The Faults In Our Stars I John Green

I promised in my last This Week In Numbers (*here) that I would post a review of John Green's book, The Fault In Our Stars, once I had finished reading it. So here it is:

My friend was the first to recommend this book to me. I had heard the title popping out here and there but I had not pay much attention to it until she began talking about it and telling me that 'I HAD TO READ IT!'. Once I had finally gotten my hands on it, I got to work reading:

'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'

 I didn't really know what to expect after reading the blurb- possibly a really depressing book all about death and that I would be crying over at every page. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of the story was focused on life, being very much alive and also about how love can change everything, not just Hazel and Augustus's love for each other but also their love for the simple things in life like books, video games and their family.

John Green is a very intelligent man. He speaks about Cancer in such a beautiful, almost poetic way that what was once, for me, a word which was as good as handing a person their gravestone and a shovel, into something that doesn't seen so scary any more.

Even though it is purely fictional some of the ideas are of course real. It gives us an insight into the minds of not only the sufferer of the illness but also their friends, their family and even the people they see on the street.

Although I did find that the plot in the middle section of the book become very labored and boring as I counted several chapters in which the characters were doing nothing of much interest, I liked that it highlighted one of Green's metaphors for how he detests people who rush through life doing daring, adventurous things and never sitting down to just reflect on life. Just like how Hazel's name is a metaphor for how she is always hanging in the middle, stuck between life and death, health and sickness because the colour hazel is neither brown or black!

Now we just have to wait for the film! 

Love Beth xx