Hazel Grace Lancaster has terminal thyroid cancer. She knows it's not *if* she dies, it's when. The cancer has metastasized in her lungs. She's lived with this disease since she was 13, fighting for each breath. All of her treatment has been to extend her life, not cure her cancer.
Luckily Hazel got into an experimental trial. The drug didn't work in about 70% of people, but it worked in Hazel. The tumors shrank.
In the past eighteen months, my mets have hardly grown, leaving me with lungs that suck at being lungs but could, conceivably, struggle along indefinitely with the assistance of drizzled oxygen and daily Phalanxifor.
Hazel hasn't been to a regular school in three years. Her parents and author Peter Van Houten are her three best friends.
I'd learned this from my aforementioned third best friend, Peter Van Houten, the reclusive author of An Imperial Affliction, the book that was a close a thing as I had to a Bible. Peter Van Houten was the only person I'd ever come across who seemed to (a) understand what it's like to be dying, and (b) not have died.
To deal with her depression, Hazel is sent to a support group with teens who have cancer. They meet in the basement of a church. She meets 17-year old Isaac who has to have his one good eye removed and will be blind in a couple of weeks. She also meets 17-year old Augustus Waters who has osteosarcoma; one of his legs had to be amputated. He's been NEC (No Evidence of Cancer) for 14 months.
After the meeting Augustus invites Hazel to come to his house to watch a movie. As she waits for her mom to pick her up, Hazel notices Augustus putting a cigarette between his lips. Hazel is disgusted.
"They don't kill you unless you light them," he said as Mom arrived at the curb. "And I've never lit one. It's a metaphor, see. You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing."
Hazel and Augustus begin spending time together.
Hazel has written letters to author Peter Van Houton for years, always to be unanswered. Augustus finds a way to contact the reclusive author and receives a reply. He learns that Van Houton will answer Hazel's questions if she comes to Amsterdam to meet with him. Hazel already spent her Wish the Genies gave her. Augustus knows what he wants to do.
"Ah," he said. And then, after what felt like a practiced pause, he added, "But I saved mine."
Hazel is so sick a trip to Amsterdam may be out of the question. And she begins to worry about what will happen to Augustus when she dies. She begins to pull away from Augustus.
"I'm like. Like. I'm like a grenade, Mom and at some point I'm going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?"
"I just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there's nothing I can do about hurting you; you're too invested, so just please let me do that, okay? I'm not depressed. I don't need to get out more. And I can't be a regular teenager, because I'm a grenade."
The Fault in our Stars is an amazing read. Even though Hazel and Augustus don't have a lot of time together, their relationship is incredible. Funny, sad, smart, I loved this read. As Augustus himself said,
"It is a good life, Hazel Grace."
Rating: 10 out of 10 stars
*language, drugs, sexual inference, issues of death
To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!
