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The beloved, 1 global bestseller by John Green, author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and Turtles All the Way Down “John Green is one of the best writers alive.” –E. Lockhart, 1 bestselling author of We Were Liars “The greatest romance story of this decade.″ –Entertainment Weekly 1 New York Times Bestseller • 1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller • 1 USA Today Bestseller • 1 International Bestseller Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. From John Green, 1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and Turtles All the Way Down, The Fault in Our Stars is insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw. It brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. Read more
Publisher : Penguin Books
Publication date : April 8, 2014
Edition : Reprint
Language : English
Print length : 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 014242417X
ISBN-13 : 79
Item Weight : 11.9 ounces
Reading age : 14 - 17 years
Dimensions : 1.1 x 5.4 x 8.2 inches
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Kindle
Read this and other reviews at [...]. Okay, so to say a book changed my life is pretty serious business. This book, though, is serious. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green has changed my life. I couldn't decide if it ruined me. Or fixed me. I've decided to go with fixed me. In all honesty, a series changed my life last year - Fifty Shades of Grey - seems strange, maybe, but it's the truth. It opened me up to this whole other world of books, those independently published, prompted me to write reviews, and therefore start this blog, and since then meet so many amazing people and cultivate amazing friendships. Last spring, I came across The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I read the synopsis, saw it was getting high praise, and then I chickened out. I couldn't have run faster. Young people. Cancer. No. Way. Generally, I'm a sucker when it comes to subjects like this anyway - I always watch Beaches or Steel Magnolias, but damnit, even though I know what happens, I still can't manage to not lie in the fetal position and snot all over myself. {{"That's the thing about pain...it demands to be felt."}} A couple months went by, and I crossed paths with some other avid readers, like myself, all who were SCREAMING for people to read this book. I always felt there was no way I could broach this. My husband's brother passed away in January 2011 (two years ago today, to be exact). My son was 5 weeks old, and it was a horribly dark time. So bittersweet. We had this awesome baby, and then Tim's (my husband) twin brother was dying. I knew reading this story would open up a lot of feelings I remember having in regards to Jeff's cancer, but more importantly to the way it affected my husband and my in-laws. I said at one point, not long after I had Cohen, that I could not ever imagine burying my child. John Green pointed this out for me not far into TFiOS. {{There is only one thing in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you're sixteen, and that's having a kid who bites it from cancer.}} I fell in love with the characters (all of them), the writing and the story from page one. While I knew it was going to be a sad story, the way that John presented the subject was beautiful. It's amazing how connected to fictional characters you can become, and this was never truer than when reading this story. John was able to lace amazing humor, sarcasm, romance, and HONESTY, so much honesty into this, that it was impossible to put down, even while crying so hard, I couldn't see the screen of my iPad. {{It seemed like forever ago, like we'd had this brief but still infinite forever. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.}} Yes, as I predicted, this story ripped me open, but it did much more than that. It truly put me back together in way that I didn't realize I was broken. It amazes me how much you can love and learn from people that aren't real. John is a genius. He created these characters that grab you IMMEDIATELY and don't let go. Ever. I finished this over a week ago, and have since found myself re-reading certain parts on numerous occasions. I wasn't even going to review it, to be completely honest, because I knew ^^^ this would occur. Just a whole lot of nonsensical rambling, with some memorable quotes interspersed. I know I'm not doing it justice. And no one can. It just must has to be experienced and felt. {{I want to leave a mark.}} The day after reading this, I crawled into bed with my son (he's 2) and had a long talk with him. He just stared at me, babbled on about the humidifier, his train table and the stars and moon. I knew, though, this story made me think. It gouged out some stuff in me, and hopefully I can be a better version of myself because of it. I was then watching Private Practice and Sheldon (one of the doctors on the show) said something that reminded me so much of this story, and just life in general. And its importance. {{The petty things, they don't matter - the things we argue about and wish we could change about another person: none of that matters. What matters is having someone there to hold your hand if you have cancer.