Across the globe, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is becoming a phenomenon that teenage girls enjoy immensely. The contemporary young-adult novel is about two teenagers who have cancer and fall deeply in love. Fighting their battles, Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters share their interests and go through heartbreak, love, and explore Amsterdam together. Readers relate to the book on many levels. The Fault in Our Stars is a brilliant novel that gives people a taste of what the world has to offer.
Throughout the book John Green’s characters bring the story to life. The characters are so real and raw and through the types of cancers the main characters go through, the reader really starts to feel for the character. Hazel tells her mother, “I’m a grenade and at some point l’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay” (Green 99). In this quote the reader sees how Hazel sees the world and some have admitted to crying at this quote because at any point in her life everything could be over.
She can relate to those who feel like doing anything in their life would be pointless and would end up hurting everyone around her if something ever happened in to them. She is there to represent those who are afraid of doing things in fear that something bad would happen to those they care about. What is great about these characters is that they grow from teenagers with cancer to people who are afraid yet still have the courage to do what they love and take chances by going to places and having adventures.
The characters are normal people that unfortunately have bad things happen to them, and sometimes that happens to regular, good people. John Green has a unique style of writing where his characters would use vocabulary that a typical teenager might not use (i. e. hamarsha or unprecedented). The reader could find that really neat and it spices the story a bit because they know the characters are not stupid. Teenagers are not stupid. They are well read and full of metaphors.
One specific metaphor that is well remembered by readers is said by Augustus in an email to the author of An Imperial Affliction, “My thoughts are stars | cannot fathom into constellations” (Green 311). This is a connection to both the title of the book The Fault in Our Stars and the Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. This book is filled with metaphors such as this one as a representation to Hazel and Augustus’ terrible life with cancer and their love for each other. Not all teenagers are people who are lazy and do not try as these two are the complete opposite of that.
John Green went out of his way to prove this point. The fact that these characters are well read, well written, and brilliant people are incredible examples for why people should try to succeed in life because they could go so far if given the chance, they just have to try. One of the main themes of this book is to be passionate about something and through the characters metaphors and uncommon vocabulary it is clear why loving a topic is something special and should not be taken away. Although this extremely popular book was beautifully written, there are some minor flaws in the story line.
The book seems very unrealistic for a realistic fiction novel. The number one reason is that the mother and father of Hazel fully supported, without question, her going to Amsterdam with a boy she only met a few months ago. It is also odd that Augustus’ parents did not mind his metaphorical cigarette when a normal parent would be shocked to see a cigarette in his mouth. The most shocking part was when John Green wrote, “And then we were kissing” (Green 203). The Anne Frank House is no place for random teenagers, even ones with cancer, to kiss. It is a place for remembrance and history.
The fact that they had the audacity to do that is mind blowing, making this book go down hill. These kids go through their relationship making it one of those love at first sight stories that is not real. It brought the whole story down. The Fault in Our Stars is rated a five out of five stars because of the sob fest after finishing and the beautiful writing and metaphors in this book. Teenage girls in particular would love the book because of the romance and the characters in the book are described to be attractive in both looks and words so it appeals to women the most.
Those who enjoy funny and cute contemporary novels would enjoy this. John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars, Looking For Alaska, Paper Tov Towns, and more is widely known across the globe for his novels. He has a YouTube channel with his brother Hank called the Vlogbrothers and also multiple school channels that teach people about history, English, and science. John has two book-to-movie adaptations of The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. The Fault in Our Stars is highly recommended to those who love cute and funny romantic stories.
