“The Fault In Our Stars”

I finally was able to read John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars.”  Every time I looked for it on our YA shelves, it was out.  I finally got it through ILL.  Since it is still on the NYT’s Best Seller List, week number 45, I ordered a second copy for our collection.

“The Fault In Our Stars” is as real as realistic fiction gets.  The three main characters all have cancer.  Isaac, Hazel Grace, and Augustus meet at a support group for young cancer victims.  These sixteen-year olds all have lost young friends to this disease.  Each is suffering–Isaac will lose his eyesight, Hazel Grace can’t breathe on her own, and Augustus has lost a leg.  To counterbalance their illnesses, they develop personalities that are smart and funny.

Set in Indianapolis, with a side trip to Amsterdam, “The Fault In Our Stars” is a story about three teenagers who as Augustus believes “… all want to leave our mark; most leave scars.”  The kids are stoic; the parents are emotional wrecks.  Beyond the tragic circumstances of the plot, teen readers would probably really like these characters who are much more than their disease.  Funny, romantic, and, of course, tragic this is a novel that teens will be reading for many years to come.