The Fault in Our Stars
“Good friends are hard to find and impossible to forget.”
This sentence is like a thread in the novel. It is joy and pain at the same time. This is what Hazel Grace, a sixteen-years old girl who suffers from cancer1, learns in “The Fault in Our Stars”, written by John Green. The story is told from Hazel´s point of view.
Hazel, the main protagonist, has got a monotone, unspectacular life in the USA and hides herself behind books. Until she gets to know Augustus. Augustus, called “Gus”, is an ironical and interesting seventeen-years old boy, who has got vitality2 and likes metaphors. They get to know each other in a Support Group, where kids who have got cancer can talk about their feelings and get support. Hazel is a member of the group because her mother is thinking she is a little depressed although Hazel is not. Hazel and Gus become friends quickly. They find a soulmate3, a good dialogue partner and their big love in each other.
Hazel enjoys the time with him. They discuss a lot, especially about her favourite book An Imperial Affliction and share their thoughts about death. An Imperial Affliction deals with a girl who has got cancer, too but does not want to waste the rest of her life in a hospital so she fights against it. The book has an open end and stops in the middle of a sentence and the reader does not find out what happens to the girl, her mother and all the other characters. Hazel has written many letters to Peter van Houten, the author of the book, because she really wants to know what happened to them, but he has never responded. Augustus finds out the email address of van Houten´s assistant and they get in contact to each other. Long story short: Gus and Hazel have to fly to Amsterdam, where van Houten is living, to get their answers. But in Amsterdam they find a surprise…
Although Hazel and Augustus love each other Hazel refuses to believe that because she feels like a grenade: Due to her cancer she will not have a long life and does not want to hurt people with her
death. Does her heart defeat4 her mind? And there is another truth, both have to fight with…
I loved reading the book. I laughed, I cried and I really enjoyed it. This book connects the biggest joy and the biggest pain: true love and death. It shows you how difficult life can be but nevertheless you should never give up and always believe in something good in your life. It encourages you to live your life as best as you can.
I recommend the book for everyone from 13 years old (in English or German). If you read it in English, you will not understand everything because the language is partly a little pretentious but you will understand the plot and that is the main thing. It is a classic everyone should have read because it encourages you to think about the life and expands5 your horizon.