}} Not everyone is so lucky to have that. But many are. I know for my husband, his family found comfort in the fact that Jeff had that. And I know someday I'd have that. It is easy to take for granted, but this book reminded me how important it is to make extra sure NOT to take advantage of this. And of life. I hope that if you're scared to read this, you'll give it a chance. Yes, it's a sad story. But it's more than that. And it deserves to be read for the reasons other than it's sad. Life is sad, sometimes; in fact, a lot of times, life is sad. And unfair. But reading a story like this, reminded me that even in the saddest of moments, for people in the worst circumstances, there's still happiness, and things can be okay. I'm not sure how I'll change my life, but I know it's already changed. And will keep changing. SIDE NOTE TANGENT (again): In John's speaking engagement at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night he said, the true character of a hero is not being able to go from weakness to strength, but rather strength to weakness. I got goosebumps when he said that and I couldn't possibly agree more - especially when it comes to writing an obituary and the wording of so and so "lost his/her battle with cancer" -- there is no losing the battle. Fighting it at all is winning, suffering is winning, and being the kind of hero that lives through this is NEVER losing the battle. Unfortunately Cohen never got to meet Jeff because of all sorts of crappy circumstances at the end. But we know that he's left his mark and Cohen will know just great his Uncle Jeff was. It's nice that today, of all days, I've finally gotten this review up and written and it can serve to be a great remembrance of him. You don't get to know how long you'll be here for, but never underestimate your mark on the world. Oh - and in case I didn't make myself clear - read this book. Okay? Okay.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2013 by Madison Says
Format: Kindle
A lot of us have probably heard the saying, "it's better to have loved and lost, than to not have loved at all," and this book really drove that point home for me. I just finished my first re-read of "The Fault in Our Stars", and I enjoyed it even more the second time around versus the first. My "laugh out loud" was on repeat because the banter and quips were en pointe. I cackled more than I can count! 👌🏾 These teenagers reminded me of how important it is to not be a victim of your circumstances, but to embrace and face them head on. No matter how devastating the hand we're dealt, we must show up and play our part in this thing called life. 🌱 Hazel, Augustus, and Isaac were absolute troopers! They faced cancer; one of the scariest diseases to exist, if not THE scariest, while trying to figure out how to be a teenager and young adult. Pain, grief, trauma, turmoil, loss, laughter, joy, fear; all of these emotional experiences can affect anyone, at any age, and they certainly have affected me! I'm sure you know at least one person that has survived or died from cancer, now couple that with navigating life in your younger years...causes the heart muscle to contract, right? ❤️🩹 I just love the way John Green uses words. As the people say, "I would read his grocery list" period. No contest. His prose hits you in the face and may seem off-putting at first, but when you really stop to think about it, the message makes so much sense, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. The philosophical questions woven into this story really made me think, and I often took breaks to reflect on the impact. The author's wordsmithing was wordsmithin' okay! ✍🏾💭 Sidebar - I must say that I was a huge fan of Peter Van Houten. Not sure if you can catch the theme here but I love the uncut version of people even when they are polarizing and unfiltered as...; makes life so much more enjoyable. You'll know exactly why I said this when you read this story or if you have already read it. 😜 The Aftermath 🌷: This was a FIVE-STAR read for me and I'll probably re-read it again and again and again and again because why not?? 💁🏾♀️ It's THAT damn good! I watched the movie adaptation before reading the book (I know, I know 🙄), but this re-read firmly places this one on my all-time favorites list! ✨ I ain't gone hold you but there are two quotes from this story that really drove things home for me, and they will live in my head rent-free for the rest of my days: "The fault...is not in our stars...but in ourselves..." and "Grief does not change you...it reveals you." Ponder on that...deep.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2026 by Tulip | @Tulip_OnTheTBR
Format: Hardcover
~4.5/5 So, I'm feeling a little unsure about this book. And so I'm not totally sure what to say about it. I feel like I kind of don't think it was amazing, but it was amazing. And there is no reason for me to not think it was amazing. Maybe it was just so much, and I'm overwhelmed and very unsure or something. Also, I feel a little biased and pressured, and like I should only say amazing things about it. But I also don't feel like there's really anything not amazing about it in the first place. And I don't really know what rating to give it. I feel like, maybe, it doesn't really deserve a 4.5, and yet it also deserves nothing less? I'm just all kinds of conflicted. (But, I swear, I'm going to be honest throughout all of this review.) (Also, I promise, I'm not going to spoil anything big in this besides general plot. So, Spoiler Free!) So I understand what John Green (I kind of want to address him as John and not Green. But that's unprofessional, isn't it? [Not that, you know, I am professional or anything.] And yet, as a Nerdfighter, that's what I always think of him as. Maybe I'll just call him John Green through all of it?) was trying to say with all of it. I get the message. And it was awesome and completely well done. And I might talk more about it later, but I don't think