The Fault In Our Stars
By: John Green
This book is beyond adorable at most points but absolutely gut-wrenchingly sad at others. You have Hazel, a terminal cancer patient who basically is going to be wheeling around her oxygen tank, Phillip, for the rest of her most-likely short life, and spends a majority of her days thinking about An Imperial Affliction By the Fictional Peter Van Houten, and death. Hazel's part mother part caretaker and her father decided that it would be good for their daughter to go to a Support Group for kids with cancer. Hazel descibes this support group to have a "rotating cast of characters" and how someone taking the elevator into the church basement where the group meets is a "Last Days kind of activity." As you can see she dearly loves the program.
She fights tooth and nail not to go to the Group, until the night she meets Augsutus Waters, a fellow cancer survivor who is one leg short of four limbs, as a scar from his battle. From my personal nerdy teen girl opinion, Augustus Waters is the ultimate guy, and I fell into a deep passionate kind of book character love with him over those 313 pages. God is he attractive. He even calles her "Hazel Grace" instead of just Hazel, which for some reason I find more adorable then a sleeping puppy.
Hazel first talks to Augusts on page 14, and the remaining 299 pages is a complete emotional rollercoaster full of love, acceptance and loss. John Green's writing style in general is very raw and real, while still being unbelieveably beautiful, and in my opinion this espically shines through in this book. Hazel's outlook on her condition and all she goes through isn't some stereotypical look that "I'm going to fight this and win" sort of attitude, she knows what's wrong with her and accepts it, even jokes about it.
Pages: 313
Read in: About 4 days
Rating: 8/10
Age Range: 13-up
Have you read Green's "Looking for Alaska?" It's a little older, but it's one of my favorites. http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Alaska-John-Green/dp/0142402516 :)