The Fault in Our Stars

Honestly, this book crushed me, but in the most beautiful way possible.

It taught me that love can be found in the most unexpected places, even when faced with life's harshest realities. This narrative made me appreciate the small but significant moments in life, a lesson I try to convey in my own writing.

Talk about star-crossed soul mates! Hazel and Augustus meet at a cancer support group for young adults. What unfolds between them is authentic, never maudlin, and beautiful. 

The Fault in Our Stars taught me about writing. But more importantly, through an unflinching look at death, John Green taught me about life. 

I strive to have my writing move people in this way. 

5 unreserved stars, no fault at all.

Who thinks they are going to meet the love of their life at a cancer support group? Probably not too many people, and yet one of the greatest love stories of all time began there, as unlikely as it was. It is where Hazel Grace and Augustus, both battling cancer at different stages, first meet. How many times have I thought, I wish I had thought of that first? And yet, I always remind myself that I’m glad I didn’t because there could be no better version than this one. The moment that always sticks with me is when… show more.

The theme of this novel deals with raising self-esteem in a fascinating way: Two teenagers meet in a cancer survivor support group. Both Hazel and Augustus maintain upbeat attitudes as they face certain death and yet, as romance blooms, they constantly reaffirm each other’s worth. I admire their ability to discover mutual affinities and enjoy typical teenage activities as much as possible rather than dwelling on the dismal future—their support for friend Isaac’s misery, for example. Their discussions of a favorite novel that stops abruptly without a conclusion show Green’s brilliance, foreshadowing Augustus’ demise at the end of the novel… show more.

I’ve read heaps of books I don’t remember days—even minutes—after reading the last line, and this is not one of them. After subscribing to Green’s CrashCourse on YouTube and listening to many of his pieces from The Anthropocene Reviewed, I had to read The Fault in Our Stars.

After all of the hype surrounding the movie adaptation (“It’s a tearjerker!” “You’ll cry your eyes out!”), I didn’t want to read it, and I certainly didn’t want to love it, but my curiosity got the best of me.  

This novel is brutally honest in presenting “conventions of the cancer… show more.

A timeless, iconic story of teens Hazel and Augustus, both fighting cancers. The book is a devastatingly real depiction of anyone diagnosed who has yet to fulfill their dreams; especially, youngsters. The tone is raw and honest, hard-hitting, and clever. The reality hits the survivor’s guilt chord head-on when the one who wasn’t supposed to succumb first, does. Anyone who has been diagnosed will know this feeling when they ‘outlive’ one of their co-fighters.

Hazel and Augustus easily show the world by their innocent ideals, how difficult, mature, and brave a person must be to stand by a terminally ill… show more.

John Green’s hometown of Indianapolis is prominently center stage in his witty, heartbreaking, and inspiring novel about Hazel and Augustus, strangers who befriend each other at a support group for people battling cancer. The book weaves its way through Indianapolis making you feel like you’ve grown up there with its familiar descriptions of Holliday Park, Castleton Square Mall, and Monument Circle. All the while, Hazel—a snarky sixteen-year-old—comments that it's the 137th nicest city in America and jokes with Augustus that you’ll never see culture or “skinny adults” in the city. But what sixteen-year-old truly appreciates their hometown?

The fact that Green’s protagonist Hazel faces a terminal cancer diagnosis as she is coming of age is fraught enough to engage me as a reader, but it’s Hazel’s pragmatic, wry, and wise voice that utterly pulled me in. Green’s Hazel is both human and tragic. Enter Augustus, the guy she meets and falls for at a cancer patient support group, and all of the learning she has done to face her mortality takes on a whole new dimension as she navigates young love and enormous loss. Green’s prose is moving and smart, his characters resonant. It’s what I look… show more.

If I hadn’t included this title in my book list I’d be in big trouble! An instant classic, the story revolves around two teens who meet in a cancer support group, 16-year-old Hazel who is terminal, and Gus who has lost a leg but is cancer free. The pair fall madly in love, and when Gus arranges for Hazel to travel to Amsterdam to meet her favourite author the pair embark on an adventure together. This book will grab your heart and rip it out of your chest, but in a good way. If there’s such a thing as a… show more.

I respect the heck out of John Green. His YouTube channel (Vlog Brothers) is awesome The Fault in our Stars hit hard! Why did I go for The Fault in our Stars? Well, I have a bias toward movies, and the movie for The Fault in our Stars is just better.

Funny, sad, raw, real.

Similar to my debut novel with the emotional punch, Fault was one of the projects I watched a few times as I edited my novel and it will always be linked to my book in my mind.