that's what I'm going to focus on in this review. I am going to talk about Hazel, though. Ahh, Hazel Grace. First of all, I want to say how well John did at creating a real girl. Especially because, as a (you know, mostly) normal teenage(-ish) girl, I related to her in a lot of ways. She's a bit cynical, and not all that sure of herself, and she says 'um' quite a bit and ends a lot of what she says in a question. And I love how she thinks about boys, and just living in general. And she's smart, and in college even though she's sixteen (with a completely understandable and logical reason), and she's honest (at least to herself). She's a teenager, even if she does have cancer. And, ohhh, Augustus Waters. (Also, I want to mention that I love the names John Green came up with. They are brilliant.) I don't even... But I do, I do know what to say about him. He is simply amazing. He wants to mean something, and he's fun, and he likes Hazel and doesn't see why she shouldn't know this. He's just... full of swoon. He is all swoon. There is so much swoon with him that I don't even know what to tell you besides that you have to read it to fully understand the amazing-ness that is him and Hazel, when they are together and not. And I like that the drama wasn't pumped up very much or anything. Even when they have problems (that would usually cause a big scene or something), it isn't too tense, it's not dramatic. It just is what it is. And I wasn't expecting what... happened to him, to happen to him. Especially not before her. The situation was different from what I'd expected when I started the book, and I'm glad. It turned out different, in a very good way. Well, not very, but, you know... Also, you guys. I'd read several reviews and seen lots of people talking about it, and how it was full of all these emotions. And, since I'm not the type of person that cries at things, I was like, 'yea, okay', but my interest was piqued. And you guys, everyone was kind of right. A lot of the book is just fun and more fun, and there are a ton of cute moments between Hazel Grace and Augustus. It's much more funny than I thought it would be, like with moments of the three just joking around, which I really enjoyed. And, yea, there are several moments in the book where Hazel is by herself and thinking about things, and I enjoyed them, but I didn't think they were overwhelmingly upsetting or anything. But then. But then, you guys. A scene came up about Augustus. And I was completely caught off guard. I knew it was coming; it was obvious that it was coming. And even when it started, I was like 'aww, sad', but then, and I think I might have just put myself in Hazel's mind and imagined it for myself, but then I thought 'oh, there are tears in my eyes'. I'm not even kidding. This book brought me so close to crying, closer than anything I've read before. And it was amazing. Sad, but amazing. And then there's Isaac. He's one of their friends, who goes blind. But him and Augustus play violent video games together, and then him and Hazel play vocal video games, and he has a moment of denial and hard realization that's a bit sad (and honest, and I genuinely enjoyed it), and he's just generally awesome. We didn't see too much of anyone else's parents (although what we did see was usually pretty humorous or sad) besides Hazel's, who we saw often. She's close to both of them, and they were pretty awesome. Her dad, in particular, was so sweet, and very sensitive (and cried often). And she jokes around easily with her mom, for instance, when they take a trip with Augustus. Near the end, they got a bit pushy, but otherwise were pretty cool. Also, the subject matter. It made me a little wary, but it didn't put me off from reading it or anything, because I was much too excited for that. And I haven't even read much about people with cancer, or many novels with sick people. But he did it really well. It was (I'm assuming this, because I haven't, nor have I ever been around someone who has, experienced this,) realistic. And I'm pretty sure he knew what he was talking about, as there were several technical words and stuff thrown around, and I know that he did a lot of research (not that that he couldn't have been making it all up, though). He wasn't afraid of showing the ugly parts of it. It seemed very honest, with the way everyone reacted to it, and thought about living and dying, and how they're all treated because they're sick, like with the Perks and Support Group. (And I liked the, "depression is a side effect of dying" thing, in particular. There were several parts of the book that made me think, "That's a nice/interesting way of looking at things". There are just so many little things that matter so much in this book.) And whole thing with Van Houten and An Imperial Affliction. That's just... hm. (Kind of messy? And a bit sad?) There's the big similarities. With the endings, for example. And it is a bit frustrating, but I get it. So, fine. Fine. The book has John Green's general way of writing. It's his style. He's a bit subtle and honest and a little dark; just him. This book included text messages and letters and little things like that. They added more character to the story, more personality to the characters. I liked it. It was good. It was amazing. It wasn't amazing. It was all of the things and not, all at the same time. But aside from all that, I really enjoyed it, maybe even loved it, and I would suggest it. [P.S. Thank you, John Green for creating this book with such amazing characters. And, also, for signing so very many of them. I appreciate it. (I appreciate you.) (Best Wishes.)]
