There is nothing quite like the experience of reading a novel so enthralling that it propels you to stay up all night furiously flipping through its pages, preoccupies you throughout the school day and motivates you to rush back to your dorm room and neglect your homework until you have devoured every last word. John Green's latest novel "The Fault in Our Stars" possesses this power.
Released on Jan. 10 by Dutton Books, "The Fault in Our Stars" is the fourth novel by Green, the famed author of young adult novels such as "Paper Towns," "Looking For Alaska" and "An Abundance of Katherines." Green has become a phenomena among dorky kids worldwide as a YouTube video blogging sensation.
Although geared toward young adults and full of a hearty dose of teenage angst, Green's books engage readers far past their prepubescence. Green often infuses descriptions of his Hoosier hometown into his novels. Green's characters are typically awkward teenagers who navigate the physical insecurities and romantic entanglements of adolescence, but they are also profoundly unique and engaging human beings. For example, Green's past books have featured characters such as a boy who has dated 19 girls all named Katherine, as well as a boarding school student fascinated with the last words of famous people.
"The Fault in Our Stars" possesses many of the hallmarks of Green's earlier tales of teenage strife. Typifying his trademark inclusion of angst, the first lines of the novel's protagonist Hazel read, "Late in the winter of my 17th year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time thinking about death."
Although readers are first led to believe that the book will chronicle the emotional angst of a breakup or academic misstep, Hazel's next lines, which read, "Whenever you read a cancer booklet ... they always list depression among the side effects," force readers into realizing that Green's latest novel actually delves into a much darker theme than his earlier narratives. Readers quickly learn that Hazel is afflicted with late-stage thyroid cancer and is always hooked up to an oxygen tank to prevent her lungs from filling with fluid.
Although "The Fault in Our Stars" is set in the tragic context of the lives of cancer-stricken teenagers, Green's novel is not primarily a somber cancer narrative. Although the main characters Hazel, her love interest Augustus and his best friend Isaac are all victims of illness, they cope with their conditions using sarcasm that is typical of a Green novel.
Their support group, for example, takes place in the basement of an Episcopal church in Indianapolis, which Hazel and her friends refer to as "The Literal Heart of Jesus." Hazel, who calls herself a "professional sick person," says her cancer has formed "an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in [her] lungs."
The story soon becomes, first and foremost, a love story. At the beginning of the novel, Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a fellow teenage cancer survivor and amputee who calls his prosthetic leg "old Prosty." Augustus quickly woos Hazel with his smooth conversational skills and intelligent insights. Green masterfully interweaves this love story into the tragic story of cancer so well that one occasionally forgets that the protagonists are anything but average teenagers obsessed with thoughts of love, sex and pop culture.
An adventure story constitutes the main plot trajectory of "The Fault in Our Stars." Hazel and Augustus travel to Amsterdam to seek out the author of Hazel's favorite book, "An Imperial Affliction," which she has read dozens of times. Although her literary idol, Peter van Houten, turns out to be a drunken, over-intellectual snob, the travels of Hazel and Augustus shape their relationship and shed light on their identities as not only cancer survivors but also as people.
"The Fault in Our Stars" will not only prompt one to eagerly consume hundreds of pages at a time, but it is also a novel that may bring readers to tears. John Green has the power to interweave young adult angst, dry humor, adventure and tragedy into a story that is at once heart-breaking and heartwarming.
