Why is the Fault in Our Stars so good?

The Fault in Our Stars

-Contains Spoilers-

The fault in our stars by John Green has been an international hit. With the movie adaption of popular young adult novel ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ released last week I’m going to discuss possible reasons why ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is so popular among readers in my age group and why it is just so good. (For those who have not read the Fault in our Stars you shouldn’t be reading this since it contains many spoilers about the story line, but I know some of you will read on anyway so I’m going to write a quick synopsis of the story line.

Synopsis                                                                 
The story takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana, where sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster reluctantly attends a cancer patients' support group due to her mother’s insistence. In one of the meetings she catches the eye of a teenage boy, and through the course of the meeting she learns the boy's name is Augustus Waters. He's there to support their mutual friend, Isaac. Isaac had a tumour in one eye that he had removed, and now he has to have his other eye taken out as well. Before Augustus takes Hazel home, they agree to read each other's favourite novels. Augustus gives Hazel The Price of Dawn, and Hazel recommends An Imperial Affliction. Hazel explains the magnificence of An Imperial Affliction how it's the only account she's read of living with cancer that matches her experience. She describes how the novel ends mid-sentence leaving the reader in suspense. A week after Hazel and Augustus discuss the literary meaning of An Imperial Affliction, Augustus miraculously reveals he tracked down Van Houten's assistant, Lidewij, and through her he's managed to start an email correspondence with the reclusive author. Van Houten eventually replies, saying he could only answer Hazel's questions in person. He invites her to stop by if she is ever in Amsterdam. Shortly after, Augustus invites Hazel on a picnic. It turns out he's planned an elaborate Dutch-themed picnic where he reveals that a foundation that grants the wishes of kids with cancer has agreed to grant his. She knows she'll hurt him when she dies since she is terminal. She compares herself to a grenade. In the midst of her struggle over what to do about Augustus, Hazel suffers a serious episode in which her lungs fill with fluid and she goes to the ICU. Augustus delivers Hazel another letter from Van Houten, this one more personal than the last. After reading the letter, Hazel is more determined than ever to go to Amsterdam. There is a problem though: her parents and her team of doctors don't think Hazel is strong enough to travel. However Dr. Maria convinces Hazel's parents that Hazel must travel because she needs to live her life. The plans are made for Augustus, Hazel and Hazel's mother to go to Amsterdam, but when Hazel and Augustus meet Van Houten they find that instend of the genius they expected him to be, he is a dream crushing drunk who claims he cannot answer any of Hazel's questions. The following day, Augustus confesses that while Hazel was in the ICU he had a body scan which revealed his cancer has returned and ‘I lit up like a Christmas tree’. They return to Indianapolis, and Hazel realizes Augustus is now the grenade. In his final days Augustus arranges a pre-funeral for himself, and Isaac and Hazel give eulogies. She says how much she loves Augustus, and that she would not trade their short time together for anything in the world. Augustus dies eight days later. Hazel is astonished to find Van Houten at the funeral. Van Houten explains that he and Gus continued correspondence and that Augustus demanded Van Houten make up for ruining their trip to Amsterdam by coming to his funeral to see Hazel. A few days later, Isaac informs Hazel that Augustus was writing something for her. As Hazel tries to locate the pages she encounters Van Houten once more. He drunkenly reveals that Anna was the name of his daughter. An Imperial Affliction was his literary attempt at reconciling himself with her death. Hazel tells Van Houten to sober up and write another book. Eventually Hazel learns that Augustus sent the pages to Van Houten because he wanted Van Houten to use the pages to compose a well-written eulogy about Hazel. Lidewij forces Van Houten to read the pages and sends them straight off to Hazel. The novel concludes with Hazel reading Augustus' words. He says getting hurt in this world is inevitable, but we do get to choose who we allow to hurt us, and that he is happy with his choice. He hopes she likes her choice too.

I know I said a short synopsis but I couldn’t bring myself to shorten it any more. You really should read the book if you haven’t yet.)

