the fault in our stars: & the urge to buy cigarettes
- paigenherbooks
- Mar 1, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 3, 2024
5/5
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green encapsulated me as young teen. I remember my friends and I walking into the movie theater, our Book Lion shirts on and our tissue boxes stuffed full of candy. “Movie that sad huh?” the ticket teen asked and I remember nodding, truly meaning it but also trying to hide my sly grin that this wasn’t only tissues but a pack of m&m’s. This book holds such a special place in my heart, for so so many reasons.
One it was a book that my friends and I all read and shared.
Tearful talks, our throats clenched at the thought, talking about how much we wish Augustus Waters was real, kicking our feet and giggling furiously into our pillows the way teen girls do. This book almost means so much to me because of the content matter, John Green is able to take a romance story with tragic overtones and color it in a light that asks thought provoking questions about life, death, the meaning of it all, and what love truly is.
Finally, my boy read this in about a week (not his norm) all because I wanted to watch the movie immediately after finishing my re-read. Not only did he read it, he loved it, and we laid cuddled up in my bed, the overcast of the warm string lights glinting off of our teary faces.
The Fault in Our Stars is a story that is expertly crafted in a way that can only be described as absolutely enjoyable. It’s heart wrenching, it’s funny, 2014 pretentious, with characters who steal every scene their in.
Synopsis: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is a young adult fiction novel that narrates the story of a 16-year-old girl who is diagnosed with cancer. She joins a support group where she meets Augustus, and there is a rollercoaster of emotions throughout this novel as the relationship between Hazel and Augustus develops.
The Fault in Our Stars follows one very cynical, well read, and in my opinion hilariously dry Hazel Grace, who is dying of cancer. She knows this and from the first page we the reader get the sense that Hazel knows her days are limited and she’s “depressed” according to her mother. The thing about reading a novel from a terminally ill person, is that sometimes it can feel un-relatable if you’re not in the same boat, but what John Green does is takes a character, a person with cancer and gives us a novel that showcases all the “normal” things of being a teen girl, who has a “touch of cancer”. We get to experience this life with Hazel in a way that isn’t just focused on her being sick, or the fact that she has a crush, or anything. We get a very real story where Hazel’s sickness is a very very big part of her but she has other avenues and things in her life. It creates this relate ability between the reader and the character, because I too love binge watching reality t.v. and have also had a massive crush on a cute, tall, boy who is obsessed with me (hi Alex).
Then there’s Augustus Waters–one of the defining fictional men who set my standards as a young teen. Gus is funny, charismatic, and so full of life. He wants to be remembered, he wants to be great, he loves metaphors and video games. “It’s a metaphor, you see. You put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth, but you never give it the power to kill you” That line had me wanting to buy a pack of cigarettes at the ripe age of 14 and explain to everyone in high school that it was a “metaphor” Hell, now that I’m a legal, maybe I’ll do that.
Can never beat the weird kid allegations.
The thing with Hazel and Augustus is that they work. They are absolutely adorable. Their romance is crafted so uniquely and clichely and is just so aldivoaido]aidfhna]oidfhao]idfh feeling, ya know?
That’s teen fangirl speak btw, keep up.
What John Green does with this romance is take it and then have them be polar opposites in one thing: life. Hazel is okay with dying and having no one but her parents and Gus know her and love her. She just wants to be her, she has no grand plan or aspirations or something she wants to be remembered for. Augustus on the other hand wants the exact opposite. This leads to some very deep conversations regarding the meaning of life. What is the point, are you only living if everyone remembers you and you’re doing it all for the “audience”? Will Hazel Grace not live a “good life” if no one remembers her or vice versa?
These conversations hit, especially when you re-read this almost ten years later. The way that Green approaches these conversations in a way that can only get deeper each time you read TFIOS is something magnificent. At 14 I understood what I was reading, I could think about it but then dive right back into the romance that had me giggling under my bed sheet at 2 am. Now as a 23 year old I can sit with these questions and really ponder the meaning.
What is the point of life.
Now, I’m not going to answer that because I am just a 24 year old teenager who has come to quite an interesting point in her own life. Though I can say that Green presents two very different and interesting points of view for discussion. If the world is going to end in oblivion what’s the point of being remembered, v.s the world is going to end in oblivion don’t you want to be remembered? Such an existential question perfectly curled up around the story. It’s important to think about as well, what you’re living for, is it for you? For others? Where do you put your time, effort, and soul?
Deep questions for a YA novel Mr. Green.
There’s also the discussion within the novel of an afterlife, which I also think the author kills within the story. “I believe in Something, with a capital S” is what Gus tells Hazel when she asks, and I absolutely adore that. We have Hazel who isn’t really a believer in anything, she’s a cynic. We have our beloved Augustus Waters who is the worlds brightest optimist, and here he simply says he believes in “Something”. I love that John Green gave this conversation to two teenagers, who arguably are quite intelligent, and didn’t have them give the “right” answer.
Whether that’s a “yes” and we get a spiel on religion, Heaven, and the institutionalized belief of doing good things to get somewhere when life is over.
Or a “No” and John Green dives into the concept of nothing after death: oblivion. Instead, he keeps it real.
He keeps it to where the reader can honestly form their own opinion. The concept of believing in “Something” but not really knowing what are the grand age of 17 is something almost everyone can relate to, because let’s be honest, who really has it all figured out at 17?
I know I surely did not.
The way in which John Green weaves these questions that can lead to multiple and in depth discussions is again, just truly magnificent. It’s an ode to his understanding of the world, readers, and the his ability to write a deep yet compelling story.
The other notable thing about The Fault in Our Stars is how rooted in reality it is, with just a touch of imagination. The fact that a big plot point is meeting someone Hazel Grace never thought she meet, is something that is just a tinge “too good to be true”, and it’s adorable. Within the very realistic and heart wrenching story, we have some fun and that’s how you write a good book. Let the reader come up for air once in a while and then plunge them down to the depths of hell again (I’m looking at you John Green, you know exactly what I’m talking about…)
The events of the story are one’s I don’t think anyone could really pin down, until after you’ve read the story. It’s fun, light hearted, yet deep and mournful at the same time. There’s moments of laughing out loud and moments of horrific tragic sobbing, at least for me. The way in which John Green constructs his sentences, how he puts words together to form a story is almost like poetry. He knows how to get to you, how to get the reader to feel something, and it’s more beautiful every time I read it. One of my favorite scenes is when Isaac, Augustus’ friend is asked to speak (don’t want to give too much away). The way that Isaac combines humor, tragedy, as well as his soul in this conversation is something that is just so moving. It’s one of my favorite paragraphs to ever grace a page, and even thinking about it makes me emotional.
The Fault in Our Stars is such a great book. A story that combines realism, a little imagination, romance, being a teen, and quite frankly, having the Grim Reaper over your shoulder, John Green wrote a novel that sticks with people. It has stuck with me for years and years—and every time I re-read her, I fall more in love with Augustus Waters, Hazel Grace and their witty banter. I have the itch to go buy a pack of cigarettes, and read pretentious novels and talk about them with others.
I have the itch for childhood and not many books can take me back to a time and place quite like The Fault in Our Stars.
Read it and weep.
xoxo,
paige
Kommentare