Caution: contains spoilers!
The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, is a great novel about Hazel Grace Lancaster who is a young teenage girl (age 16) with lung cancer and she attends a cancer support group. At first, she hates the idea of attending a support group, but quickly changes her mind when she meets a young boy named Augustus Waters. All through support group, Hazel notices that Augustus is giving her the eye.
When leaving she bumps into him and notices he is a smoker. However, she actually does not notice that it is all an act. He does not actually smoke, but it is a metaphor meaning, “You place the item that can kill you into your mouth, but you do not give it the power to kill you.”
Augustus, a.k.a Gus, is charming and witty. He has had osteosarcoma, which is a rare type of bone cancer, but it has recently cleared up. Unfortunately, he has lost a leg to osteosarcoma. Hazel and Gus embark on a roller coaster of emotions including sadness, love and romance.
Together they go to Amsterdam with Augustus’s cancer wish, and together they search for Hazel’s favourite book, An Imperial Affliction written by Peter Van Houten. When they finally meet Peter, they find it quite unpleasant. They are displeased to find out that he is nothing like he sounds in the book; he is now an alcoholic and has anger issues. While in Amsterdam, Augustus tells Hazel some heartbreaking news, which turns their world upside down.
The book got its name by one of the things that happens to Hazel and Gus, when in Amsterdam they visit a posh restaurant and drink this wonderful wine. The waiter describes it as if you were drinking the stars, and Gus and Hazel presume that because they both had cancer that the stars must have had a fault in them, something wrong and not usual.
I recommend this book to teenagers or year fives and sixes, or for someone who has a strong heart. I enjoyed this because it was not just funny and silly, but it also touched my heart. You can find this book in many bookshops, ESC library and the library in Eaglehawk.