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Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2012 by Jude
Format: Paperback
The best stories are about memory. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is quite possibly the best standalone novel I have ever read and is certainly the most phenomenal book I’ve had the privilege to experience in the year 2013. It is my third favorite story and favorite non-fantasy novel. The title comes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and it sets the perfect tone for this story written in the first person by Hazel, a sixteen year old girl in the regressive stage of lung cancer who nevertheless is required to cart around an oxygen tank because (as she so perfectly puts it) her “lungs suck at being lungs.” Her mother forces her to go to a cancer patient/survivor group where she proceeds to exercise her considerable teenage snark and wit along with her friend Isaac who is suffering from a type of cancer that eventually requires the removal of an eye. One day Hazel catches the attention of a boy named Augustus and their romance is as breathtaking and expedient as it is completely genuine and uncontrived. Augustus has recovered from bone cancer that left him with a prosthetic leg, but did nothing to diminish his spirit. She can scarcely believe he’s as perfect as he projects and indeed feels as though she’s found his hamartia or fatal flaw when he puts a cigarette in his mouth. Hazel is of course livid that anyone who survived cancer would willingly place themselves into its way again, but Augustus never lights them using the act as a metaphor of having “the killing thing right between your teeth, but you not giving it the power to do its killing.” Both of them together have enough wit and snark to drown the world in metaphors and sarcasm with just the barest dash of bitterness for their plight. Hazel whom Augustus calls “Hazel Grace” for most of the novel feels incredibly guilty that she’s allowed Augustus to fall for her as she and her family expect her cancer to return full force at any moment, and yet their relationship parallels the ever moving train of her mortality. So much so that Hazel shares with him that her favorite book is a story by the reclusive author Peter Van Houten called An Imperial Affliction. “My favorite book, by a wide margin, was An Imperial Affliction, but I didn’t like to tell people about it. Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising that affections feels like a betrayal.” Van Houten’s work is very meta to the larger story at hand being about a girl named Anna who suffers from cancer and her one-eyed mother who grows tulips. But Hazel makes it very clear that this is not a cancer book in the same way that The Fault in Our Stars is not a cancer book. Anna grows progressively sicker and her mother falls in love with a Dutch Tulip Man who has a great deal of money and exotic ideas about how to treat Anna’s cancer, but just when the DTM and Anna’s mom are about to possibly get married and Anna is about to start a new treatment, the book ends right in the middle of a- Exactly. This drives Hazel and eventually Augustus up the wall to not know what happened to everyone from Anna’s hamster Sisyphus to Anna herself. Hazel assumes that Anna became too sick to continue writing (the assumption being that her story was first person just as Hazel’s is), but for Van Houten to not have finished it seems like the ultimate literary betrayal. As terrified as Hazel was to share this joy with Augustus (and god knows I understand that feeling) it was the best thing she could’ve done because they now share the obsession and the insistence that the characters deserve an ending. The conversations of Hazel and Augustus are not typical teenage conversations, but they’re not typical teenagers. Mortality flavors all of their discussions and leads to elegance such as “The tales of our exploits will survive as long as the human voice itself. And even after that, when the robots recall the human absurdities of sacrifice and compassion, they will remember us.” They speak of memory and calculate how there are fourteen dead people for everyone alive and realize that remembering fourteen people isn’t that difficult. We could all do that if we tried that way no one has to be forgotten. But will we then fight over who we are allowed to remember? Or will the fourteen just be added to those we can never forget? They read each other the poetry of T.S Eliot, the haunting lines of Prufrock, “We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Til human voices wake us, and we drown.” And as Augustus reads Hazel her favorite book she “…fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” The quotes from this story are among the most poignant and beautiful I have ever seen. “Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” “There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.” When I finished this I thought to myself, “How am I going to read anything else? How will I find something to match this? How can I pick up another book and not expect it to resonate with this haunting beauty, this tragedy ringed with comic teenage snark and tones that are themselves tragic in their sarcasm like whistling in the ninth circle of hell or laughing uproariously at the monster?” I realized I was lost. I could think of no negative critique unless you count the fact that the two main characters have Dawson’s Creek Syndrome where they’re teenagers who speak as if they were philosophers, but then again Bill Watterson did the same thing with a boy and a stuffed tiger. You realize the story’s hamartia doesn’t matter. That the fact that the plot may be cliched is unimportant and that dwelling on such trivialities is in and of itself a fatal flaw. This story is so much more than the letters and words on each page. It’s the triumph of morning over night when the night grows ever longer. It’s the dream of hope when you’ve done nothing but dine on despair. It is sad? Yes. It is heartbreaking? More so. Is it worth reading? Has anything sad and heartbreaking not been worth reading? The story of Hazel and Augusts deserves to be read just as the story of Anna, her mother, and dear hamster Sisyphus deserves an ending, and that becomes their exploit to seek out reclusive Peter Van Houten so that the characters can be properly laid to rest and remembered. The best stories are about memory.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2016 by Adrienne
