The Fault In Our Stars Review by Book Club Member Nick

I’d wager if you asked ten people who read ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, they’d say that they cried. It’s a common reaction to a book that is arguably John Green’s very best novel so far and a book that takes a delicate subject and talks about it with such honesty. So much so that it hurts. Just to make it plain: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is wonderful.

Meet Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen year old girl living with terminal Stage IV thyroid cancer is urged by her parents to attend a support group where she meets Augustus Waters, who lost his leg to osteosarcoma and is now in remission. Hazel is instantly charmed by his personality and they form a bond that’s planted by illness then blooms into something stronger and before you know it, these two become inseparable. One of the things I love most about the book is how it describes friendship and how important it is to hold onto that someone who means the most. Throughout the book, the two of them send countless texts and call each other and Hazel mentions that their phone calls were like this third space where it’s just the two of them. This definitely isn’t what you might call a ‘soppy romance’ novel or anything like that. But, it is sweet and you genuinely root for them but you know something is going to go wrong.

Right from the get go, you know this won’t have a happy ending and that in itself makes the uplifting parts doubly effective. These two main characters are living and have lived with their cancer and they know they are together on borrowed time. There are arguments about the fairness of the universe and how humans are remembered and it’s during these parts where Hazel and Gus argue about such philosophical topics when ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ cracks its knuckles, rolls up its sleeves and gets down to the cynical business of telling it like it is. Hazel is a realist, she isn’t keen on the ‘you’re so brave’ platitudes that common folk tell to cancer patients but she also understands that’s the only thing they can say. Enter Peter Van Houten, the antichrist of the book. He wrote Hazel’s favourite book called,An Imperial Affliction which is about a child with cancer. Hazel says that Van Houten understood what it’s like to be dying and Van Houten’s quotes resonate with such brutality, sometimes it can make you flinch. The philosophy that’s engrained in the pages is so striking, poignant and honest that it can make it harder to read because it’s talking about something so delicate. The fact that these are teenagers who are thinking about such dark subjects that it makes it even more effective.

‘The Fault in Our Stars’ isn’t misery in a book. There are plenty of funny parts, sweet scenes and optimism that it counters the dark philosophy and the tears. If it was all defeatism, the book would be incredibly hard to read (for me anyway) and just like all of John Green’s books, the teenage language and slang is in full effect. Hazel’s mum wants her to be more like a teenager and throughout the book, Hazel speaks like one and acts like one from time to time. Gus is a well-spoken man who radiates optimism and he’s cocky that it verges on arrogance but he’s a standout. Gus is a brilliant character who you want nothing but the best for and when he breaks down with sadness, it’s awful. He’s always so charming and cheerful and when Fort Augustus breaks down, so do you. The list of characters are so well written and believable, sometimes you have to put the book down and remind yourself that John Green created these wonders and they aren’t real. Except that they are, somewhere in the world there are Hazels and there are Augustus’s, somewhere. Another thing ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ argues is how we as people think we can change. Illness is commonly known to change people’s lives, when they survive against a disease they try and change but ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ argues that illness, whether it’s terminal or not, doesn’t change people. People don’t change.

‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is absolutely amazing. Few books can throttle you with so many emotions and after my third reading, I did cry. Not so much my first and second (well, maybe I did, I can’t remember) but it’s been a year since my second reading. The thing is though, I knew what was going to happen and even as a first time reader, you know it’s not going to end with a risen sun. That’s what makes it even worse sometimes, you know that something is going to happen. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ makes you laugh, smile and cry and you’ll want to revisit it to do it all over again.

‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is one of the very best books ever written.