The Fault in Our Stars [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.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
- Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, for those wondering about the title.

I do not know where to start with this review. Actually, I will start by saying this review is completely biased as I consider myself to well and truly be a Nerdfighter (Nerdfighters will love the goat soap, and other, references) and, if I didn't live on another continent, I would totally stalk John Green. Nah, I wouldn't, I'm kidding. I'd stalk Hank. I have a humongous crush on Hank.

Anyways. Moving rather swiftly on.

This book is pretty emotional. John Green said on Tumblr that he wanted the reader "to feel all of the things". Well, I felt all of the things. I laughed (well, snorted - I laugh very rarely at books for some reason), I cried (a common occurrence, believe me), I snorted through my tears (flattering, I assure you). My chest ached with stifled sobbing. I couldn't stop myself reading until I had finished the book. And what a book.

It was not purely a Cancer Book. Yes it features a main character with terminal cancer and another who lost a leg to cancer (and a minor character who has lost his eyes because of cancer). But to me it was not a book that was primarily about dying or even living, it was about love. Romantic love, love between family and friends, love for books (Augustus being a bit of a nerd with his book choice and I loved him for it, as did Hazel) and trashy TV and love for living. Cancer did not define these characters.

Hazel was a great character. Her narrative appealed to me. It was witty and sarcastic without being mean. I enjoyed reading about her slowly, and then quickly, falling in love with Augustus and how and why she didn't want this (her cancer made her a "grenade" - something sure to hurt those around her) and then why she did. I think my favourite part about Hazel though, was her fondness for her parents. They, particularly her mother who had taken up the full-time role of hovering, as Hazel put it, clearly meant a lot to her and were possibly what helped her keep going.

I also liked Augustus (hello new book crush) a lot and the blind jokes he cracked with Isaac. As un-PC as they may be, there was a certain realism in that gallows humour that I enjoyed.

This book dealt with death. There's no getting away from it. It revolved around three teenagers with various types of cancer. It was a sad book. It was also a book that made me think. Think about courage, life, death. It mainly made me think about what happens to those left behind and what happens next. That was what was, and is, going through my mind as I read the story and as I write this jumbled mess of a review. I had the most hellish racking sobs when I realised who would eventually be left behind and how unfair that was.

Is it perfect? Nope. I found the plot a bit predictable, and ridiculous, if I'm being honest. Nothing came as a surprise, I saw it coming. The characters dialogue got on my wick a few times. The whole book quote thing and philosophising is fine in small doses but I wanted a few more typical teenagery conversations. These were small, minor niggly things though.

But do you know what? I don't care. The above issues didn't really dampen my overall enjoyment of this novel and I stick by my rating for it. I loved this book and I will eagerly await the next John Green novel.

Thank you, John Green, for ruining the next few books I read. They will just not compare to The Fault in Our Stars.

DFTBA.

Absolutely loved it, despite initial reservations.I was hooked from the start. I wrongly assumed this was going to be depressing but was very pleasantly surprised!