Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”

               - John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Many books talk about the meaning of life that's driven by death, but few books talk about the meaning of life that's driven by being alive. I think The Fault in Our Stars is one of the few books that belongs to the later, and it is a very good book.

I discovered this book, when a friend of mine, and his fiancee ventured to watch a movie called The Fault in Our Stars. He told me about it, and via the internet, I found out the movie is based on a critically acclaimed novel. After reading the short description about the book. I decided to purchase and read it, because the premise sounds interesting. Why do I find a YA romance novel, about 2 teenagers with cancer interesting? Please allow me to explain my thought...... 

Let's look at it this way. It has taken me 5 minutes to write this paragraph. If the internet statistics is reliable, this means, while I wrote this paragraph, 540 people have died in this world, and I wonder how many of those dead people are younger than I. I can't help but ponder, why does life say those 540 people should die in the past 5 minutes, while I should continue to live? Is there a meaning to all this? This book, The Fault in Our Stars seems to be talking about these questions. Of course, I didn't really expect to find big answers to every big questions about life in one novel. That would be expecting too much, but I was pretty sure this book wouldn't say the meaning of life is 42.

I remember as I opened this book, on the second page under “author's note” section, the author said made-up stories can matter. I deeply agreed with him, that was a good start. We should not underestimate the power of stories. A few hours later, I finished reading this book, and here is my review.

Synopsis:

Hazel Grace Lancaster, aged 16, suffered from thyroid cancer. She received a miraculous chemical treatment which kept her cancer under control, buying her a few years. However, she was still very sick. Her mother recommended Hazel to join a cancer support group, to meet other teenage cancer patients, and make some friends. Initially, Hazel disliked the cancer support group, but life is strange. A teenage boy named Augustus Waters appeared at the cancer support group. Hazel and Augustus hit it off immediately, and they were about to rewrite each others' stories...

What I think about this book:

I deeply enjoyed this book. I finished this book (312 pages) in one day, because I couldn't put it down. I was sucked into the story, the characters' lives and their world. I found the writings in this book easy to understand (probably because it is a YA novel), but that is a good thing. Green's style of writing allowed me to pay more attention to the story, instead of spending time to decipher verbose sentences. The story in this book is simple, but it also had a lot of twists and turns that surprised me. There are a lot of humors in this book, I particularly enjoyed the exchanges between Hazel and Augustus, they were tinged with dry humor, they brought out a lot of laughter from me.

People have written stories about people battling terminal illness. People have also written stories about people falling in love. The Faults in Our Stars is refreshing, this is not a typical romance story. Neither is this a story about perseverance against terminal illness. Let me just say, this is a story about being alive. The characterization in this book is brilliant. The characters are vividly portrayed. Readers meet these characters, as they witness these characters' joys and struggles. I particularly admired the portrayal that Hazel and Augustus had a deep understanding they lived on borrowed time (shouldn't we all?), so everything they say or do is genuine, filled with raw honesty. Some might say the characterization is unrealistic, because Hazel and Augustus seem to be overly wise for their age. But I think suffering can make people grow in wisdom, so it can be realistic for Hazel and Augustus to have wisdom beyond their age.

In the end, I did not find big answers to all big questions about life from this book. After all, a truly powerful story is one that makes people ask questions instead of spoon-feed people with answers. As I closed this book, I was reminded of something that's lost to me, due to my busy and mundane lifestyle. I am not going to share what I got out of this book, because I believe this is the kind of book where everyone will get something different out of it. So what are you waiting for? Get your hands on this novel and enjoy it, it's a good book.

P.S. This book is categorized as YA fictions, but I am not sure if this is suitable for young people under the age of 14 (or 15), because there is a sex scene and some use of profane language.