The Faults in Our Stars

I will admit I was extremely excited to see this book on our reading list. I did not get a chance to read this book before the movie came out last year and I was disappointed that I never got around to reading it until now.

The Faults in Our Stars follows Hazel Lancster a teen suffering through lung cancer with a mother who pushes her to therapy groups with other kids who have or have had cancer. There she meets Gus as well as his best friend, Isaac, who also have cancer. Hazel and Gus, unsurprisingly, fall in love and are able to stand by each other through the ups and downs of hospital visits and Make-A-Wish trips. I won’t ruin the ending for those of you who haven’t read it but this book is a delightfully warm page-turner in a topic that usually isn’t so warm.

The story is told through the eyes of Hazel and we see first hand her account of her cancer. It digs into the pain and struggles she has on a daily basis just to get out of bed. She carries around her oxygen tank everywhere and constantly on a cannula.

This book has been made into a major motion picture and I would use it to compare and contrast between it and the book. I felt that the book was much more raw and allowed us to really feel the emotions while the movie glazed over these portions so that we could have the love story be the real center of attention. The story of Gus and Hazel is major in the book but I felt as if Hazel’s sickness was much more severe in the novel. I wish it could have come to life more in the movie so that we could actually sympathize more with it.

This book reveals true friendships and allows for readers to be there as multiple people suffer from cancerous diseases. Not often to children of this age get to see it first hand. Most of the time they are sheltered from it because of their age and I feel that forces them to struggle with the reality if/when it ever comes later in life. With that being said I wouldn’t use this novel lower than a sixth or seventh grade level because it does contain a little sexual content. I would also bring to light the reasoning for the title. It gets into it a little in the book but not enough, I felt. Shakespeare was the basis of the modern romance and forbidden love. John Green gives credit to him with this title but I feel like the students need to understand why this quote from his play and his work has affected so many authors today.