The Fault in Our Stars

Everyone had kept going on about The Fault in Our Stars and how wonderfully beautiful it was, and how I just HAD to read it. But it was the large-scale hype surrounding it which actually put me off picking it up and reading it. See, I’m a little strange in that I don’t like to do/try/read/watch something just because everyone else is saying I should (some call this being stubborn, I like to call trying it be different). So, just like Breaking Bad, I shrugged it off and vowed neither to read nor watch the story.

However, in true ‘me-style’, I caved. I had finished reading another book and in an effort to keep my brain working now that exams and Uni are finished for the summer I took a trip to a bookstore and did exactly what I said I wouldn’t do; I bought the book.

And now I’m here urging you- like my friends did unto me- to read.this.book. I loved it. Since the days of my English Literature A levels, I haven’t really read a book in the same, ‘normal’ way, as I now choose to analyse it; the language, the meanings and the characters.

The Fault in Our Stars is a true modern-day tragedy. It’s ridiculously romantic, but not in the conventionally traditional ‘Romeo and Juliet’ kind of way. The two main characters, Hazel and Augustus, have such similar personalities, with a striking wit and flare for sarcasm and are uniquely gifted in their ability to formulate some highly-intellectual comebacks, that their dialogue is so entertaining. And both, as they discuss within this dialogue, have their own hamartia's.

John Green doesn’t mean for the book to be just one thing, i.e. to be labelled as being a romance novel, or just a sad story. Just like the actual storyline, he pushes for it to be a telling of reality whereby there exists the pursuit of love, a few tragic and saddening parts, but also parts which warm the heart and make you laugh out loud.

He, through the characters he creates and their amazing dialogue; through the use of ‘reality’ within an entirely fictional tale, creates a uniquely compelling story which leaves you feeling somewhat content with your own life but at the same time forces you to contemplate on how quickly and how dramatically life can change.

Before you all don your scuba goggles as I start to plummet to crazy depths, I’ll stop in an effort to avoid ruining the story for you all (as I know you are now desperate to read it). But honestly, while the book didn’t necessarily- and cheesily- ‘change my life’, it did leave me in a continually contemplative mood, and even with a blocked nose, a blinding headache and a sore throat, I vowed to stop ever feeling down about my life as, truly, however bad life got, it could ALWAYS be worse.