Format: Kindle
Let me begin by explaining this book has changed my entire philosophy on reading. I am not a reader - I have never been a reader. This is a fact that has caused great frustration to my family as they have tried to convince me to pick up books since I was a child with little success. I'm certainly capable of reading and even concentrated in English in college as I love writing and literary analysis, but something about actually reading a book has never appealed to me. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed reading some books, but I've just never quite understood why so many people can find them so profoundly life changing. And then I picked up The Fault in Our Stars. I picked up this book on a whim. I decided I had free time and so I may as well make an attempt to read something. The plot summary appealed to me and so I grabbed The Fault in Our Stars. I was pretty immediately hooked. Green's writing is positively exquisite. This is the type of book that SHOULD be placed in the hands of teens because he tells a story that they can relate to but does not dumb anything down for them. The language is rich, the characters are well-developed, and the reader will undoubtedly be enamored with them by the end; even at 24, I am. I noticed a number of people saying that this isn't realistic, that this is not how teenagers talk. With the exception of Kaitlyn (who Green describes as "an extremely sophisticated twenty-five-year-old British socialite stuck inside a sixteen-year-old body" - i.e. not meant to sound like a typical teen), I disagree. None of the characters ever felt fake to me and their way of speaking just made the already eccentric and unique characters more eccentric and unique, which was fitting. They are not meant to be the perfect depiction of teenagers; they are meant to be flawed (even Hazel and Augustus point out their hamartia). The language that's used by Augustus and Hazel is just another part of who they are. This book did, of course, make me cry - but not as much as some others that I've read and actually less than I anticipated. Certainly, The Fault in Our Stars is worth shedding more than a few tears for, but more than anything, it got me thinking. About life, about oblivion, about heartbreak, and in the choices we make (even when those choices hurt you). I think these thoughts are more important than the tears I shed and those I didn't shed. Still, Green is an absolute master at making you FEEL. There were times while reading this book that I was literally laughing out loud while crying and I don't know how anyone else could make the word "okay" turn into the most romantic word in the world. I'm already trying to choose which of Green's books to pick up next. Considering I've never been a reader and average maybe a book every six months, max, this is a major feat for me. The Fault in Our Stars made a reader out of me. It made me feel in the way that almost no books ever do. It made me fall in love with a fictional romance between two teenagers and want it to never end. It made me laugh, cry, and think. I truly believe this is a book worth reading and I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks they need the wisdom of an Augustus Waters and a Hazel Grace in their life.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2013 by S. Blake
Format: Kindle
here comes a time in every readers life when you find THAT book. THAT book that makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you sob and smile. THAT book that is SO very brilliant it surpasses anything and everything you have ever read. THIS, is THAT book. I have successfully made it my 24 years (almost 25 soon, eep) by only crying in 3 books up to this point. The first was when I was in middle school. The book was called A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer . That book ripped my heart out and I've never fully recovered. The second and third books that made me cry were Slammed and Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover. A beautiful story that also ripped my heart out and slowly pieced it back together. I can now add a fourth. John Green says it best in this quote about Hazel's (the main character) favorite book, which could so easily be used to describe The Fault in Our Stars: "Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book." This man is a mastermind, because although I ended the quote before he finishes that paragraph, that part made me go back to once I was done reading because that was exactly how I felt. Here is the summary of the book: "Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love." Let me just tell you how much this story impacted me. I just copied and paste the summary into this post, and I'm already tearing up. Seriously. