“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”
- John Green The Fault in our Stars
While away at the aforementioned trip-of-a-lifetime, I managed to finish a book that I have been searching for for absolutely yonks and then devoured in 2 - 3 days.
I am talking of, of course, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
And this probably isn't going to be much of a 'review' as such, but more a fangirly, flaily mess.
Now, this book is absolutely inescapable if you are an avid Tumblr'r. It really doesn't matter what type of blog you are - this will turn up at some point. It's because of this that I wanted to read it. Not because I do whatever Tumblr tells me to do, but because quotes and little snippets were just popping up daily and intriguing me and in the end I googled what all the fuss was about and instantly knew I had to gets me some of this action!
But I'm a poor poor person and I never really got round to ordering it off of Amazon. But then, ho! It appeared in Tesco! Well done, Tesco. And finally... it was mine.
I've been meaning to do a book review for a long time now and I think that this is the perfect one to start with.
The blurb reads as follows;
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
This book has absolutely rocketed into my top ten books of all time. It's absolutely beautiful and I completely understand why Tumblr have taken it and kind of claimed it as 'their' book. When I gave a friend a run down of what it's about - "A girl that has cancer that meets a boy that has one leg" - she said it sounded depressing. And it is. There is no avoiding the fact that this is a book that faces death and cancer and issues that can't be wrapped in a bow. John Green has managed to tackle said issues so incredibly face on that it's almost... easier? You're told before even opening the first page that the protagonist is terminal. There are clearly no happy endings in her story. But he tells the world that just because there are no happy endings, it doesn't mean that there can't be happy stories.
Augustus, as said, is a beautiful plot twist that is a character you cannot help but fall in love with. He's so much everything that a girl would want that he's almost unforgivable. But he's also flawed and he's vulnerable in a way that he's so human.
I think that's the big thing about this book - it's so human. Hazel know's that she's going to die. She knows that there is no cure for her and she doesn't dwell on that in the way that characters from other books I've read do. She lives her life day by day and yes, of course she addresses her cancer. But not in a self-pitying way that makes you feel sorry for her. She's written in such a way that you grow to love Hazel because of her story - and not her cancer story - which I think is really important. The 'cancer' storyline of this book is massive - of course it is - but I feel it's second to the story of Hazel and Augustus. Her death is second to her life. And John Green writes so convincingly as a female teenage cancer patient, it's kind of hard to believe he's not.
I never saw the plot twist in this book coming and it was absolutely beautifully written from start to finish.
It is, to summarise, absolutely beautiful in every way.
5/5* and I recommend it to each and every one of you, members of the interweb.
M x
“I was blind and heart broken and didn't want to do anything and Gus burst into my room and shouted, "I have wonderful news!" And I was like, "I don't really want to hear wonderful news right now," and Gus said, "This is wonderful news you want to hear," and I asked him, "Fine, what is it?" and he said, "You are going to live a good and long life filled with great and terrible moments that you cannot even imagine yet!”
- John Green The Fault in our Stars
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