Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

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BOOK review

Started on: 14.November.2013
Finished on: 18.November.2013

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Title : The Fault in Our Stars
Author : John Green

Publisher : Penguin Books
Pages : 313 Pages
Year of Publication : 2013

Price : $ 10.72 (http://www.bookdepository.com)

Rating: 5/5
*review may contain a bit of spoiler
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"....thinking that I would give up all the sick days I had left for a few healthy ones. I tried to tell myself that it could be worse, that the world was not a wish-granting factory, that I was living with cancer not dying of it, that I mustn't let it kill me before it kills me,..."

Hazel Grace is a 16-year-old girl, diagnosed with thyroid cancer with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in her lungs. Which is why her lungs can't function properly, so Hazel has to live with an oxygen tank that helps her breathe anywhere she goes. Hazel rarely left the house, and so her mother decided she should attend a weekly Support Group to have some activities. This Support Group is full of people with tumor-driven unwellness who shared about their stories, and support each other. That's where Hazel met Augustus Waters for the first time.

Augustus Waters came to Support Group for his best-friend: Isaac, who soon will be blind in order to remove cancer from his body. Augustus himself had osteosarcoma (bone tumor) around a year and a half ago, which made him lose one of his leg; but he's been NEC (No Evidence of Cancer) for several months. Augustus kept his eyes on Hazel Grace for a very long time, which kind of made her feel awkward being watched by such a hot-looking boy. It doesn't need a long time for both to be attracted to each other. Augustus took her on a 'movie date' at his house on their first meeting.

"In truth, it always hurt. It always hurt not to breathe like a normal person, incessantly reminding your lungs to be lungs, forcing yourself to accept as unsolvable the clawing scraping inside-out ache of underoxygenation."

Hazel then recommended her favorite book - An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten - to Augustus, demanding him to finish it before seeing her again. At the same time, Augustus recommend his favorite book: Prince of Dawn, a novelization of his favorite video game. Both fell deeply in the book; Hazel bought the sequels to Prince of Dawn, and Augustus is dying to know how the story really ends - just like what Hazel felt all this time. An Imperial Affliction ends mid-sentence, portraying the main characters death while writing. It's always been Hazel's wish to know the story of the other characters; but her letter to Peter Van Houten never received an answer.

"I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you."

There's this organization named The Genie Foundation, that grants sick kids one wish. Hazel already used her wish when she was thirteen; but Augustus still has his one wish. And he's using that wish to take Hazel to meet Peter Van Houten in Amsterdam; in order to find out the unwritten ending for An Imperial Affliction. It was like dream come true for Hazel, but suddenly her condition gets worse. And then Hazel realized that she's still living with cancer, which could take her life anytime. When she died, she will be a grenade - that to be with Augustus was to hurt him, eventually.

"I don't ever want to do that to you" I told him.
"Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."

Hazel cannot deny her feelings for Augustus are real, and Augustus clearly state how he feels about her too. So they spend their days to the fullest, being next to each other. Goodbye is something that Hazel's familiar with and she expected that to happen to her, sooner or later. But when it comes to love, goodbyes can be even more painful than the worst pain they have ever felt in sickness.

I might have failed in writing a good book-summary for this book; because I just can't find a way to summarize everything shortly and not spoiling every bit of it. Although my book summary may not sound good, I can assure you this book is perfection for me. I might be a bit late in reading this book, because the hype for this book is so last year (this book even won Goodreads Choice Awards in 2012); but I always say it's better late than never. And I thank God I can read this book, finally. John Green is officially my favorite author, even when this is the first time I'm reading his book. To be honest, even though the Young-Adult romance is really sweet and all that, I think this book talks about so much more than that. It's a simple story that has deep messages within it. Does that make any sense?

