll obviously have to find out for yourselves. I didn't want to finish the book at the end of Chapter 19 (do not look ahead. I repeat, DO NOT READ THE END OF THAT CHAPTER) because I knew what was going to happen and I just felt so depressed after that, that I nearly put the book down, wishing for a happier ending. But when it comes down to it, I think John Green ended it impeccably.
The language which Green uses is gorgeous. The words seem so simple, but it's so profound! It flows so well, and really seems to come from the voice and thoughts of a teenager. I really loved some passages, such as this one:

❝I was quite sure I'd never seen him before. Long and leanly muscular, he dwarfed the molded plastic elementary school chair he was sitting in. Mahogany hair, straight and short. He looked my age, maybe a year older, and he sat with his tailbone against the edge of the chair, his posture aggressively poor, one hand half in a pocket of dark jeans.❞

Like I said, simple sentences but once you take a closer look, rich diction is bleeding from the pages in buckets.

There is no really good way to ever end a review. Especially for a book such as this. Think of the highest that you can expect this book to be. I'll let you know that it will soar far beyond that. The Fault in Our Stars deserves to become literature now and for future generations. I have never been so in love with a book, so enraptured that I couldn't think about anything else except it. I wish I hadn't gone into it so fast, because now I'll have to try to hold onto what I can, because I know that there will be (for now) very few books which can compare to John Green's masterpiece. 

❝The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.❞

If you like this, try...

• The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder ◆ Goodreads
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews ◆ Goodreads

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