The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green
Recommended Age: Young Adults
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN-10: 987-0-525-47881-2
Year Published: 2012
No. Pages: 318
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Main Character Gender: Female
Read & Reviewed by: Jack



The Fault In Our Stars is a novel that deals with life and death. The main character, Hazel, has cancer but this book is not a depressing cancer book. Hazel sees herself living on borrowed time and she is cajoled by her mom to join a support group. There, she meets Isaac, a boy who loses his eyes to cancer and a boy named Augustus Waters, who lost his leg to cancer but is now cancer free.

Only after meeting Augustus, does she begin to live her life again. Augustus provides Hazel with friendship and humour and encourages her to not let cancer consume her. She is eager to pursue her hopes and dreams, love Augustus and be loved in return. Hazel tells Augustus about her favourite novel and after reading it, he ends up loving it as much as she does. Hazel’s dream is to meet the author of An Imperial Affliction, Peter Van Houten, who ends his novel with a cliffhanger. Hazel is desperate to know its conclusion, so the two begin a journey to discover how the novel ended and more about themselves in the process.John Green gives his characters personality through detail, dialogue and Hazel’s thoughts and feelings. I felt his characters were real people and for the duration of the book, part of my life. Even though you long for characters after the novel is back on the shelf, the novel didn’t leave me wondering what happened next.

Hazel, the main character of the novel, is a thoughtful and caring girl. Her narrative is witty and gives her a cleverness that is not only humorous but appealing. For example, Hazel says at one point in the novel, “Depression is the side effect of dying.” This is funny because this is an obvious statement yet also unapparent at the same time. Even though Hazel and Augustus are characters that are almost too good to be true, a typical Green trait, as a reader, I wished them to be real and refreshing.

Green doesn’t handle the theme of cancer in your stereotypical doom and gloom way. Rather, he writes with humour so that I found myself excited to read on and discover what would happen next, even if it meant death. I still found myself sad from time to time, but the novel breathed more hope than sadness. Green also writes in a happy and witty way, which changes the mood of the story.

I recommend this book to everyone regardless of gender. The Fault in our Stars is a novel everyone should read, because not only does it have Green's typical sense of wit, it also showed me a lighter side to those who have cancer and a different, more hopeful glimpse to how they may feel. I rated this novel a ten out of ten, and I would read it again and again.