This is my first book by the author and it was highly recommended by several friends on bookstagram.
This story is told by Hazel, a 16 year old girl living in Indianapolis, USA who was diagnosed with cancer after she turned 13. She is one of the lucky ones who has responded positively to a trial drug and is trying her best to live as normally as she can. Although she dislikes attending the cancer kids support group at church, she does so on the insistence of her mother who is her primary caregiver. It is at this support group she meets the handsome blue eyed Augustus Waters and everything in her life suddenly changes. Hazel and Augustus hit it off almost immediately and as things progress they fall in love but fate takes them down a dark path as Augustus’ becomes sick again and they both know how this is going to end. This is a heart wrenching story about terminal illness, love, commitment, faith and fate.
I was told that this book would make me cry but surprisingly, I didn’t. Rather, it got me thinking deeply about the essence of our existence and those things that are really important at the end of it all because as Hazel and Augustus said, we will all eventually die one day anyway. I am not a big fan of the YA genre but I was totally sold out to Hazel’s character. I thought she was so relatable and funny, just a regular teenager who wanted to be a normal teenager. Augustus was also a cool kid with a good head on his shoulders and even the parents on both sides where an inspiration. Almost all the characters in this story, i loved. I also loved the romance between Hazel and Augustus, it was pure and fresh, made my heart flutter really… However, this book has made me to ask myself the question I should be asking myself more often. What do you want to be remembered for when you leave this world? I think I will go now and make that list.
I highly recommend.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Published: January 10th 2012 by Dutton Books
Pages: 313
Genre: Contemporary Romance
The Author:
John Green’s first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green’s career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children’s Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.
In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, “Brotherhood 2.0,” where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called “The Vlog Brothers,” which can be found on the Nerdfighters website, or a direct link here.
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