Review Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

“The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green has become a renowned love story in its own right. The main character Hazel Grace Lancaster, who is living with thyroid cancer, finds the love of her life in a 17 year-old boy named Augustus Waters. It is a remarkable story of trying to find happiness in a world “that is not a wish-granting factory”.

Although their love story is a beautiful one, it is not the only aspect of the book that should be taken into account.

Throughout the book the characters show a very different perspective towards life.

Waters, a survivor of osteosarcoma, declares he fears oblivion. Lancaster in her ultimate wisdom quotes one of her favorite authors and puts his fears to rest declaring oblivion is inevitable. Instead of feeling despair, Waters gets past his fear and moves on to the next chapter of his life.

Lancaster on the other hand, worries about the pain others will feel upon losing her. Her father works to pay off her medical bills and her mother is a stay home parent.

She recognizes she is her parent’s world and that everything they do is for her well-being, even though they know they will not out live Lancaster. She also understands that marriages in which a couple has lost a child, are not likely to survive and fears her parents’ marriage will be cast adrift after she is gone. She worries about the pain her friends and family will feel at the aftermath of her passing.

While everyone else worries about the price of gasoline and what color to paint their living room, Waters felt distressed about being forgotten.

Lancaster, like many other characters in the book, accepts her fate.

Most people can run across their lawn if they chose to do so. Lancaster could not and had she attempted to do so, she would have run out of breath even with her oxygen tank beside her.

Instead she focuses on the pain others feel because there is nothing she could do about her own.

“The Fault in Our Stars” is a reminder of the many things most people take for granted.

The book can best be described in the great words of novelist Charles Bukowski, “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way”.

You can purchase the book at Barnes & Noble and also watch the film adaption on DVD.

Theatrical trailer courtesy of 20th Century Fox via YouTube.