'The Fault in Our Stars'

By Ashley B.

            John Green has surely outdone himself with his solo novel, The Fault In Our Stars. This star-crossed love story is narrated by seventeen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster who falls madly in love with Augustus Waters.

            As usual, John Green threw a twist into this love story; both Hazel and Augustus (Gus) suffer from cancer. Hazel has thyroid cancer and carries around an oxygen tank. She's quite the book worm, and her mother forces her to go to a cancer support group at the local church so she can get out of the house. At one of these meetings, Hazel catches the eye of Gus, who's there to support his blind friend Isaac.

            Gus tells his new 'friend' Hazel to read The Price of Dawn, a book about a fellow cancer sufferer who tells about life with cancer. However, the book ends mid-sentence and Hazel is furious to not learn what came of the cancer patient. From there, it is Hazel and Gus's mission to track down the author and learn the real end of the book, and they just so happen to fall in love somewhere along the way.

            This was the second book I've read from John Green and it has impacted me in ways I can't explain. This is the most beautiful and intricate love story I've ever read and the way Green portrays the struggles of a love-stricken cancer patient is breathtaking. In his true writing fashion, Green ends the book suddenly and with a big bang that leaves you hungry for more, which isn't always a good thing.

            Although I've only read Green's Looking for Alaska and  The Fault in Our Stars I am eager to read his other works like Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Paper Towns. His style of writing is easy to follow and really speaks to the average teenager. His stories will never disappoint.

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, Dutton Books, January 2012, 318 pages