Book Recap: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Cover Inspection:
It doesn't matter what the cover looks like.
This book is fantastic everyone should read it!

SUMMARY (book description based on GoodReads):

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

BOOK REPORT CARD:

Cover	3.0
Plot	4.0
Writing	4.0
Characters	4.0
Ending	4.0
Overall Rating	4.0 Excellent (97% to 100%) * highest rating possible is 4.0

LOCATION/SETTING:
Modern day Indianapolis.

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Hazel and Gus. Two teenagers who are diagnosed with Cancer. Hazel is attached to an oxygen tank to help her breathe. She loves reading, is currently enrolled at a community college, and tried to live a normal life as much as possible. Gus, that gorgeous one legged, former varsity basketball player. He's hot, and he knows he's hot. He's a flirt. He is a cigarette holding non-smoker who loves metaphors. He loves philosophizing about life (and death).

WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT:
Hazel is a miracle kid - diagnosed with stage 4 Cancer, but the for some reason experimental Cancer treatments worked on her. Then she meets Gus, also diagnosed with Cancer, but is in remission. This is their story - an adventure of how they stopped dying and started living despite life's imperfections.

LOVE:
What did I love about this book? Everything. I loved that this book made me an emotional wreck. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I smiled. I also love John Green's witty humor. It never even occurred to me that one can have "half birthdays." Only John Green would think of something like that. I also love how adverbs and adjectives were used in this book. Green described things like this:

Aggressively orange tulips. 

Note that the adverb "aggressively" is italicized, showing the reader just how unbelievably orange that tulip is! And the characters... I loved every character in this book, but it's Gus that wowed me the most. I couldn't stop thinking about Gus for days! He's just the sweetest, most talkative, most gorgeous one legged boy in the fictional world. I especially loved the message (at least the one that I got from the story) of the story: seize the day. Life is too short, and that people shouldn't stop living just because they're dying.

NO LOVE:
I was a complete mess after reading this book. The side effects of reading this book? Ruined make up, cloudy contact lenses, and all. Oh, and Cancer. This book made me HATE Cancer with a passion!

FAVORITE CHARACTER:
Augustus Waters, naturally! I have an Augustus Waters fetish! He's charming and lovable. He's the most ALIVE character I have ever read. I love his love for metaphors and unlit cigarettes. Oh! And I also love how he declared his love for Hazel. It's ornate and flowery, yet direct to the point:

“I’m in love with you,” he said quietly.
“Augustus,” I said.
“I am,” he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”

FAVORITE LINE:

...I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

MUSINGS:
The book has plenty of insights about life and death. It pops every now and then in the book. It will make you wonder about the beauty of sickness and imperfection. While the book is about Cancer, dying, and death, it really isn't morbid at all. And this is due to Gus' childlike enthusiasm about life. It's adorable. This book will make you laugh and cry. The last hundred pages will make you cry harder so have some Kleenex on hand. It will leave you breathless and smiling and thinking just how beautiful life can be.

DOODLES:

AUTHOR'S WEBSITE:
John Green

SIMILAR READS:
This book is unlike any other. I don't want to compare! It's up, up there, and it wouldn't be fair! (0_o)

CONTENT REVIEW:
profanity: mild - moderate
violence: none
sexual content: moderate
mature themes: moderate
age recommendation: 13+