REVIEW: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS BY JOHN GREEN.

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Edition: Hardbound
Published: February 10, 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 313
Source: Bought from Fullybooked
Category: Romance, Contemporary
Trailer: Here.

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Synopsis:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

*WITH SPOILERS*

With all the fandoms for The Fault in Our Stars all over the cyber world, my expectations for it went quite high. I couldn't blame myself because of how strongly these groups express their love for the book influenced me. The upcoming movie, posters, quotes, shirts or even cellphone casings with TFIOS prints definitely set a certain standard in my head. So it took me almost 7 months before I picked up my copy. It took me that long because I wanted to prepare myself for what people called "emotional" and "tear-jerker" story. I wanted to be strong enough to face the unknown. I guess, I prepared too much that I became numb.

Hazel Grace if battling cancer that makes her lungs to /produce/store water. She needs help from an oxygen tank to breathe well. When her parents thought she's suffering from depression, she's sent to a social group for cancer patients and there's when she meets Augustus Waters. Augustus is also battling cancer that lead him to be amputated. They share the same level of intellectual capacity and complimented their current cancer situation. Hazel Grace introduced her favorite book to Augustus which abruptly ended without a sequel. The book left them wondering what happens next to their favorite characters and since Augustus is trying to woe Hazel, he spent his 'one wish' for them to meet the author all the way from Amsterdam. They spend 3 days there only to be met by a douchebag author. They never learned the sequel. When they came back to the US, Augustus had a recurrence. He suffered a month long until his heart got tired and stopped beating. The only thing he left for Hazel are their memories and Augustus' eulogy for Hazel.

Yep. You read that right. The Fault in Our Stars is that simple. 2 cancer patients trying to love each other while they still have each other. I thought that it would tear me apart. I thought that I would be able to use the TOWEL I prepared for myself. But I reached page 200 but still nothing serious is happening. They haven't even kissed yet. At that point, my anticipation for it dropped lower and lower. Seriously, I couldn't wrap my mind around the part where people told me to prepare tissues or that this story is emotionally devastating. I am sorry but now I find those as exaggeration. I didn't wipe a single tear. None at all. It didn't move me. I couldn't understand what is so appealing to others that I had probably missed? I don't pity the characters. I don't see any emotionally draining part that could lead me to cry ocean. All I saw were a lot of "okays". Could you please lead me where to look?? What page??

Though honest to goodness I didn't enjoy The Fault in Our Stars as much as I would have wanted to, there are still a few points I liked. Like how John Green's writing style goes. Turning a Proper Noun into an Adjective is funny enough that I think, only Green could pull that off. He hides the deeper meanings of thoughts through his wordings we don't regularly use. The spontaneity of his writing is so fluid its as if he speaks this way everyday (he might be, who knows). I've always wanted to write like that. Like I could just grab things from my room and throw it to a paper and viola, encrypted thoughts through legible words. He sounded so smart thus his characters do. Also, I enjoyed how his characters view of the universe, of cancer, of love. So diverse, so objective, so smart. And I love Isaac and Hazel's dad to bits.

The Fault in Our Stars is a story of battle not of Cancer but of staying alive to fall inlove longer. It is a story of how one can put so much value to things while they are still here and how we can leave a 'scar' to the world in the smallest things we do. We shouldn't need to be ill in order to show love and be loved. Love and pain indeed demand to be felt -- because after all, one wouldn't appreciate the essence of  love without pain.

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book."

"I'm in love with you," he said quietly.

"Augustus," I said.

"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you."

"You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices."

"Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you."