The Fault in Our Stars

Love in a time of cancer

Can you identify one person that changed your entire view of the world around
you? Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, the main characters in The
Fault in Our Stars, begin their life-changing when they are known. They soon face
the truth about life and death, and discover that they can dream even in the worst
circumstances.
The Fault in Our Stars, written by John Green, is a fabulous book about a young
teenage girl who has been diagnosed with lung cancer and attends a cancer
support group. It was published by Random House Mondadori in 2012. In this
book, the author re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define
yourself and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
The author
John Green was born August 24, 1977, and grew up primarily in Orlando, Florida,
before attending the Indian Springs School in Birmingham, Alabama. He
graduated from Kenyan College in 2000 with a double-major in English and
Religious Studies.
After some time working as a chaplain in a children's hospital in Chicago, Green
turned to the book world, writing hundreds of book reviews while writing his first
novel Looking for Alaska. Since that time, Green has written four more best-selling
books and with his brother Hank founded VlogBrothers, a YouTube channel which
has morphed from a fun way to communicate to a massive forum for education and
entertainment with over one million followers.
John Green was 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar
Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Greens books have been published in more than a dozen languages.
The history
Hazel is 16 years old, she was diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer when she
was 12, and Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the
tumors in her lungs. Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumors tenuously
kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. She carries an oxygen tank with her
everywhere, and hasn't attended traditional school since her diagnosis. Depressed
and lonely, she tries a support group.

Meanwhile, Augustus Waters have 17 years old; he has had osteosarcoma, a rare
form of bone cancer, but has recently had the all clear. When he went at the cancer
kid support group, met a Hazel and interested in her. Hazel and Augustus become
fast friends. They developed their emotions, including love and sadness, while
searching for the author of their favorite book, Peter Van Houten the author of An
Imperial Affliction, and they travel to Amsterdam, only to talk with him.
Review
John Green writes books for young adults, rather than to them, and the difference
is palpable. He doesn't dumb anything down. His language is complex, his syntax
adult. He freely references Kierkegaard and William Carlos Williams alongside
bloody video games and action movies. Add to that a raw and real glimpse at
childhood illness, and his latest, The Fault in Our Stars, may be his best book yet.
The real tragedy of cancer may be that it affects people of all ages, and children
suffering from the disease are often hit hardest. Robbed of any semblance of a
normal life, "cancer kids," as Green's narrator, Hazel Grace Lancaster, calls them,
mark their time in days and weeks.
Green's novel is elegantly plotted, and as sad in places as one might expect a
book about adolescent cancer to be. But it's also brimming with joy. Hazel and
Augustus have a zeal for living and for each other that, cancer or not, is rare, and
it's a delight to see their plans unfold and relationship flourish even as they both
face death.
If you enjoy young adult books, full of witty humor and heartbreaking events, this
book is perfect for you. Expect to laugh, cry and smile throughout this masterpiece
by the amazing John Green. I highly recommend this book.