The Fault in Our Stars by John Green | Teen Ink

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

September 6, 2013
By nsaofficial BRONZE, Charleston, West Virginia
nsaofficial BRONZE, Charleston, West Virginia
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The book I invested my time reading over the summer, The Fault in Our Stars, was written by the newly infamous John Green. John Green’s life is almost as interesting as his books. His genre that he has never pondered leaving is young adult fiction. He has written many other popular books such as Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Let it Snow. He has a brother, Hank, who was responsible for creating the well-known gathering known as VidCon. He has a wife, Sarah, and his two children, Henry and Alice. He & his brother share videos on their own YouTube channel called Vlogbrothers.

The Fault in Our Stars is, in my opinion, Greens best book thus far. The characters are extremely well developed, and personally, I grew attached to a few of the main characters. Those being Hazel, Augustus, Mr. & Mrs. Waters, Hazels parents, Isaac, and the support group. The plot is very well organized, planned, and east to comprehend and become emotionally connected with. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Green’s work.
Hazel is a 16 year old girl who was diagnosed with stage 4 thyroid cancer at 13 years old. The cancer was rapidly spreading to other parts of her body. If it hadn’t have been for an experiment drug called Phalanxifor, she would not have made it. Her mother and father force her to attend a cancer support group which she has no good words to say about. A friend of Hazel, Isaac, attended the support group as well, and brought in a new member named Augustus who had lost his leg. Hazel and Augustus immediately clicked. They started spending more and more time together and things for both of them seemed to be pretty decent. Hazel introduces Augustus to her absolute favorite book, “Imperial Afflictions.” He reads it faster than she did, and he seemed to have really enjoyed it. After having a conversation about the plot, the two friends decide to email the author in regards to their endless questions about the cliffhanger ending. He replies that in order for him to be sure they would keep it a secret; they would have to come visit him. Augustus gave up a very important and potentially useful thing to him to organize a trip to Amsterdam to meet Peter van Houten. What will happen? Will they get the answers they want? What will happen to Augustus and Hazel? Is Peter van Houten the man he seemed to be?
From my experience, I believe that the “theme” of the Fault in Our Stars is that you can never have too many adventures. It will be in your best interest to go do as many things as possible, and even if they take an unexpected turn, you have to make the best of what you have, because you never know if you will wake up to see the next day.
“The Fault in Our Stars” was actually derived from a Shakespeare quote. The quote, from the work, ‘Julius Caesar’ is the famous line spoken by Cassius to Brutus, “The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
I am absolutely infatuated with this book. It has romance, comedy, drama, and even a small thrill factor. The Fault in Our Stars literally made my heart rate speed up like 10 beats per minute. It’s full of emotion, disappointment, life lessons and adventure. I would absolutely, 100% recommend this book to anyone and everyone. This book honestly made me a better person.


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