"Okay?" "Okay."

 Fault in our Stars by John Green

Hazel Lancaster is dying.  She’s been dying of Thyroid cancer, which has now moved to her lungs since she was thirteen.  To fight depression (which is quoted to be a side effect to dying) her mom is requiring her to go to Support Group every week.  She loathes support group, where the leader Patrick talks about his experience with testicular cancer every meeting and that they meet in the basement of a cross shaped church in the “actual heart of Jesus.”  Her only reprieve is Isaac who has eye cancer and has one false eye and one real eye that he has to wear glasses for.  They can communicate through sighs.  Of course all of her life changes when she meets Augustus Waters. 

This story is heartbreaking and amazing at the same time.  I loved the characters, I loved that this book is a book about a book.  The journey that Hazel and Augustus go on together is wonderful.  The characters are well developed and no matter what is going on with Hazel even if the audience has experienced nothing even close to the horrors she went through on a daily basis, the audience felt them with her. 

Even though I am no longer in Olive Books Book Club, this was a book club pick by Lydia (I think).  And with most of her picks, I loved it.  It was a fast read with a heartwarming yet heartbreaking story.  I would recommend it to any reader of most ages.

Well it wouldn’t be a blog of my opinions if I didn’t mention at least one complaint.  It happens to be my only complaint.  The language between Hazel and Augustus was a bit farfetched.  They not only spoke like they had their PhDs in English, they spoke way above their education.  I could have understood that they were smart kids without feeling like a dummy myself every time they had a conversation.  I should have looked up words at least 20 times, of course I didn’t because I’m lazy. 

All of that to say, I had many quotes that I highlighted because Green said some things in this book that are worth remembering.  I will leave you with a few of my favorites.  Keep Reading my Friends!

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.  And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.” Hazel’s thoughts

“The only solution was to try and unmake the world, to make it black and silent and uninhabited again, to return to the moment before the Big Bang, in the beginning when there was the Word, and to live in that vacuous uncreated space alone with the Word.” Hazel’s thoughts

“It seemed like forever ago, like we’d had this brief but still infinite forever.  Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” Hazel’s thoughts

“That’s the thing about pain.  It demands to be felt.” Augustus

“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things.  I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” Augustus

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind, Hazel Grace.  It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.” Augustus