The Fault In Our Stars review (Spoiler- free)

It’s a story about the main character Hazel Grace, she is seventeen and has thyroid cancer with metastasis forming in her lungs, which causes her to carry around an oxygen tank and wear a cannula, and occasionally she has trouble breathing and her mother decides that she needs to go to a weekly Support Group to beat her depression. Hazel has an almost non-verbal friendship with Isaac whom she meets at the group, both frustrated with the group leader and share looks and sighs with each other. Isaac’s friend comes along to group one day, Augustus Waters (Gus) and Hazel can’t help but notice him, he is hot and won’t stop staring at her. They strike up a conversation, friendship blooms and the two quickly become inseparable. What follows is a journey between two people, brought together by friendship who go through and share so much in a limited amount of time.

For two young people, our characters are very deep thinkers, Gus has theories and philosophies and shares them with Hazel. This is a beautiful story that, looks at friendship, suffering, loss, emotions, humour, attraction and death. Hazel is terminal, she is on a new drug that will give her some time but ultimately she will die, this made her holding back from Gus.

Hazel shares her favourite book with Gus, it ends abruptly and Hazel would love to know what would have happened to the other characters. Gus and Hazel set out to get some answers and try and track down the author whilst courting and getting to know each other. The story covers a range of emotions and I found myself moved a few times throughout. The two main characters are only seventeen and sometimes you'll feel they are very advanced emotionally however maybe due to what they have both been through. 

This book is, of course, a  must-read and one of the best work of John Green  I found it a really engaging read, it is a hard topic, young people dealing with cancer, young Isaac has it in his eye, he is in the book for small portions as is Hazel's other friend (who doesn’t have cancer), but mostly the focus is Hazel and Gus. Gus lost a leg to cancer and Hazel knows she is on borrowed time however I think the balance of the book is well done, the impact it has on the people within the circle of the person who has it. I did see how the book was going at one point but don’t think this took anything away from the story, to be honest. It is worth noting that this is listed as teen fiction but I would say it is more than suitable for adults and that at times you forgot the characters were meant to be teenagers. 

I found each character to be believable and likeable and there was something very real about the entire storyline. Overall a great book! 

Some famous quotes from the book:

• “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
• “My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”
• “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.”
• “You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.”
• “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”
• “Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”
• “The world is not a wish-granting factory.”
• "Without pain, how could we know joy?"