Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

After being a bit disappointed with John Green's Paper Towns because of the distractions of language and teens behaving badly, I am glad I still picked up this other bestselling work by Green, The Fault in Our Stars. It was a very good book. Even though it was sad and some people might have great difficulty reading it (if anyone close to you has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer), it was a wonderful read.

I think Green did a marvelous job of developing the characters and creating genuine dialogue. The characters pulled you into the story directly. I loved the first page. It was magnificent:

"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.

"Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying."

From the very start, we are pulled into Hazel's world and forced to face the difficult challenges she is facing. We also get to enjoy the interesting relationship developing between Hazel and one hot guy named Augustus Waters. The experience is a whirlwind of romance and despair and trying to balance between hope and the inevitable path toward death.

I don't even want to write more about what the story is about because it is just one you have to observe unfolding on your own. This book deserves its spot on the New York Times bestseller list!