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.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Nicky's Review
5 Star review
Characters- Amazing, witty, well-rounded, and intelligent. Thouroughly enjoyable.
Plot/Storyline- Story was beautiful, tragic, sad, happy, and weaved perfectly.
Steam Factor- No real steam factor, they are only 16 & 17 years old, but there is undeniable love.
Cover- Artsy but I love that the characters were left to your imagination with this cover.
Cliffhanger- No. This is a standalone, but there are still questions I had.
Overall- Geesh, can I say beautiful anymore? I fell in love with this story and had my heart torn apart with the characters. Kleenex is a must for this read, but it's such a wonderfully tragic story.
Oh my!! Where do I start? This story was as heartbreaking as it was beautiful!! We are introduced to Hazel who has a terminal cancer but has been given a longer life due to a (fictional) wonder drug that has prevented her cancer from growing. She faces the struggles making decisions in order to please her parents because she hates that she is going to break their hearts in the end with her death.
Hazel is an introvert and prefers reading to going out and socializing, but her mom wants her to get out and have a life, at least live the life she has left. Her consession was to go to the Kids with Cancer meetings every Wednesday at a church, but little did she know that she would find the love of her life there.
We are introduced to Augustus Waters, a cancer survivor who is at the meeting to support his friend Isaac who is going to have to have a life changing surgery to be rid of his cancer. Augustus can relate, in a surgical manner, to Isaac because Augustus had to have his leg amputated in order to be in remission from his cancer. He had osteosarcoma.
Augustus is such a bright light in the dark world of dying and he brings this light into the lives of Isaac and Hazel. It doesn't hurt that Augustus is gorgeous to boot. He is such a great character that is very supporting, loving, understanding, sacrificing, and just a beautiful soul.
Hazel tries to prevent a relationship with Augustus because she wants to prevent further collateral damage when she finally has to say her goodbyes, but Augustus doesn't give up on her. "You realize that trying to keep your distance from me will not lessen my affection for you." (Augustus to Hazel).
As Hazel gets closer to Augustus, she begins to open up and share her favorite things; one being her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, that is a story by a girl who is also dying. Augustus reads this book and they begin to bond over it and take a journey that will forever change their lives.
The characters in this book are so intelligent, witty, mature, beautiful, and wise beyond their years due to the reality that they have to face everyday; death. The fact that they know that they have or had cancer has made them look at life differently, live life differently, and approach life differently. I know that some people complain that the characters are too mature for their age, but I can honestly see how these kids have had to grow up quickly and have been exposed to situations that have forced growing up on them. They grow up contemplating life and what it means and what comes after it. They grow up knowing that they may not have a first kiss, first love, marriage, babies, grandbabies, etc. It's a sad reality for many children with cancer and this book is such a beautiful look into what that battle entails; including the disease, the health problems, the friendship amongst fellow cancer peers, and the emotional hardships along the way.
I highly recommend this book, but I will not promise a happy ending because it is a sad ending. But I will promise you a beautiful read that will take up shelter in your heart, make you cry tears of sadness, and will make you look at the world differently and appreciate these beautiful people that fight the battle for life everyday. It will also make you appreciate the life you have.
Favorite Quotes:
“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
“That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt”
“I'm in love with you," he said quietly.
"Augustus," I said.
"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with 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 into 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 the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.”
“Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”
“You realize that trying to keep your distance from me will not lessen my affection for you. All efforts to save me from you will fail.”
“Because you are beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence”
“Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but a Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile.”
“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”
“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.”
You can purchase this book from the following links:
Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Fault-Our-Stars-ebook/dp/B005ZOBNOI/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1379453495&sr=8-1&keywords=fault+in+our+stars
Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fault-in-our-stars-john-green/1104045488?ean=9781101569184
Cast
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I also added these fan made pictures of the characters because I LOVED them!! Enjoy!! :)
Brittany's Review
5 Star review
Characters- Incredibly realistic, sensitive, funny and amazing characters. You will easily connect
Plot/Storyline- Beautiful and tragic story, but definitely inspires you and gives you as the reader hope.
Steam Factor- No real steam factor here, but it doesn't even matter because the story is phenomenal.
Cover- Simple and too the point.
Cliffhanger- No. This is a standalone.
Overall- This story seriously is so captivating in every way. You will laugh, cry and connect fully to this story and the characters.
I have to admit that even though I wanted to read this book, I was a little scared. I was already expecting the worst by reading what the book was about and knowing Cancer is involved. I was hoping and praying that it wouldn't end in devestation, but I was so curious as to what happens that I had to read the story.
Let me tell me you, 5 beautiful stars for this masterpiece by John Green!! I enjoyed this book so much even though it made me cry :( but the story and characters were written so well. At the end of the book, I felt like I knew the characters and what they went through. At times, the writing is rather overwhelming because Hazel and Augustus are intelligent, witty individuals that had to grow up rather quickly due to their health. The topics they discuss are way over my head! Lol but it's hilarious. Many reviews said they didn't like the characters because of how intellectually they spoke for their age, but in reality Hazel and Gus had to grow up much faster then other teens due to cancer so you can see how they would be the way they are. I loved them! The overall message of the story is captivating and touching in so many ways and I feel that the author really portrays life, death, illness and coping with those things appropriately. I just fell in love with Hazel and Gus and their strength. I highly recommend this book!! :)
Awesome quotes:
"I'm gonna die a virgin," he said.
"You're a virgin?" I asked surprised.
"Hazel Grace," he said, "do you have a pen and a piece of paper?" I said I did. "Okay, please draw a circle." I did."Now draw a smaller circle within that circle." I did. "The larger circle is virgins. The smaller circle is seventeen-year-old guys with one leg."
“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.”
“What a slut time is. She screws everybody.”
"That’s part of what I like about the book in some ways. It portrays death truthfully. You die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence.”
“There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.”
"Some wars," he said dismissively. "What am I at war with? My cancer. And what is my cancer? My cancer is me. The tumors are made of me. They're made of me as surely as my brain and my heart is made of me. It is a civil war, Hazel Grace, with a predetermined winner.”
He responded a few minutes later.
Okay.
I wrote back.
Okay.
He responded:
Oh, my God, stop flirting with me!”
Casting
Augustus
Hazel
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