Book Review: The Fault In Our Stars

   

 

 

 

I wish I had enough words to describe this book to you. I'll just start with giving it this rating:

 

From GoodReads.com:

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.

 

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Let's just dive right in, shall we?It sounds a little despressing, I know. Cancer, kids, it just doesn't get much sadder than that. And usually, I tend to shy away from sad books.

 

 Unless it's about an unrequitted love. That stuff reels me in everytime. But this. This book is amazing.

 

Hazel is a child who is old enough to see her future and she is way to pessimistic for a 16 year old girl but how could she not be? She lives in the reality that she is dying. The way Hazel lives in matter of fact, which makes me sad. The machines that keep her breathing at night, the medicine and the way her parents look at her...they are all her reality.

 

And then she meats Augustus after being forced to go to a cancer support group.

 

And thus is a love story I'll never forget.

When does love become more than just love?

Here, in this story, is the answer.

 

I always thought I would describe a book the best that I could when doing a review, so that you would get a great idea about the plot and whether or not you'd want to read it.

But I can't really describe this book. It's sad, but hopeful at the same time.

Hopeful because the emotion is so real that it makes you realize that hope, love, friendship and healing from hurt are all possible.

 

The most heartbreaking part in the book is when I realized why Hazel was hesitant to let Gus love her back.

"I'm like a grenade, Mom. I'm a grenade and at some people I am going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualities, okay? I just want to stay away from people and read books and be with you guys. There's nothing I can do about hurting you, you're too invested. Just let me please be here."

 

She didn't want Gus to love her because she knew he'd lose her. She wanted to save him the pain. I guess that's a pretty good indentication of young love. I wanted to tell her, that  even then when you know you'll probably lose someone, it's still worth it to love.

 

Just read it. Here are my highlights/favorite passages:

 

"I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I like that he took existentially fraught free throws. I liked that he was a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a  Voice That Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin."

 

"You gave me forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."

 

"I fell in love like you fall to sleep. Slowly, and then all at once."

 

There are many more, but the contexts won't make sense unless you read it.

 

Happy reading, friends.