The story is narrated by Hazel, so readers can fully understand how she feels from the beginning of the story. The plot itself is actually simple and fast-paced, leaving me absolutely no time to feel bored with it. This book is not a story about the cancer itself or the suffering; it talks about life, and the romance they get to experience while they still have time to live. There are so many philosophy that strikes me, and made me think about life, as well as death. So many quotes in this book made me read it over and over again, to really seize the meaning. To be honest, John Green vocabulary in this book amazes me; because more than once I need to look up the dictionary - because I don't want to not understand something. But it just made me happier, because he helped me learn more words. Back to the book; I really don't want to discuss too much about it, in fear it may cause spoiler. But trust me, the plot will take you on an emotional roller-coaster that brings you up and down like crazy. I regretted the fact that I read some book reviews on The Fault in Our Stars before I read it myself, because I come across the fact that it will be 'sad' - and we all know what that means. So because I have that information in my head, the 'expected-sad' part wasn't so surprising to me. However, there are more than one sad part in this book; which is why I totally cried my heart out. It's been quite a while since I cried this much when reading a book. The ending is perfect, needless to say.

Augustus stepped toward him and looked down. "Feel better?" he asked.
"No," Isaac mumbled, his chest heaving.
"That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt."

Now, I really need to talk about the characters. Starting from my favorite, of course,

♥♥♥♥ Augustus Waters ♥♥♥♥

Seriously, how can I not love this guy? I think the last time I fell so much for a fictional character is Peeta Mellark from the Hunger Games. I fell in love when he said the metaphor about the cigarette he always hold between his fingers, or sometimes dangling from his mouth. I never thought about it that way, but now everytime I see a cigarette, all I can think about is Augustus.

"They don't kill you unless you light them,... And I've never lit one. It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing."

And right from the beginning of the book, Augustus is described as this hot guy, with his killer half-crooked-smile. I am so weak towards guys with crooked-smile, I think it's so sexy (in my mind?). LOL. I'm taking this too seriously, I think. But even when you imagine Augustus, with his other leg replaced by artificial one, there are so many reasons to love him. He's funny, he sacrificed his video game character to save people even though it means he failed the mission, he expressed his love in the sweetest way, ever. And there's plenty more, I just don't want to give too much away to those who haven't read this book. For those who have read this book, you will probably understand how I feel about Augustus. Below is a gif to give you a better picture of how I feel about him.

"Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but A Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile."

Besides Augustus, all the other characters are not less lovable. Hazel Grace is a strong, smart, and humorous character. Isaac is also one of my favorite characters from this book; he definitely treasures Augustus as his best friend - Isaac made me cry. Hazel's Dad, who cries a lot, also made me cry. Peter Van Houten, who's totally 'annoying' when you first met him; but his complicated words sure filled with deep meaning - and he has an important role for the ending. I feel like all the characters are important elements in the story; and all them are superb.

And can I be any happier? The Fault in Our Stars is adapted into a movie! It's supposed to be released around June 2014; starring Ansel Elgort (as Augustus Waters) and Shailene Woodley (as Hazel Grace). When I look them up, I found out that both of them also acted together for Divergent's movie adaptation - but as siblings! Is this a coincidence? But anyway, I think they're perfect casts for the characters. Ansel Elgort has this beautiful smile that I'm addicted to, and Shailene Woodley still very beautiful even with that short hair. I'm so thrilled because they both made my favorite fictional characters come to life. So looking forward to see the movie :)))) Will update on this blog if there's any trailer coming up.

 

Actually there are still many things I want to talk about this book, especially all the messages delivered to me through the story. But I'll save that for myself, and let those of you who haven't read the book enjoy them yourself. In my opinion, the hype over this book is not exaggerated, because I absolutely love it! Lastly, I'd like to give my praise again for John Green, because not only he wrote an extremely enjoyable book, he made me experience it. As I read, it's as if I'm living Hazel's live and go through all the emotions she's feeling. And this book surely taught me many things. Looking forward to reading all of John Green's books soon! :) That's it for now, bye!

"My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won't be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because - like all real love stories - it will die with us, as it should."

"You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers."

by.stefaniesugia♥ .