The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 

Publisher’s summary: 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.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

My take: Oh! Em! Gee!!! I blew through this book! It was a very quick read and it was amazing! So this is my first dive into YA contemporary, and I’m so unbelievably happy that I picked The Fault in Our Stars to be my first in this genre because it was freakin’ awesome!

So, first of all, I read The Fault in Our Stars in audio. But I was so caught up in the story that for the last few hours I listened to the book, I also followed along in my signed hardcover (thanks to Kristina.) The audio was fabulous, and the audio reader really did this book justice!!!

The one thing I have to say for sure is that I was a major hot mess while reading this dang book. I was like full on ugly crying for the last TWO HOURS of reading this freakin’ book. Yep, I was sobbing so much that I had to blow my nose more than a few times. I actually had to have a full roll of toilet paper sitting with me on my bed, and I even had to use an empty box next to my bed as a trash can. Yeah, there were a few moments where I was only just tearing up a little, but once I got to this one particular, DANG part, I was full on sobbing! And then I just couldn’t stop! It was bad! Like really, Really, REALLY bad. And, then, even when there were really funny parts in the book after that (and there were a LOT of funny parts!) I would be laughing while I was STILL crying. Thank goodness that no one was watching! I can honestly say that I’ve never been that emotional over a book before. I think the only movie/book I’ve ever cried that hard over is the movie A Beautiful Mind, but that’s only because the story to A Beautiful Mind hits me really close to home.

In fact, The Fault in Our Stars made such an emotional impact on me that, at one point (when I was feeling awful over the realization that Grace wouldn’t be a qualified candidate to receive a lung transplant because she was too sick), I thought that when I die I want to make sure I donate my lungs ONLY to someone who’s too sick to be a transplant candidate!

I need to confess my love, heart and soul to Augustus Waters! I’m not a poem writer or even a poem reader, but he makes me want to write poetry dedicated only to him! I love you Augustus Waters. LOL!

I guess I should talk about all the other awesome characters, other than Augustus Waters. I love Hazel Grace Lancaster as well! Reading from the first-person POV of Hazel was perfect! Her thought process kept the story extremely entertaining. And another one of my fave characters is, of course, Isaac. He adds just the right touch to the story. All of the characters in this book were very well developed…to the point where, even if we got to see a character only briefly, their character was very vividly developed in my mind.

This is a book I would highly recommend to anyone, but make sure you keep more than a few tissues handy.