One of the main reasons I believe ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is so popular among us teenagers is because the majority of us have never experience anything life frightening in lives. The preponderance of us young adults take bounteous things for granted, so we do not realise how lucky we are.  ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ opens a window for its teenage readers to see what it is like to be a young adult with a life freighting disease in this time and age. It just shows how everyday aspects of life that we take for granted can be very difficult for other people our age. After reading the book I actually felt very ashamed of myself, I had so much in life to be grateful but most of the time I wallow in self-pity. John Green has stated that the first inspiration for The Fault in Our Stars came from when he worked as a student chaplain at a children's hospital. He found the children to be as human as healthy people, and wanted to capture the feeling that "the stories that I was reading sort of oversimplified and sometimes even dehumanized them. And I think generally we have a habit of imagining the very sick or the dying as being kind of fundamentally other. I guess I wanted to argue for their humanity, their complete humanity." The novel was also influenced by Esther Earl who was a nerdfighter (for those who don’t know what or rather who a nerdfighter is, they are people made up entirely out of awesomeness not cells) and friend of his with who died when she was 16 years old of thyroid cancer. He credits Esther Earl for inspiring him to finally write the book, as she demonstrated how a short life could also be a full one.

Another reason why I believe that ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is so successful is because it has a tragic romance theme. I believe it is a modern day Romeo and Juliet. It has a beautiful love story but a tragic plot twist, that the two main characters, Hazel and Augustus, both have cancer. I think we like the tragic romance theme because it reminds us that even if things are bad there is always a chance something positive to come out of it. Entertainment Weekly wrote, "[Augustus and Hazel's] love story is as real as it is doomed, and the gut-busting laughs that come early in the novel make the luminous final pages all the more heartbreaking", and gave the novel an overall A− grade. I believe that most people enjoy a good love story despite Augustus (even with Augustus dying) The Fault in Our Stars is a beautiful love story and I’m a complete sucker for a good love story especially when it doesn’t show that love is always going to be easy and romanticise being in a relationship.

For Christmas I received a singed copy of TFiOS 

One of the main reasons my friends and I love the fault in our stars is because of the amazing quotes in it. “Were she better or you sicker, then the stars would not be so terribly crossed but it is the nature of our stars to cross. There is no shortage of faults to be found amid our stars.” Though some of it I feel is never going to happen. For example, "I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasures of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout out into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labour is returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I’m in love with you.” -Augustus, pg. 153  A 17-year-old boy in modern-day America who went to public school who doesn’t show much interest in either poetry nor classic literature just said this out loud on a plane to a girl he has only known for a couple weeks.  I’m a teenager myself and have never heard any teenager speak with that level of intellect, but in saying that this this a fiction novel and anything can happen in fiction and I love these sorts of quotes in this book so much. These quotes make me feel this bubbliness and giddiness whenever I read it and just make me feel happy. These quotes also make the book so much more fun to read sound more intellectual and deep.

The Fault in Our Stars in all honesty is an amazing book and is there with my top 20 books, with Harry Potter (of course duhh!) and The beautiful forevers (although I haven’t finished reading The Beautiful Forevers I’m really enjoying it and I’m grateful John Green put it in the Nerdfighter bookclub.) My friends all think I’m weird for having such a strong connection with it and the boys in my class think I only like it because Augustus Waters is my dream guy, but they don’t know the truth and even if I told them, they wouldn’t be able to understand. It’s like with Harry Potter, I got sucked into the book and I was going on adventures with Harry, Ron and Hermione. While reading this book I got sucked into a story once again and I believe I would have eventually gotten over it if I had not discovered John Green has a YouTube channel with his brother, Hank Green. Due to the Fault in Our Stars I’m now a proud nerdfighter. The Fault in our stars has opened new doors to me. John Green, even though we have never met, has taught me to embrace my nerdiness and geekiness. I now accept that I’m not popular but I’m surrounded by geek friends who like me for who I am. Just last weekend I was proudly wearing my Pizza John shirt even though my sister said it was weird that I was wearing a shirt with a 36 year old man whom I have never met on it. The Fault in Our Stars is a fantastic book that is now somehow apart of my identity according to friends but I don’t care. This book truly taught me not to fear death because it’s inevitable and just live life and embrace whatever comes my way.
-The girl with her head in the clouds

P.S I’m going to watch the movie in 2 days I’m so excited!

Also I’m EXTREMELY not okay with Augustus’ death, but I’ve accepted it. Death is inevitable and I’m just glad John Green gave him a good, short life then a long, bad (sorry my vocabulary is so limited) life.

“Do not pity the dead Harry.  Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.” 
“It’s the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” – Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore                                                                                                                                                 
These two quotes written by J.K Rowling kept on jumping into my head when I was reading the aftermath of Augustus’ death, so I thought I might include them somewhere. J