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves" So when I was told to read this book, I was told I would cry (no one told me I would be sobbing, I mean, "I have the hiccups, can't catch my breath, haven't cried this hard since a grandparent passed away, since I dumped the last jerk" SOBBING). So when the book starts out, and I'm laughing, I have to text my best friend Nicole, and ask "Why am I laughing?" The book starts off with Hazel at a support group for people with cancer, or who is in remission from cancer. And in this support group, she meets Augustus. "Look, let me just say it; He was hot. A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy... well." Yeah. He is hot. So they start forming a bond, a bond of friendship, that later transfers into love. You meet Issac who is Augustus' friend, who also has cancer, and who loses an eye. You follow Augustus and Hazel in their journey to meet Hazel's favorite book's author and site see Amsterdam. "The beautiful couple is beautiful" WAIT! Did I just end a review with one paragraph about the ACTUAL book and a couple of quotes from it? YES I DID. Why didn't I keep reviewing it? BECAUSE I CAN'T WITHOUT GIVING AWAY THE BOOK!!!! Yeah. I know. I stink. So go! Go buy it, go read it. I'm not going to tell you to bring tissues when you start it like people told me though. I'm going to tell you to keep a mop handy, maybe even a bucket for all the tears you'll be shedding. I'll also tell you to NOT read this book at work. I hit all the funny parts at work, but I am so glad I didn't hit the sad ones while I was there. I think my co-workers (who are mainly men towards the end of my day) would have been FREAKED OUT by a hysterical woman. That would have been me, the blubbering woman crying about a book. FAVORITE HIGHS WHILE READING: "I told Augustus the broad outline of my miracle: diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer when I was thirteen. (I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die.) "Okay" he said after forever. "Maybe okay will be our always" "My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations"
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Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2012 by cc
Format: Paperback
Initial Thoughts: There was a lot of hype surrounding this novel, and I knew going in that this would be an emotional roller-coaster, and it was. It was a given we’d feel the way we did; two teens with cancer, one terminal, one in remission. Yeah, there wasn’t going to be a happily ever after here and we knew it. What I didn’t expect was the laughter, and the smiles, and the joy of falling in love. There were wonderfully sweet moments that made my heart swell with wonder, and of course, there was the ultimate heartbreak. Characters: Hazel Grace’s life lacks passion when we are introduced to her. "Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a bit of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death." And sadly, her character arc is such that her life lacks passion in the end. I wanted her to learn something from her experience with Augustus. I wanted her to make the most of every moment she had left. I wanted her to be a heroine, not just a girl with cancer, so I was a tad disappointed with her. I loved Augustus. He injected life into Hazel Grace. He made me laugh with his clever wit, and I loved his positive outlook. I loved that he wasn’t afraid of falling in love, and I admired him for that. Truly. Deeply. Hazel and Augustus together, were wonderful. Together they were strong, and happy, and rock solid, each lending strength to the other. Together they loved genuinely, and greatly, and unconditionally. Secondary characters fell a little flat and were not as fully developed. Their function seemed to be to assist in directing the plot. I wish they’d played a larger role in the story. I wanted them to be characters, not puppets, but alas the author thought differently. Writing: As much as I liked Hazel and Augustus together, and found them endearing, I also felt I could see the author’s hand manipulating these characters, and others in the novel. There was a sense of contrivance to this work, with its ironies and its references to cancer books, as well as the story within a story trope. Despite the sense of manipulation, I will remember this story, always. In The End: This story changed me. You see, we are all terminal. And how we live our days is a choice, despite our circumstances, despite our upbringing, despite everything. Hazel Grace and Augustus, undeterred by cancer, chose to make the most of their limited time together. I choose the same. Will you? Favorite Lines: “That’s the thing about pain,” Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. “It demands to be felt.” “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you.” The movie adaptation from the novel will be in theaters June 6, 2014. Click here for the movie trailer.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2014 by Book Babe
Format: Paperback
