The Fault In Our Stars By John Green

Series: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction 
Release Date: January 10th 2012
Source: Bought
Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars
Cover Rating: 3/5 Stars
Synopsis: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumors in her lungs... for now. Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumors tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

First Line: “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.”

I've put off reviewing this book for a long time because I don't know how to do it justice without sounding like an obsessed fan girl. This book is surrounded by a huge hype which at first I found slightly threatening. You know how it is, every time a book is so highly acclaimed you can't go into it without huge expectations. I was almost positive that my expectations were much to high for me to properly enjoy this book but you know what? I was wrong. I absolutely loved it! The book has a very different tone to any illness books I've ever read, instead of focusing on death as many do it focused more on life and relationships. The illness was always there but the characters were so expertly that you forgot at times.

I always love John Green's characters but these ones beat nearly every character I've read about. Hazel was a very real character to read about; everything about her was relate able and she wasn't one of those whiny female characters that YA lit is so fond of. I may have even forgiven her if she was whiny given her circumstances but she reflected what so many of us want to be; brave even when facing almost certain death. I don't know where to begin with Augustus... He was so charming and charismatic but at the same time he had a real depth to him that you don't often see in bookish pretty boys. I also admired his bravery as I did Hazel's but his seemed different in a way, he wasn't brave for himself but for other people. I also enjoyed the lesser characters such as Isaac, one of the things I love about John Green is even the smallest character has lots of depth.

This book is a raw and accurate portrayal of how cancer can affect not only the sufferers but the people around them. This book made me laugh almost as much as it made me cry and I don't believe I will ever read another one like it. The writing was flawless and filled to the seams with emotion. The Fault in our Stars is a contemporary masterpiece that I would recommend to absolutely everyone! If I could, I would have given it more than 5 stars as it by far superior to many of the books I have given that rating.

My Favorite Quotes:

“That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt” 

“The marks humans leave are too often scars.” 

“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.” 

Email me at: confessionsofabookaholic@LIVE.CO.UK