When I read the synopsis of The Fault In Our Stars, I immediately thought of my friend, Kelly, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at a young age.  So, after bugging her about reading it, she kindly agreed to write a guest review for my blog.  I was interested to hear her opinion since she has a unique perspective on the book’s subject matter.

Taken from a Shakespearean sonnet, the title fits this endearing young adult novel about two star-crossed lovers (who know they are star-crossed) struggling with love and relationships in the face of mortality. 

Now, this reviewer must provide a disclaimer: I am a young adult cancer survivor and a lifelong ‘sick person’. And when all of the Internet (five people) told me to read this, I refused. I rejected the idea that I was anything like the main character, Hazel, who is struck with a much deadlier form of the cancer I faced at 21.

And then I met Hazel. Hazel is our lead character, our Juliet. She’s a teenaged cancer patient, with a penchant for poetry and six hour long marathons of America’s Top Model. Not Top Novel. Top Model.

Readers, I fell in love with Hazel. Green makes her so believable that I nearly highlighted the entire book. Hazel is willful, stubborn, funny, and fresh to her parents. She refuses to accept the scope of disease and only focuses on the endpoint–death. She’s obsessed with bad TV and good poetry and is isolated from her friends, who just don’t understand. I must admit, it was like reading a much more clever and wise page of my teenage diary.

Hazel stays on the fringes of society, only interacting with her parents and the members of her support group, which she finds painfully lame. She shares sighs of disdain with Isaac, a fellow member struggling with accepting he will soon be blind, due to a rare type of eye cancer.

Isaac is our catalyst of the story, as the novel truly begins when he schleps along his friend to support group one day. His friend is Augustus Waters, and his friend changes everything. Augustus is a cancer survivor–witty, obsessed with the oblivion that comes with death, and daringly attractive. His interest in Hazel is immediate, and they begin a friendship that defines most of the novel. Their obsession with each other, death and an all-important love of a particular novel are the focus of this story.

It’s not a perfect novel. Augustus will seem too good to be true. Hazel’s wisdom will seem to be a bit of a reach. Some of it is so contrived I rolled my eyes. And frankly, I saw the ending before the first act was up.

A huge thanks to Kelly for this great review!

 My name is Kelly Bergin. I read, write and watch mindless television in Los Angeles. You can find more of my writing at kelly-bergin.com.