Diagnosed with Stage IV
thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical
miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything
else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even
though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives
tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a
constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group,
Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in
Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a
long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and
health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone
leaves behind.
PREFACE:
I attempted to read a John Green book once. I didn't finish it. I also didn't really want to read this book at first, because of all the "It's so sad!" comments I'd seen. I don't do sad. I don't like to cry any more than my already depressed-self does. But there was this inescapable feeling every time I thought of the book or saw it in a store. That feeling was telling me I had to read it, that there was something special just beyond the simple (yet pretty) cover and Green's illegible autograph. So I did. But did I, like the legions before me, love it?
I do.
WRITING:
While this book is difficult to review, this review was one of the easiest for me to write. I chalk that up to how real this novel feels. Real. That is the word of the day for this review. I'll be saying it a lot, so bear with me.
Part of what made it feel so real was Hazel's voice. She has the sense of humor, the irreverence, the making a joke out of anything, of teens and people I know. The writing was real in the sense that, how people talk wasn't tidied up to be how people talk
in a novel. It was awkward, the thoughts harsh and ugly and true and beautiful and hopeful all at the same time. So basically, the writing felt real because it felt true; true to the characters, true to the story, true to life.
And if that's not enough, I wanted to quote more passages of this book than any other novel I've ever read.
SETTING:
Green captures life in every bit of this novel, including the settings, which range from a church basement, family homes, Amsterdam, hospitals, etc. These places felt what I imagined (and know) them to feel like. Traveling to new places seems magical, especially in the company of someone you love. Hospitals feel alien and bleak; homes can be havens or prisons. Life, plain and simple. No more, no less.
CHARACTERS:
Here is the most difficult part for me to discuss because throughout the book, I imagined I was reading an autobiography, not a novel in first person. Hazel Grace Lancaster wasn't the protagonist, but the Anne Frank of cancer.
Now, I know she, Hazel, is a character, but she is closer to my heart than that. Maybe it's because I enjoyed and understood her thoughts and personality, how she was jaded and sensitive, caring and distant, rational and fangirly, in other words, the giant mix of contradictions that makes up myself and every other person on this planet. I think I identified with her in that way, in not knowing how to feel, in feeling terrible and feeling happy so closely to one another, in not having hope then watching hope walk in the door to stare you in the face until you blink. I've felt that. I don't have a terminal disease, though I do have a lifelong one (severe depression and self-harm tendencies).
So for me, Hazel, although she is just a character in this novel, was real to my spirit. I was glad when she was happy and understanding when she lashed out. I knew it was wrong for her to lash out, but I also knew it was what I would have done, what I have done.
Augustus was another story, because he didn't feel real to me until the end, and only then, looking back, did I see that he, too, was like me, in his posturing and musings and his love for Hazel. He was an imperfect character, but an important one, because he was another side to the suffering and to the hope. He had insecurities that Hazel didn't, and I liked that. He was also a little crazy, doing things that I only wish I would be brave and bold enough to do.
I also thoroughly enjoyed Isaac and Hazel's parents. Isaac, in particular, felt extremely real because while he seemed to have the least philosophical view of his ailments, he also had the most hope, if not for himself at least for the existence of something amazing, like true love. I feel that I usually look at life the same way, cursing my misfortune then getting over it, making the best out of it, like Isaac.
As for Hazel's parents, I liked their reactions to everything. Again, they felt realistic. And even though I didn't particularly like him, Van Houten was also realistic, because I've seen people make a mess of themselves and become something intolerable because of their own suffering. It sucks to be around it, but you can't hate them for it, no matter if they deserve it.
COOL STUFF:
It feels trite to call anything in this book cool, but that's the heading for this section, so I'm not going to change it.
The best thing about this book is how it captures the complexity, the simplicity, the high and lows and the in-betweens of life, death, suffering, and joy. That's why it felt real, because I could identify with all those emotions each time they were presented, even though I haven't had the same life as any of the characters.
Plus, compared to what I normally read, the realism of the book was extremely refreshing. Despite the sadness and the roller coaster of events, I didn't cry, because overall it wasn't really sad so much as true and hopeful. I know I will cry when similar things as happen in the book happen to me, when I lose a loved one or break down because of stress or circumstances, but this book is not a thing to be sad over. It felt like a triumph, the story within proof that people have meaning and are important and are worth time and effort and deserving of love. That is not a sad thing.
VERDICT:
I don't want to just say that I love
The Fault in Our Stars because I have said that already, but it's not enough. This book is different in how it makes me feel than almost any other novel I've ever read. It means something to me, reaches me on a different spectrum, and I will forever be grateful that I read it and got to experience it. I will say that Green is brilliant for this novel that didn't feel at all like a novel. I recommend it to anyone and everyone who is presently, or will later be, alive.
