The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

My brother’s girlfriend, Emma, had been telling me some time ago about how much she loved John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” and I had been intending on getting round to reading it so when my Mum was buying a book at weekend that was on a 2 for £7 deal in Asda and I noticed “The Fault in Our Stars” was in the offer too I went for it. Unfortunately, it did mean I had to have a copy with the film version of the front cover, which I detest, but needs must.

I’d heard of the book and the film version had gotten a lot of press, mainly thanks to Shailene Woodley being cast as Hazel and the film coming out around the same time as her star turn as Tris in “Divergent”, but I didn’t really know much about it. From bits of the film trailer that I had seen I obviously knew there was a love story and also that Hazel was clearly dying but beyond that I didn’t know an awful lot about the plot and was concerned it might be a bit depressing, which is probably why I put off reading it for so long.

Anyway, I am so glad that I decided to give it a try. It was sad in places but it was also funny at times too. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s not just Hazel who is ill, a large proportion of the characters are young people at various stages of various forms of cancer. I know this doesn’t sound like it makes for a funny book but it really does. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to minimise the fact that cancer kills but Green has written these characters, more so Hazel and Augustus, in such a way that they are finding the silver lining in things. They don’t want sympathy, they want to be treated like other people.

I liked that Hazel and Augustus had very different outlooks on their lives and deaths. Hazel was desperate to minimise the impact her death would have on people around her. At one part she calls herself a grenade, because she will only ever hurt people in the long run. She doesn’t want Augustus to fall in love with her because he too will have to lose her in the end. Augustus is the total opposite. He wants to be remembered for something heroic. He wants his death to be important and to mean something, but even with these differences, and with Hazel initially desperate not to let it happen, they fall in love and the way Green writes the love story is extremely touching.

The ending is sad, as I suppose it was always going to be in a book about young people suffering from cancer, but also a little surprising. It’s difficult to say too much without spoiling it for people but I was happy with the ending and I liked the journey Green took us on along the way.

Normally, after enjoying a book I will give the film version a try but I am a little reticent in this case as Emma was very annoyed at the film and loved the book so maybe I’ll give it a little while longer before trying it.

In the book Hazel is obsessed with finding out what happened to certain characters after the end of her favourite book and I can definitely identify with that. After a particularly good book I often find myself wondering what the characters did next and where their lives took them. “The Fault in Our Stars” is one of those books for me. Maybe I’ll follow Hazel’s example and start pestering Green for answers!