The Fault in our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars

Author: Green, John 

Publication Date: January 2012

"Carefully structured dialogue and razor-sharp characters brim with 

genuine intellect, humor and desire."

Kirkus Review

“John Green deftly mixes the profound and the quotidian in this tough, 

touching valentine to the human spirit.” 

Washington Post

         The Fault in Our Stars is a heartbreaking love story about Hazel Grace Lancaster who has terminal cancer and Augustus (Gus) Waters who is in remission from osteosarcoma, a malignant bone tumor that has already taken one of his legs. They meet in a cancer support group, and connect as they are both highly intelligent teens who are able to match each other wit for wit – and perhaps not unlike the readers of this book, are booklovers. Hazel swims through her cancer depression, attempting to make friends, but faltering. Her parents send her to the cancer support group with her oxygen tank in tow, death by cancer following always close by. After meeting Gus at this group, chemistry and mutual minds converge. Gus decides to just his wish through the Genie Foundation on Hazel’s wish – to meet her favorite author, Peter Van Houten in Amsterdam. The author turns out to be a flop but their friendship and bond indomitable, as they mediate on their deaths and their lives. As The Fault in Our Stars takes readers across this landscape of ultimate fear-facing love, a box of tissues may by handy; this is not a story for the faint-hearted.

          This story about teenagers living with cancer might be quite dismal except for the lively, lifelike characters, Augustus and Hazel, author John Green creates, whose charm, thoughtfulness and wit would have made their way to your heart whether they have cancer or not. Green is able to create a realistic interior mindscape of a 16 year old girl’s mind with both authenticity and compassion. Other characters as just as multidimensional and captivating such as Augustus, who is recovering from osteosarcoma, as well as their parents, who are undergoing the barely imaginable horror of watching their teenage children struggle with near-death. Although this situation is extraordinary, Green’s writing remains palpably realistic in present-day Indiana, as even these exceptional teens desire for normal goals and friendships, and above all, the normal teenage zeal for authentic, deep love. Thus, teen readers and adult readers alike can surrender in empathy to the conflicts of unswerving love in the face of certain death. 

          The Fault in Our Stars is well loved and well read, as it has been a #1 bestseller for the New York Times, W Activities for this novel are challenging as the themes are focused both on teenage love and teenage death. However, these are precisely the topics that teens can relate with. At your library book group, for instance, a 'funeral' can be staged, whereupon teens can be asked to write and read aloud their own obituaries.

Green, J. (2012). THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. New York: Dutton Books. ISBN-10:0-525-47881-7