John Green The Fault in Our Stars Young Adult Fiction, Romance United States: Dutton Books, January

10, 2012 313pp. Php 695 0-525-47881-7 Subject Matter: love and cancer Theme: Finding things that matter amidst cancer Thesis: Reexamining love, life and death can define oneself and the legacy one will leave behind. My Rating:

Book cover of The Fault in Our Stars John Green, author of this bestseller book, asked his fans to submit their ideas on the book cover for The Fault in Our Stars. Rodrigo Corrals design caught Greens attention. In blue color with the design of clouds and chalk-like fonts, the cover book teases readers on how bold, witty and cute the novel will be.

The Fault in Our Stars is told in first person point of view. The title of the book was inspired from Shakespeares Julius Caesar, wherein Cassius said to Brutus, The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. John Green does not agree that we are sole cause of our faults but that fate has something to do with our mistakes. Intended for young adults, this book revolves around the reality of cancer patients, the search for the answers in life, the discovery of love and the significance of having more time in witty yet formal writing.

Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters are the protagonists of the novel. Hazel, 16 years old, is diagnosed with thyroid cancer when she was still 13 and has been under the medication of Phalanxifor, or the so-called miracle drug. Augustus, 17 years old, is under remission after his right leg was amputated due to his osteosarcoma. Both of them know that having cancer means having less time to savor life and that one day, they will eventually leave the world. Both characters are three-dimensional because both of them think, feel and do things. Throughout the novel, they have undergone a lot of journeys and realizations on matters of life and death. Knowing that they have numbered days, they did a lot of things to cherish more moments with each other, with their friends and with their families. I like the way Green created Hazel and Gus in the most profound way that he directly described and narrated the two protagonists. He gave the two people strong characters which makes them an inspiration to the readers, especially to those who are cancer patients and survivors. The novel took place at present time. There are two places the novel is set, Indianapolis, Indiana and Amsterdam. For Hazel and Gus, Indianapolis, their hometown, is a place where they are confined like in hospitals - very sterile and utterly familiar. On the other hand, Amsterdam is where they can freely roam. These two places imply the kind of atmosphere the two main characters see and feel. While Indiana depicts the scene of death, Amsterdam is the painting of life. The emphasis of these symbols using the setting made the novel a lot more real because the pictures of every scene were illustrated by the author. The novel pictures the life of cancer patients, whether they may be in the fight against it or in remission. Sickness does not hinder people to find things that matter to life love, happiness, friends, family, and time is the major theme for this story. Every chapter of the book tells a lot about the theme because each tackles about different choices, experiences and reflections. The theme is didactic because it conveys a simple definition of life. It tells us that in whatever we do, sick or not, we have to value the moments we experience, cherish the people whom we love and who love us back, and treasure even the little things that made us happy.

Hazel Grace Lancaster thinks shes a grenade. Sometime later, she will explode and everything she cherishes, especially her family, would be ruined. The 16-year old who suffers thyroid cancer with mets in her lungs is diagnosed with clinical depression so she goes to a support group. There she met Augustus Waters, an osteosarcoma patient on remission. From flirting to exchanging favorite books, Hazel changed her perspective towards accepting life and love with the help of Gus. When they were about to travel to Amsterdam to meet the Peter van Houten, author of Hazels favorite book An Imperial Affliction, their love story was challenged when her condition worsens and Guss cancer relapses. Knowing that his condition will kill him before Hazel, he writes a eulogy for Hazel and requests van Houten to speak for her wake. Hazel, while crying, ends the story by saying, I do, after reading the last words of Gus saying, I like my choices. I hope she likes hers.

Brief Summary The novel is narrative and descriptive in nature and the overall style of telling the story is moving, in a sense that the story can make you cry, yet funny, in a sense that the protagonists always make a positive light regardless of their sicknesses. The introduction started out with Hazel saying that depression is not a side effect of cancer, rather it is a side effect of dying. Green made Hazel very frank about the reality. Most cancer books will describe the sickness as eating the life out of a person, but not for this book. This book is rather unique because the story is not technically about cancer and as Hazel would say, Cancer books suck. It is more on reexamining life once you found things that are important to know before dying, like love. The life of Hazel dramatically changed when she met Augustus. Meeting him was the reason why Hazel reevaluated her life knowing that she would not live for long. The book described how dramatic the changes Hazel made with Augustus, from meeting to falling in love, from travelling until learning that Augustuss cancer is back. The ending, however, is heartbreaking because unexpected things happened between the two lovers. The ending will leave you crying but asking what happened to Hazel after the events. John Green uses a lot of styles to create this masterpiece. There is simplicity and clarity in terms of intellectual qualities. There is humor, wit, romance and tragedy in terms of emotional quality. Green also uses a lot of stylistic devices in this book. One, he used a lot of symbols such as the settings to symbolize life and death, Kaitlyn to symbolize Hazels life before she had cancer, Genies to symbolize hope, and okay to symbolize the couples love for each other. He also used allegory like the Dutch Tulip Man to symbolize God. Also, Green referred water a lot of times in the book, which makes it the motif of the story. Green, he said, believes that water is both the creator and destroyer of life. Another thing in style, Green wrote dialogues effectively because points were taken seriously, the transitions are not so abrupt, the personality of the characters are revealed, and the essence of conversation is captured. The Fault in Our Stars is insightful, believable and moving. John Green drew cancer the way it should be, scary, depressing and inevitable. I like the way he described cancer as

a side effect of dying because, really, it is the truth. Also, he made the characters very bold and realistic. Their strong characters made the overall story uplifting. The book is not about accepting death, because before the story even started, Hazel already did. It is more on accepting life, because in life, not all things are fair. Because of this, we can see that despite of her weakness through her cancer, she showed a great strength continuing to fight for life. This is why the story is moving. All in all, the novel, The Fault in Our Stars, is very outstanding. The plot, the setting, the characters and other elements were able to be united. The story made me laugh and cry. The characters made me look at life positively. The romance made me shudder in delight. Even before reigning in the booksellers list, I believed the book was a success, and, indeed, it has. I would gladly recommend this to everyone. Even though the book was intended for young adults, adults could enjoy this book because they will learn a lot of things especially to the teenagers of today. Kids could read this book provided that they are guided by their parents due to some mild foul and sexual languages. This book, I promise to everyone, is very worthwhile. That is why it deserves five stars.