December 2020 Reading Challenge: The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Title:  The Fault in our Stars
Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Books
Page Count: 313
Publication Date: 2012
Category/Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Coming of Age
Good Reads Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.20)
My Rating: ★★★★☆(4.0)

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.

I rounded out my 2020 Reading Challenge in December with John Green’s book “The Fault in our Stars” since the prompt was a book about or by a serious or terminal medical condition.

At age twenty-two, John Green worked as a student chaplain in a children’s hospital. He really gained so much insight through his experience being around children with cancer and I’m here to tell you that he captured life and death and the devastating reality in such a beautiful, raw and heartbreaking manner.

“You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.”

This is about life, death, illness, love, heroism, and how a sixteen-year-old is supposed to deal with the fact that she will die and leave everyone she loves behind. Wise beyond their years, Hazel and Augustus have experienced an entirely different life and are facing circumstances drastically different than my own. And Green still made it personal and ripped my heart out.

“Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but a Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile.”

Beautifully written this book is full of sadness and of life and reminds us all to live and love each day we can.