Let’s be clear; books about cancer patients have a way of jerking with a reader’s emotions. Regardless of how much struggle the patient goes through, it almost always ends in turmoil. John Green makes it very clear that his book “The Fault In Our Stars” is not a book about cancer, because books about cancer suck, yet he still manages to grab our attention with an excellent use of metaphors and nail biting hope for a girl named Hazel Grace and a boy named Agustus Waters.
The book starts off with Hazel Grace arriving unwillingly in a support group for other cancer survivors. Fate has a funny way of working for her because if she had never joined the group, she would have never met the care free and handsome Agustus Waters, nicknamed Gus.
The two of them start talking about every day events and get to know each other, when somewhere in the line of endless conversations Hazel shares with Gus her favorite book, “An Imperial Affliction.” Once Gus reads it, the two of them marvel at the beauty of such a book and discuss how incredible it would be to meet the author and ask him how the story ended.
Being a cancer patient,Hazel Grace, has something called a dying wish, which she could use to do anything she desired, but because she used it to go to Disney World when she was younger, Gus whole heartedly agrees to let her use his wish to travel to Amsterdam where the author Peter Van Houten lives. Here, the plot thickens. Once they arrive in Amsterdam, the two of them realize that their adored author is nothing like they expected. Disappointed, the two try to figure out what to do about their crushed dream.
John Green wrote this book after being inspired by a terminally ill friend of his named Esther Earl, who sadly passed away due to her sickness. Even though this book has nothing to do with Esther, it was inspired more by her empathy she had than her actually story.
This story is more than just another cancer story. This story shows how two teens can have humor and hope about everything, even though they know they won’t live forever. “The Fault in Our Stars” is a great book for any high school student to read despite the tears it may bring.
