The Fault in Our Stars (Indies Choice Book Awards. Young Adult Fiction) [Hardcover]

This is John Green at his best and oh is that good. The characters are beautifully drawn and heartbreakingly realistic, Hazel Lancaster doesn't represent anything and her suffering and that of her peers isn't meant to make any kind of point. It's just what it is, suffering. Equally so Hazel is simply Hazel, a girl who watches really trashy TV and loves long novels and poetry.

In being just an ordinary teenage girl she really fancies a boy and here is where we come across Augustus Waters, the boy who clenches death itself between his teeth just to prove it doesn't own him.

Through these two characters we are shown every agonizing moment of living with cancer and the fight not only to carry on living but to stop it from consuming your mind and your personality. The book seems to pose the question, if your entire personality has become nothing but the need to fight and survive cancer and there is no longer room for joy or even love, then in what way is that living?.

A large part of this struggle takes place within family circles, the parallel desperation and monotony of having a child with cancer is skilfully and subtly made evident by Green.

Ultimately Green strives to portray his characters not as those fighting cancer are often shown, forced into playing the role of brave and wise soldiers stoically enduring untold suffering. He shows them as they truly are, just people, beautiful wonderful people but people none the less. They have no choice but to keep fighting because they are given no other option and because to admit defeat means death.

It is not their struggle that defines them but who they are in spite of it, managing to live and to love and even have fun and laugh. They use every moment given to them in the most beautiful way possible and that is what makes them exceptional.

P.S. I didn't get a signed copy and I couldn't care less.

This is an odd book to review. I've read so many positive reviews of this book that my expectations were incredibly high, therefore when I began I was rather disappointed. Don't get me wrong this is a good, interesting, tear jerking book but it didn't blow me away like I expected. The book deals with the harsh reality of cancer and how people with cancer are different to others. It was interesting reading from the point of view from someone with cancer, we got to see the world through her eyes and it really does make you open your eyes to the world. The subject of cancer can be hard for people to talk about so I just want to warn you now that this is what this book is all about and the realisation that the main character will not live as long as others.

The Fault in Our Stars follows Hazel who has thyroid cancer and has to have an oxygen tank with her at all times. She constantly worries that her lungs will give up on her but at the same time she has come to terms with the fact that she has cancer and will not live for long. At a cancer support group meeting she meets Augustus Waters another person with Cancer. They get to know each other but Hazel won't take it further because she knows that the heartbreak is inevitable. How could she date this guy and then she suddenly gets worse and doesn't make it another week? She knows she's a grenade just waiting to explode. Augustus doesn't care, he likes Hazel too much for that, plus he knows he needs to live his life not shy away from it. To show Hazel how much she means to him, he offers her his one and only wish, together they embark on a journey that will change things for them both.

At the start I really didn't like the characters, they seemed too bland to me and all the same. I kept reading though and soon we saw the personalities shine through. Hazel is interesting. She knows the extent of her cancer and how it effects her but she can't help but stay at home all day. The cancer really sucks all her energy. Her parents want her to get out and be normal. When she meets Augustus they do start hanging out like normal teenagers but they have much more in depth conversations. She was mature but at sometimes immature. I'm still not 100% sure what to think of her. Augustus, I didn't like at the start but he really grew on me. A lot. He knew Hazel was important and he wouldn't let her go. She made him happy and he needed that. He was hilarious and could make anyone smile. I actually really liked his character. Isaac was also interesting, he had plenty of mood swings but he becomes a friend to Hazel when she needs one.

Despite this person not being a main character I think he was brilliant and that was the author Peter Van Houten. He was troubled and slightly eccentric. Even though he was a drunk and a complete ass to Hazel and Gus, it showed you how cancer can effect someone. He didn't have cancer himself but his daughter did. And when she passed away, it tore his marriage apart. He wrote the book An Imperial Affliction to imagine his daughter as a teenager. We see how his life was ripped apart and this is how his behaviour has gotten out of hand, he lost everything. Nearer the end he tries to apologise to the two and at times he really made me laugh. At the end I think he realised the state he was in, but he wouldn't have unless Hazel and Gus hadn't visited him.

Right, The ending of this book is heartbreaking. Alas I didn't cry but it really pulled at my heart strings. I still can't believe what happened. It was the complete opposite to what I expected. The Fault in Our Stars is a book that really makes you think about life and even more so the meaning of life. What does it mean to live, if in hundreds of years no one will ever remember you. Are we born to leave behind a legacy and is there something after death? So many questions are asked and I think the answers are really left for the reader to figure out for themselves. After all, all of our beliefs are different. This is a good book, it had a few problems for me such as the slow beginning and how it took a while for me to like the characters. Apart from that is is a really enjoyable but very emotional book. This book should come with a warning label, that you may cry and your may hurt your brain by thinking way too much!

I have to admit, even though I'd heard this book was really good, the thought of a young adult novel about teenagers with cancer didn't hugely appeal to me. My initial reactions were also somewhat less than stellar - everyone talks in a razor-sharp, ultra witty way that feels straight out of an Aaron Sorkin or Diablo Cody movie and not even remotely how any 16 or 17 year old I know speaks. I feared that it was going to be all style without substance, bouncing along until a requisite tearjearking conclusion.

I was wrong.

This is a book peopled with a group of characters that you really care about. At its core are the star-crossed lovers, Hazel (with terminal cancer) and Augustus (a cancer survivor). They meet at a cancer support group and become close, despite Hazel's desire to avoid becoming a "grenade" in anybody's life - by which she means someone who will unwittingly cause significant hurt through their passing. They are fantastically loveable characters, who flit between deep conversations about the meaning of life and finding refuge in video games and reality TV shows. I loved them both. Still do.

But the book is more than that. It's about coming to terms with the fact that your life will almost certainly never rise above insignificance - yes, you will matter to your family and friends, hey maybe even write a few reviews that people like on Amazon, but ultimately you probably won't make any life changing impact on the world. It's about the way we shrink from people with terminal disease only to laud them when they pass. It's about the impact that terminal diseases have on the families of those left behind. It's about teenagers growing up and learning to take responsibility for their own lives, defining themselves by who they are not what disease they may have.

I don't know if there's anything life changing here, but it's definitely a moving, entertaining and thought provoking book. Pretty hard combination to pull off. Kudos to John Green.