The Fault in Our Stars

Written by John Green

Goodreads Synopsis: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumors in her lungs...for now. 
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too: post-high school, post-friends, and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumors tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

My Confession: Every so often, I come across a book that gets me really excited. Really excited about the fact that I can stumble across something that causes me to miss valuable hours of sleep because I've become physically incapable of putting the book down. Really excited about the idea that one person could make up a story so enthralling, so emotional, and so enchanting that it reminds me once again why I am a writer, and why I spend countless hours reading other people's words.

This is one of those books.

It's hard to put into words everything this book will make you feel. It is one of the most beautiful, well-crafted stories I've ever read. It's stunning and heartbreaking, and the raw honesty and bare reality literally took my breath away at times.

I had a moment with this book. I connected with this book. I have never felt quite so gutted, quite so drained after finishing a book, and then immediately felt the urge to pick it back up and read it all over again.

Augustus and Hazel have a connection that doesn't need glitz, glamour, or paranormal activity to portray the strength of true love. Their interactions are specific and intellectual, their banter witty and humerous. The added notion that they both battle(d) cancer adds a note of irony and maturity to their relationship, but you never forget that these are kids, kids who just happen to see the world a whole lot differently than most people do.

This is not a story about cancer and what it takes away. This is a story about finding love and transcending both time and circumstance. It's a story about life and what you do with it; love and whether you choose to believe it; hope and how you dare to feel it.

Recommendation: If you call yourself a book lover, or like myself, a bookaholic, then you cannot--cannot--miss this book. It is one of the most powerful things I've ever read. Everyone should feel the simultaneous, beautiful confliction of bone-rattling, earth-shaking love and knee-breaking, heart-wrenching sorrow that The Fault in Our Stars makes you experience in its breathtaking 300 pages. Read it. It's a rollercoaster worth riding.

Again and again.

Rating: 5/5

318 pages, published by Dutton Juvenile (Jan. 10, 2012)