Sixteen year old Hazel has a terminal case of cancer. An experimental drug has held the tumors at bay, but the threat of the disease remains. Her lungs regularly fill with fluid and she requires the assistance of an oxygen tank to help her breathe. There is no denying the truth. Cancer will kill Hazel. But there is much more to this character than her illness. A voracious reader, college student (she completed her GED while undergoing treatments), and fan of America's Next Top Model, Hazel shares many attributes of a typical teenage girl. At the insistence of her overbearing mother, who fears her daughter is becoming a recluse, Hazel finds herself at a weekly support group for critically ill teens. She grudgingly attends the meetings, but the shallow sentiments of the group leader and rotating group of teens (it's hard to keep a consistent membership when all of the members are terminally ill) do little to interest Hazel.
It is at these meetings where Hazel first meets Augustus Waters. A lanky, attractive, former high school basketball star, Gus lost one of his legs to cancer. The young man seems to live life by his own rules. For example, Gus frequently places an unlit cigarette in his mouth, a metaphor for controlling something that has the power to kill him. The two immediately hit it off, bonding over literature and philosophizing about life and death. As their romance blossoms, they face the ugly truths about cancer and the ways the disease will inevitably affect their relationship.
John Green does an incredible job of accurately portraying the horrors of cancer and the way it shapes the lives of those who come in contact with it. As a young adult novel, this book could easily have fallen into the trap of romanticizing a love story about teens facing the hardships of a disease. Fortunately, Green's characters are written with the kind of depth that allows readers to naturally become enraptured in their story. It is great to see an author write intelligent characters who are smart because of their thoughts and actions. . . not because he told us they were! There are no "against all odds" or "wisdom beyond age" sentiments in this story. Rather, the character grapple with the fear and unknown that comes with a terminal diagnosis. We see the horrific toll that cancer can take on the human body, mind, and soul. Yes, cancer largely influences the story, but it is the incredible, once in a lifetime kind of love between Hazel and Gus, that makes The Fault in Our Stars the rare, must read book that it is.
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(2015, 5)
