The Fault in Our Stars

(Note: I cried so much during this book and the feels are still really fresh, so forgive me if I gush or ramble or whatever.)

Okay, so I know I already posted today, but I finished this book in a course of within a course of 6 hours and 30 minutes (more or less), and I needed to write about it.

And let me just say, it was a privilege to have my heart broken by this book.



In The Fault in Our Stars, we are introduced to our narrator, Hazel Grace Lancaster,  a sixteen-year-old girl with thyroid cancer, who goes to a support group at her local church to battle her "paralyzing and totally clinical depression" (Green Loc. 73). [I read this from my Kindle (on my Mac) so I am putting in the Location numbers instead of pages.]

As the cast of the support group is constantly rotating in a depressing sort of way as a "side effect of dying," Hazel is (quite understandably) unwilling to go. That is, until she gets there, and meets a handsome, charismatic seventeen-year-old by the name of Augustus Waters, who had osteosarcoma a year and a half before the meeting. It is evident to readers, almost immediately, really, that their personality types are as compatible as humanly possible, despite differing viewpoints, and they have a kind of easy banter that puts the Movie!Hinny to shame. The duo is startlingly frank about everything they talk about, be it "Cancer Perks," family troubles, or controversial opinions. And it is through this sort of sophisticated, intelligent flirtation, that Hazel Grace unwillingly falls for Augustus Waters, despite the fact that she is a self-proclaimed "'grenade'" and wants to "'minimize the casualties'"(Green Loc. 1071).

"...I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once" (Green Loc. 1334). And thus begins the tragic love story that will make you laugh, cry, emote, and feel  so deeply that your emotions are tattered and shredded so totally that life seems meaningless, as it should after reading a good book. Is that not the sign of a truly exceptional story? That nothing else matters in that moment and in that reality?

Granted, I cry easily at books. But this was a beautiful story with beautiful characters and with beautiful development. I really hope you enjoyed it if you've read it. And if you haven't, I strongly recommend it. I'm not going to yell at you like some will about books. Because things thrust upon you tend to lose their singularity, their memorability, their importance. However, in the words of Hazel Grace Lancaster herself, "Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book" (Green Loc. 391). This was one of those books. Heartbreaking, magnificent, singular, and striking, The Fault in Our Stars is not a book you want to miss out on. 


Thanks for reading my review!

Good luck in life, happy watching, happy reading!
Fangirl Anonymous


P.S./EDIT: Oh my gosh this got reverted to a draft by accident so I reposted it, so sorry