By Morgan Hatfield

The Fault In our Stars is a very interesting and fantastic book to read. Its story is very motivational and has important connections to real life events. A lot of people can connect with this book and have interests in reading it.  A connection many people can have with this book is that there is a tragic love story.  Who wouldn’t want to read a book about love? Love is a very catchy topic for teenagers and can draw any teenager in.  This book is meaningful because it can help bring awareness to teenagers who have cancer and are struggling with the idea of being sick.  This book can help cancer patients that there is more to life than them just being sick.  This book gives an insight to many teenagers and young adults that life is short, and it is important to cherish every moment you have.  Personally when I was reading this book I felt like I realized that I wanted so much more out of life and continued to see that my time with certain individuals isn’t always unlimited and that one day you might not get the chance to see a specific person again. 

The Fault In our Stars is a book about a young teenage girl named Hazel Grace who gets diagnosed with cancer. Hazel has thyroid cancer that soon spreads into her lungs. Hazel has to carry around a breathing tank, and is very embarrassed by it.  Hazel develops depression due to her not being able to cope with her having cancer. Hazel is scared and is having a hard time dealing with her feelings towards having cancer.  “Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death” (Green9).   Hazel struggles with finding a meaning of her life, enjoying it and living in the moment. Hazel eventually starts going to support weekly to improve her mental health.  Hazel’s mom wanted her to open up to people who also have cancer about how she is feeling.  Hazel meets a guy named Augustus Waters who attends these support groups because he had cancer as well, he has bone cancer called osteosarcoma.  Augustus was very positive about the problems and outcomes of his cancer; Augustus wants to help Hazel find a purpose for her life and helps her realize there is more to her life than just a girl that is sick. Hazel soon begins to fall in love with Augustus, they begin to enjoy their life together. Augustus has remission of his bone cancer and becomes really sick.  Augustus gets his leg amputated; he is struggling with this very much.   One sad morning Hazel gets terrible news that Augustus has passed away due to his cancer spreading very fast.  Hazel is very distraught hearing this news and is at a loss of words.  Hazel struggles for a while with the love of her life being gone but she soon begins to notice that she is so thankful she got to know Augustus.  Hazel will begin to continue using her knowledge on life that he has taught her and continue to live her best life and live in every single moment.  Hazel soon realizes that one day this is going to happen to her, and she wants to love her friends and family until she can’t anymore. Hazel learns a lot from her struggles and problems during her process.  The central problem in the Fault In our Stars is that cancer is taking away from their love.  Cancer is the overall main problem in this story.  Many of these characters had to overcome cancer and most of their problems revolved around them being sick. 

An important part of the story that is connected to the central problem of the story is when Hazel begins to reconcile with her struggles with her cancer and the possibility of her dying young.  Hazel begins to be okay with the idea that she has cancer that one day it is going to kill her.  Hazel has been depressed all throughout the story and has struggles with getting out of her bed and doing something fun.  Hazel soon gets out of this and begins to think more positively about things.  I think this connects very well because it helps the problem lessen and become less of a worry for her and her family.  Hazel just wants to love her family and friends; also she wants to have them by her side through all of her obstacles throughout her journey.  This part of the story connects to the theme of the story well.  There are many themes in this story, but the one that connects best is the theme of Life and Death.  This theme is confronting the issue of people dying on a daily basis. 

In this book the narration is written in the 1st person. In the point of view of the main character, Hazel Grace Lancaster. Hazel is considered to be a dramatized narrator.  This is very important and helps this novel stay intimate and keep the readers close to the narrator as possible.  The author uses this narration to light up the central problem by having the main character explain her story and problems firsthand.  This is a good way to get into Hazel’s thoughts and get a better understanding of how she is feeling throughout the story and through each event.  This helps the readers get more involved with Hazels problems and truly understand how bad the character is actually struggling.  The best way to connect with the characters is through their thoughts and words. In the story, “Types of Narration” Booth mentions that,  “first or the third person will tell us nothing of importance unless we become more precise and describe how the particular qualities of the narrators relate to specific effects” (Booth150). He is saying that when a story is written in first person, some readers will be able relate to the ideas they are saying. This causes more effects positively for 1st person, than if the reader isn’t able to connect to the narrator. If readers are able to relate more with the story teller they will more likely be more into the book and have a stronger connection to it. Meanwhile since this book is written in first person we are able to see the main character’s commentary on certain scenes and major events. This is a good way to see how these main characters react or think in certain situations. This book is mostly aimed at young children to help them realise many different things about life and make sure they are understanding concepts of living their best life. The central problem in this story can connect to many real-life events.  The main problem in the world is death. Many people die every day due to many different causes, cancer being one of the most common reasons for death.  In this story one of the characters dies due to cancer.  This story brings awareness to the concerns for death and depression. 

The book Fault In our Stars has many meaningful life skills and concepts you can learn from. The first concept to learn from is, don’t pretend you’re okay.  It is important for people to realize they cannot bottle up their emotions and attempt to deal with your problem all on your own.  In this book it displays that Hazel has a huge support system and has many people she can help and guide her.  In this story Hazel begins to be to herself and hides her struggles to continue to protect the people around her.  Throughout the stories Hazel begins to realize she is allowed to not be okay. The second thing these readers can learn from in this reading is the idea of learning from others.  This world consists of many caring individuals that help guide your life and your decisions.  In this story Augustus shows this idea by teaching Hazel many things about life.  Lastly another thing you can learn from this book is that nothing determines who you are as a person.  This book displays this by showing that these characters have more to their life than just an illness. This book consists of major life problems and it shows how you can overcome them.  I highly recommend reading this book, it is a very interesting book and you will stay involved and connected to the book the entire time.