The Fault in Our Stars

Green, J. (2012). The fault in our stars. New York: Dutton Books.

 Hazel Grace is a 16 year old teenager who has cancer and attends a Support Group.   There she meets Augustus, a survivor of osterosarcoma.  He was there to support his friend Isaac who was about to lose his second eye.  They are flirtatious with each other and talk to each other about everything.  They even share her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, and they discuss the ending of the book. August manages to communicate with and the author invites her to come to Amsterdam to discuss the ending of the book.  August tells her that he still has his wish from when he had cancer.  He says he would like to use it to take her to Amsterdam to meet the author, Peter Van Houten. Hazel convinces her parents and doctor to let her go and her mom ends up going with her.  In Amsterdam, Peter Van Houten, was not who they thought.  He was a mean drunk and didn’t answer any of their questions.  It upsets Hazel, but Van Houten’s assistant takes them to explore.  They see Anne Frank’s house and Augustus and Hazel finally kiss.  Augustus tells Hazel that his cancer has come back.  His health is deteriorating and doesn’t have much time left.  Hazel is there for Augustus till the very end. When he passes, Hazel is filled with grief.  She give a eulogy at his funeral tailored to his parents.  Peter Van Houten shows up at the funeral and he tells her he wrote An Imperial Affliction for his daughter that died of cancer.  She learns from Lidewij that Augustus wrote her a eulogy and had sent it to Van Houten.  She reads the eulogy, and it states that he hopes she is happy with the choices she made.  She is happy.  I think the appropriate age level for book is 14-18 years old.  I am the kind of person who gets very emotional with sad books and movies, and just thinking about the story brings tears to my eyes.  In class, you can use quotes from the book and have students agree/disagree with it and defend their answers.  Some examples of quotes are, “Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.”  or “the real heroes anyway aren’t the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention.”  Other good books to follow-up reading after this one are Looking for Alaska or Paper Towns.  I recommend reading more novels from John Green.  One of the themes of this novel is friendship.  Hazel has a hard time with friendships due to her illness.  The book also incorporates Isaac and Monica’s relationship and Augustus and Hazel’s relationship. Family is another theme in the story because of their illness. The plot in the story is not a happy plot.  Hazel is the main character and is witty and well-spoken.