The Fault in Our Stars

A brilliant book with characters you won’t soon forget.

John Green’s latest book lives up to the hype. It is a compelling, honest portrayal of life as a teenager with a terminal illness. A new drug has allowed sixteen year old Hazel Lancaster to live for three years since her diagnosis of stage IV thyroid cancer. But her diminished lung capacity makes every day a struggle and her life as a “professional sick person” takes its emotional toll. Her physicians and parents insist she attend a cancer kids’ support group. One day at support group she meets a thoughtful, quick-witted and super-hot boy named Augustus Waters, an event that ultimately transforms her life. The conversations between Hazel and Augustus spark with chemistry as they range from laugh-out-loud funny, to biting sarcasm, to the search for meaning and existential angst. A book about young people with cancer that is neither cloying nor romanticized, it does pack an emotional wallop. Fair warning: Listening to Kate Rudd’s brilliant narration on the audiobook version I almost had to stop my car several times during my commute just to pull myself together. Hazel and Augustus are characters you won’t soon forget.