REVIEW: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ book by John Green

What can I say about this book that hasn’t been said already? I mean, John Green, you are an absolute genius, you really are. You produced this beautiful love story that just broke my heart, one page at a time. Now I’m not going to explain the plot in intense detail because I know that there are people who haven’t read it (why you haven’t, I have no idea, I highly recommend it); I might just give you my thoughts on ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ as a whole. I’ve wanted to read it for absolutely AGES but have only just bought the book. From the delivery on the Thursday to Sunday morning, I had completed it; I just couldn’t help myself. It’s extremely rare for me to get into a book, let alone finish it in 3 and a half days, and so when I do, I know it’s a fantastic piece of literature. I was desperate to find out how the story evolved and what happened to the characters.
 
Now we are first introduced to Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen year old cancer patient who feels the need to challenge everyone she encounters with some sort of sarcastic comment. That is, until she finds herself at what she calls the 'Cancer Kid Support Group' and meets Augustus Waters: the man who changes her life. Now he doesn't do that in the way that you'd usually expect from the male protagonist, oh no, John Green is way too smart to follow the social conventions of every single book EVER published. No, he makes Augustus the man that every girl wants and you really can't help yourself just falling for him: a man who LOVES Hazel even when she doesn't particularly love herself. And I like that idea: that you can have some sort of vulnerability which seems to separate you from everyone else in the world, until that one person makes you feel special and beautiful because they adore you, regardless of what you might think of as a 'flaw'.

Together, they have this incredibly romantic adventure until everything just comes crashing back down to reality, and suddenly the audience is struck with a wave of emotion, united by their tears of heartbreak. I sat in my room with this book, just crying for these fictional characters, and that's the beauty of this novel. It's why the book became Number 1 New York Times Bestseller. John Green created them not only for us to laugh with, but to cry over as we experience their pain along the way.

I found it extremely fascinating because I have never read anything like this in my entire life, nothing as honest and truthful about what it’s like to live as a cancer patient. To have everyone around you pity you and constantly hover round to make sure you’re ‘OK’. But it doesn’t just focus on that side of the illness; it empathises the fact that we are extremely lucky to be alive, enough luckier when we have people who love us and we love them back. We should be grateful for the opportunity of this crazy thing we call ‘life’, and having had the pleasure of reading ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, I know I am.



You can buy the book HERE.

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