I apologize for the lengthiness of this review. There was just so much I had to say concerning this book. The one that rips your emotions apart. The Fault In Our Stars. Many of you have probably heard of this book, and are anticipating the movie. I know I am. I’ve been wanting to watch the movie because I love Shailene Woodley. But since it comes out next week, that means I had to read the book beforehand. (Yes, I’m one of those people that has to read a book before the movie comes out.) That meant embracing something I’ve been putting off for so long. So what did I put off for so long? This is a story about a girl named Hazel Grace who has terminal cancer. She attends support group for cancer, but it just makes her roll her eyes. One night at a normal meeting, she meets a beautiful boy named Augustus Waters. Afterwards, they rewrite each other’s stories. So I’m going to be brutally honest here. I was afraid to read The Fault In Our Stars. I have read so many reviews of this book, and mostly people just talk about how much they cried. And not just cried, but ugly snot dripping out of your nose mixing with your tears cried. I’m afraid of books like this. I guess I’m afraid to get emotionally involved in a book because its going to open up my own personal wounds and emotions, no matter what the subject matter is of the book. But there was another reason why I was afraid to read this book. When it comes to tough topics, like cancer for this book, I am afraid of over cheeziness. I don’t know why, but I despise books where a character goes through a tough journey and the author spits out bits of “inspirational” sentences that are created solely to make a person feel some sort of emotion. I have never found inspiration in these types of books or sentences, and this is probably the fact that I have been overexposed to these kinds of things, and i’m kinda sick of them. I’ve seen many people quote these kinds of books, thinking they are beautiful and true, but never once have I seen people follow these guidelines to life. These are sentences like “He found that he was struggling on his journey but he knew that love would take him where he needs to go, free his soul, if only he could just allow himself…blah blah blah” I’m not trying to take anyones thunder away. If you find solace in these kinds of passages, then by all means, please ignore me. My discrimination against these types of passages is a personal one. But what I loved about this book was that it stripped a lot of these passages apart. Don’t get me wrong, there were some beautiful passages in this book, but it wasn’t the same old inspirational passages that are sometimes found in books about tough topics. What I always found difficult in books about tough topics, was that their struggle became who they were. I always questioned what happened after these characters overcame their obstacles, and I always imagined that they fell apart because their journey was so ingrained in who they were, that there was nothing left after it was over. But thats not what happens in this book. These characters aren’t their sicknesses. I felt endless possibilities for these characters after the book was over, and I was okay with that. I believe that this is a book that you will either love or you will be bored with it and hate it. I’ve heard both sides of the argument. And thats perfectly understandable. Some people aren’t moved by this type of story. I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t as emotional as I thought I would be. There were a few times that I thought I would cry (and believe me, it takes A LOT for me to cry because of a book. And so the fact that it even got me a little close to crying is a very special feat, in my opinion) I know there were people that were balling their eyes out over this. I never felt like this was a book that was written just to make me cry. I believe thats left to the books that become overly cheesy, as was discussed earlier. I just think that there were topics that were inevitable in this book, I mean the topic of the book is cancer and love. Some would argue that those two ingredients are a recipe for disaster. And because I knew that these topics were a part of the book, I wasn’t as emotional as I thought I would be. Now, thats not to say that I didn’t think the book did its job. I think my emotions were completely normal. I really don’t want to discuss the plot line here, because I don’t want to reveal anything. I had my assumptions about what would happen in this book, but I was wrong. I don’t think it was a plot twist or anything, but rather I was just wrong to assume. If you are going to read this book, which I believe many of you are, then I want you to take in what happens to the plot as you read it, and not from some assumptive view from someone whose already read it. I want you to enjoy it as I did. As for the characters. These characters aren’t extraordinary except for the fact that they have/had cancer. And I think thats fantastic. I didn’t want some dramatic story about a person who had accomplished so much in their life and were given the unlucky card of having terminal cancer. These were normal teenagers. This made the story more believable. More relateable. There were ideas and topics in this story that were fathomable to us. Most of us cannot fathom what having cancer is like, but the story is written in such a way that we can arrive at some kind of understanding, and thus a sort of appreciation. We’ve all dealt with situations in life where something was taken from us too early. But thats the beauty of this book. Its a story that becomes an everyday story for some people. Something thats normal for someone else. I am a huge fan of John Green’s work. This is the second book of his that I’ve read, the first being An Abundance of Katherines. I had mentioned earlier that I wanted to read a different John Green book other than TFIOS because I didn’t want that to become the standard in which I compare all his other books. I’m really glad that I did that. While John Green has a fantastic way of writing, each story felt really unique. I sometimes feel that when authors write a new book or series, some things bleed from the other books or series. I’m not going to promise that you will love or hate this book. This is a book that will catch your attention or make your eyes roll. I truly believe it depends on your personal experience and how you choose to relate the book to your own personal experience.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2016 by A History of Books