“My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations”
Honestly I had been put off reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, due to it’s highly publicised upcoming film and large ‘young adult’ following. I thought the trailer looked a bit soppy and predictable – like Twilight meets My Sister’s Keeper? I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes, Hazel and Augustus’s story is ultimately heartbreaking and yes, fundamentally this is a teenage love story at heart, however the book is also incredibly smart, thought provoking and touching – and not to mention really funny!
“So what’s your story?” he asked,
sitting down next to me at a safe distance.
“I already told you my story. I was diagnosed when -“
“No, not your cancer story. Your story.”
Hazel Grace is a sixteen year old girl, who loves to read and watch America’s Next Top Model – despite this, she is anything but conventional. Hazel is terminally ill, she wears a nasal cannulas and carries an oxygen tank with her because her lungs ‘suck at being lungs’. Her mother, worries that she is depressed, and persuades Hazel to attend a Cancer Kid Support Group held apparently in the ‘literal heart of Jesus’. This is where she meets Augustus Waters a gorgeous, video game and metaphor loving, amputee who connects with Hazel on a level that nobody ever had or possibly could.
It’s simplicity, dark humour and brutal honesty will leave you pondering some rather big questions, perhaps some of which you have never taken the time to think about before. I cried towards the end (well, sobbed my heart out actually), however looking back I laughed a lot too! Although the book is heart-achingly beautiful it is not as depressing or miserable as some may think or have been told; it’s incredibly uplifting and sweet. If you’ve also read The Fault With Our Stars recently please leave me a comment and let me know what you think, I’d love some feedback!
Okay? Okay.
