Book Review – The Fault In Our Stars

Credit: Goodreads.com

Back in the year 2012, John Green kindly blessed our eyes with the emotional roller coaster of a love novel – ‘The fault in our stars’. I remember being 12 years old when I first opened my heart to this masterpiece, in my eyes anyway. I loved the way it made me feel when I was reading it, I loved the way I felt relaxed and safe whilst gazing upon the magical words contained inside this small, blue book of wonders. Transitioning from primary school to secondary school was a very lonely and scary time for me, especially since my entire life, I had been nurtured and surrounded by my childhood friends and family, who cared for me and made me feel comfortable. To then be suddenly dropped into a larger school filled with older, louder, scarier people, who did not make me feel comfortable or happy, was quite jarring. This book made my life feel the way it used to for a couple of months. In fact, I loved it so much, I have read it three times.

I should probably tell you what the book is about, I’d rather not bore you with an unnecessary sad story about my life. Hazel Grace Lancaster is the main protagonist in this story, the antagonist however is the terminal lung cancer she has had since she was a child. She is told to attend a cancer support group by her doctor as she feels lonely because she does not have anybody to relate to, until she meets ‘Augustus Waters’, who knows exactly what she is going through as he had survived cancer, sadly losing his leg due to it. Side note, Augustus Waters was also the love of my life at 12 years old. As you can probably guess, yes, Hazel and Augustus become very close and eventually fall in love with each other. They spent every waking moment with each other. They especially bonded over an author of Hazel’s favourite book ‘An Imperial Affliction’, the author’s name is ‘Peter Van Houten’. They travel to Amsterdam to meet him; however, things soon go south, but I will leave you to read that and find out.

If you think all love stories have a happy ending, you are wrong there. I love this book as I enjoy the range of emotion it holds inside. I love the shock factor, one moment you feel on top of the world, the next, you feel you have hit rock bottom. Maybe it’s just me. Well, I cannot tell you what happens at the end, that would ruin it, that would be very selfish of me. All I can say is, I was a very shy, quiet, lonely person around the time I read this book, but it helped me, it really turned my life around for those few months I was binge reading this book. I had a passion for it. I had found my new favourite author. It really changed my life, I am sure it will change yours too.

Written by Robyn Mason