The Fault in our Stars - John Green
Sum Up: (Goodreads)
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical
miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but
terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot
twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group,
Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
I remember having this book in my library for quite a while. I also read it two years ago, but anyway… You know, usually I need to be in a
very special depressed mood to read a book that I know is definitely going to deal with a
very heavy topic. Children with cancer is for sure one of these topics. So I started
this book being a little bit depressed and in the perfect mood to actually read
it. So I started and... MY! GOD! Didn’t I laugh and cry at the same time!
Plot:
Okay, so
let me settle down the beginning, the first very few pages. “Late in the winter
of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I
rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book
over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free
time to thinking about death.” (See what I mean now about this book?)
Anyway! Hazel is a seventeen year-old teenager who has been living with cancer her whole life. Lately, her mum presumes she is depressed because of the reasons told a few sentences before. Besides, Hazel tried to keep in touch with her high school best friend, but every time they see each other it’s more awkward than anything else.
Thus, after some persuasion,
Hazel decides to humor her mum and goes to Support Group. There, she meets
Isaac – a boy who has a cancer from the eyes – and Augustus – who suffered
osteosarcoma cancer. Isaac already lost one eye and is about to lose the other one,
condemning him to blindness. But instead of taking this in a very tragic tone,
John Green turns into a very humoristic tone. I know what you are wondering: how could you possibly take this with humour?! Wait and see, little lambs!
Augustus
and Isaac during this first meeting at Support Group:
[Augustus:] "I fear oblivion (…) I fear it like the proverbial blind man who’s afraid of the dark."
[Isaac:] "Too soon" (…)
"Was that insensitive? (…) I can be pretty blind to other people’s feelings."
So this Support Group
enabled Hazel and the hottie Augustus to meet. And. MY! GOD! My stomach had
some butterflies during their meeting:
They will
then see each other again many times. Augustus, Hazel and Isaac are the only ones who can understand each other. And let me tell you readers, Augustus and Hazel are about to live the cutest love
story surrounded by their families and friends, but they will also be
surrounded by the threat of their sickness.
After spending an afternoon at Augustus':
“May I see you again? He asked. There was an endearing nervousness in his voice.
I smiled. “Sure”.
“Tomorrow?” he asked.
"Patience, grasshopper", I counseled. "You don’t want to seem overeager".
“Right, that’s why I said tomorrow”, he said. “I want to see you again tonight. But I’m willing to wait all night and much of tomorrow”.
(…) [Hazel] “How about I call you when I finish this?
“But you don’t even have my phone number”, he said.
“I strongly suspect you wrote it in the book.”
He broke out into that goofy smile. “And you say we don’t know each other”.
How could
you not fall in love with Gus?
The book also settles a quest around a book Gus and Hazel read and
they were disappointed by the end (if we can call this “end” because apparently
there is none). They are so frustrated, they decide to write to the writer of this book and he invites them over in Amsterdam. During this trip, they are
going to get to know more about each other. They are going to fall in love but they are also going to have broken dreams...
Opinion:
I have read
this book so many times. My mom probably would be like: “Did you not understand
the first time?” Of course, I did. But every time, this book takes my breath
away. And no matter how much I know the story by heart, I still feel the same
emotions as the very first time. I still laugh at the same scenes and I cry at the same other scenes.
[Augustus:] “That’s the thing about pain (…), it demands to be felt”.
This book is
just the most beautiful and the truest love story ever written.
“I am [in love with you], he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. “I’m in love you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout in the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know that sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”
All the characters – despite their
sickness – have self-mockery. Careful! Even though the book is funny, it is
also inexorably sad. We live Hazel’s life through her eyes. We know her hopes,
her fears, her envies, her expectations…
“I’m a grenade”, I said again. « I just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there’s nothing I can do about hurting you; you’re too invested, so just please let me do that, okay? I’m not depressed. I don’t need to get outmore. And I can’t be a regular teenager, because I’m a grenade."
We also
have an understanding of what Hazel’s parents are going through. They are so
brave and always here for their daughter. The writer could have gotten into the
cliché but he did not. You understand that they are both trying
to keep on going even though it is hard to see your life falling apart every time you have to bring your daughter to the hospital.
This book
is not the kind of sexy and envious love story, it is just true. I don’t even want to stop writing about this
book because it is such a treasure of emotions. So if I had only a few words left: “Go and read the most beautiful book
you’ll ever read. May you be adult or teenager, this book deserves to be read.”
Excerpts:
Discussion
between Hazel and Isaac after his eye surgery. Reminder: Isaac became blind at that time.
“Yeah, people keep saying my other senses will improve to compensate [the loss of his sight], but CLEARLY NOT YET. Hi, Support Ggroup Hazel. Come over here so I can examine your face with my hands and see deeper into your soul than a sighted person ever could.”
“He’s kidding”, the nurse said.
One of these cute little moments between Hazel and Augustus (after a breaking down from Hazel):
“Swing Set Needs Home”, I said.
“Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home”, he said.
“Lonely, Vaguely Pedophilic Swing Set Seeks the Butts of Children”, I said.
He laughed. “That’s why.’
“What?”
“That’s why I like you.”
I thought this joke between Isaac and Hazel was worth being put on the blog. Reminder: Isaac just had his eye removed and became blind (nup, not funny at all! And yet...):
“Hey, Hazel. How’s it going?”
“Good. I’ve gotten really hot since you went blind.”
And do not forget that the movie was released in June 2014. My opinion? It is worth watching. I think it is pretty faithful to the book and it is a very beautiful movie! I cried all the tears my body could give when I was on my flight to go to Canada... Some people was wondering what was happening. Just said "The Fault in our Stars" and they understood straight... See? Worth watching!
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