The Fault in Our Stars—Review

The Fault in Our Stars is John Green's fourth solo novel. It's the story of  sixteen-year-old Hazel who has been living with cancer since she was twelve. But don't think this is one of the usual bittersweet inspiring cancer stories. Hazel knows all the cliches about the "heroic fight" with cancer. She's smart, irreverent, acerbic, and funny. She only goes to the cancer support group where she is encouraged to "live her best life today!" in order to please her mother. But it's at support group that the story begins, because that's where Hazel meets Augustus Waters.

Through the course of TFIOS, Hazel and Augustus pursue a favorite author to Amsterdam, watch a friend lose his eyes to cancer, utilize Venn diagram humor, and learn what it means to form relationships when cancer makes you a walking grenade.

TFIOS isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as Green's previous novels, but it still has that mix of pop culture and high brow allusions, humor and elegance that we have come to love in John Green's work. Green exceeds at creating entertainment studded with poignant observations of what it means to be human.


Quote-pictures courtesy of http://penguinbtl.blogspot.com/