"The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green is a novel about a girl called Hazel Grace Lancaster who has thyroid cancer that spread to her lungs. After being diagnosed with cancer she fell into depression, not leaving her house and reading the same zombie romance novel over and over again. When her mother finally got tired of seeing her in such miserable state, she forced her to attend a cancer patients' support group that only made her more miserable. Even if she needs and oxygen tank to breath, she still uses the stairs to reach the support group which is located in the basement of a church; the elevator is only for the people who are close to death and have succumbed to their illness. In one of her meetings she catches the eye of Augustus Waters. He is a recovering cancer patient with just one leg, who is there to support their mutual friend Isaac, who lost one of his eyes due to eye cancer. He immediately shows an interest for her. After the meeting they begin talking and discussing their experience with cancer, soon becoming friends and then going into a relationship. Later on he takes her to Amsterdam to meet her favourite author who turns out to not be what she expected, and while visiting the city tragic news are revealed to Hazel which make her face death from a different perspective this time.
Throughout the book there is the constant fear of dying; seeing as all the main characters have cancer. As an author John Green portrayed this fear in the characters, mostly Hazel and Augustus, as something that they became used to. Hazel described it as something that was certain and inevitable. She is also constantly faced with the fear of causing pain to those that she loves when she dies, but then is faced with that pain head on when Augustus dies. Augustus says that that pain that he has caused her doesn't make him guilty because that means that he mattered to her and make an impact en her life, and now she'll carry that scar within herself forever. Pain is something that is talked about a lot of time during the novel, both emotional and physical. Hazel says that pain is just a side effect of leaving, and August quotes that "without pain we couldn't know joy".
This is a very sappy romance novel and to be quite honest I didn't like it. I think maybe I was let down by the high expectations I had of this book since it was so popular, and I just didn't find it as amazing. Or maybe it was because I sped through it and managed to read it in one day. All in all I didn't like it and wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, unless you're into sappy, cliche romance novels. If you do then go ahead and read it, but I didn't like it and wouldn't recommend it,
Throughout the book there is the constant fear of dying; seeing as all the main characters have cancer. As an author John Green portrayed this fear in the characters, mostly Hazel and Augustus, as something that they became used to. Hazel described it as something that was certain and inevitable. She is also constantly faced with the fear of causing pain to those that she loves when she dies, but then is faced with that pain head on when Augustus dies. Augustus says that that pain that he has caused her doesn't make him guilty because that means that he mattered to her and make an impact en her life, and now she'll carry that scar within herself forever. Pain is something that is talked about a lot of time during the novel, both emotional and physical. Hazel says that pain is just a side effect of leaving, and August quotes that "without pain we couldn't know joy".
This is a very sappy romance novel and to be quite honest I didn't like it. I think maybe I was let down by the high expectations I had of this book since it was so popular, and I just didn't find it as amazing. Or maybe it was because I sped through it and managed to read it in one day. All in all I didn't like it and wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, unless you're into sappy, cliche romance novels. If you do then go ahead and read it, but I didn't like it and wouldn't recommend it,