! YA Heroines ! discussion

The Fault in Our Stars is about Hazel Grace (living with the damages stage IV thyroid), Augustus Waters (in remission for osteosarcoma), and their epic love story, as well as their cancer struggles and quest for answers.

Here are my thoughts (I’ll keep them as brief as I can for now):

This is a pretty quick read, yet it is packed with so much content and feeling (and laughs). If this isn’t considered a tearjerker novel, then I don’t know what is. I’ve read this twice in a year, and even though I knew exactly what was going to happen, certain parts still got to me.

There is something about contemporary novels that I just love: they are so realistic and so relatable. This book shows us what cancer can do to people’s lives. It can ruin them, it can drive people away, it can bring people closer together. It also shows that cancer doesn’t have to ruin people’s possibility to find love. The book is so relatable because anyone can be diagnosed with cancer, and anyone’s life can be touched by it.

There’s one more thing I would like to add: The ending was just so right. (view spoiler)[ Hazel spent years searching and waiting for a sequel of any kind to An Imperial Affliction, but she never truly got it. She did find out the truth about the book, but it wasn’t a sequel. I just love it that those last few pages from Augustus were her eulogy. It was a much more meaningful gift than a made up sequel to a book that a sad, drunk man wrote. (hide spoiler)]

So what are your thoughts on this book?

TFIOS broke my heart. Yet, it was so very inspirational. I did not find it to be a quick read but, I could not put it down. Definitely a tear-jerker and a book worthy of multiple readings. I was completely blown away and humbled by the complex and very real issues John Green addressed in TFIOS. I laughed, cried and was emotionally exhausted by the end. I immediately put TFIOS on my favorites shelf when I was finished it.

I agree. It left me emotionally exhausted by the end, and its also in my favorites folder. :)

Just as a clarification, what I mean by "quick read" is that it didn't take me long to read. That term might mean something different to other people, but I'm not sure.

*Claps* Wow, you sound better than I do!
Anyways I can't wait to read TFIOS!

Okay, here they are . . .

You'll need to be prepared to cry a little . . . or maybe a lot.

My friend, who doesn't read very much, was reading this a few weeks ago and took every moment to read it while at school (at breaks, at the pep assembly, in class). I bumped into her after school the day she finished, and she told me she had just finished the book and started crying in class. So, yeah, this book can really reach out and squeeze people's hearts to the point of tears even when they're in public.

John Green is the BEST!

So, to the people who read TFIOS: what is your favorite scene or parts of the book? What are some of your favorite quotes?

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

-“My thought are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.”

-“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

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

-“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.”

-“LOOK!” he half shouted, pointing at the window.
“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, I see it. It looks like we’re in an airplane.”
“NOTHING HAS EVER LOOKED LIKE THAT EVER IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY,” he said. His enthusiasm was adorable. I couldn’t resist leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.
“Just so you know, I’m right here,” Mom said. “Sitting next to you. Your mother. Who held your hand as you took your first infantile steps.”

-“Headline?” he asked.
“‘Swing Set Needs Home,‘“I said.
“‘Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home,’” he said.
“‘Lonely, Vaguely Pedophilic Swing Set Seeks the Butts of Children,’” I said.
He laughed. “That’s why.”
“What?”
“That’s why I like you. Do you realize how rare it is to come across a hot girl who creates an adjectival version of the word pedophile? You are being so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are.”

-“We are literally in the heart of Jesus,” he said. “I thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus.”
“Someone should tell Jesus,” I said. “I mean, it’s gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart.”
“I would tell Him myself,” Augustus said, “but unfortunately I am literally stuck inside of His heart, so He won’t be able to hear me.”

'course it won't I have that much faith in TFIOS!

So, to those of you who just finished the book: what did you think?

I love the dialogue. You can get lost in the banter. Most book now-a-days cut out the dialogue, but it really gives the characters life.
I love the two of them. Gus & Hazel.
And I love how Hazel calls him both Gus and Augustus, depending on if they're joking vs serious.

THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. But I have 100 pages still to read. Lol, I almost wish it would never end.

And, I hope that this book actually stops mid-sentance like in Peter Van Housten's book.

I remember hoping for that when I first read it. The ending is awesome (as said in the first post) and I hope you like it. :)

Awe man. I guess somewhere deep down, I knew it wouldn't end like AIA... Unfinished books have a certain disregard and unprofessional slant to them. I don't think John Green could ever torture us avid Green readers like that too.
But Van Houten was the perfect 'author' archetype that would leave the end completely open. And I guess, in a way, Green will leave the end open. He talks about how a real life would just end. You wouldn't know what happened to anyone after you're gone. And a true first perspective is like that.
(view spoiler)[I picked up about 90 pages in that Hazels need to find out the ending was a mirror of her life's questions. That kind of got me when I realized it. Almost teared up, lol. (hide spoiler)]

And did anyone else try and find An Imperial Affliction? I felt so stupid when I realized Van Houten wasn't real.
But, at least there is a Peter Van Houten-- he's a yogi. I'm sure he should thank Green for the advertisement.

Haha, I looked up ALA too!

I would really love to read the story. I kind of wish that John Green would publish it under the pen of Van Houten.

I love the banter in TFIOS. I laugh every time.

That's what so great about John Green. He's able write about a serious topic like cancer and maintain a comical air in some places and an emotional one in the next scene.

I stray towards sad contemporary, or ones with serious or controversial topics. I don't know, I'm odd like that.

But TFIOS is a book anyone can get into and enjoy, even if they don't read contemporary very often.

I was looking for a great piece of fan art that goes well with TFIOS and here's what I found:

Jenny wrote: "Lol. It is so hilarious. People would think that a cancer book would be sad."

John Green said himself....
"You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice."

@Kaitlin
That's so beautiful. They are awesome.

#Anne Frank House.

I've read The Fault in our Stars last january. It is the first John Green book I've read and he became my favorite author since then. Now, I've read Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and Abundance of Katherines but I think TFIOS is the best among them.

It's different from other tear-jerker-books-with-a-diseased-heroine i've read like A Walk to Remember and My Sister's Keeper because it's really funny and the romance is...like...*sigh*

TFIOS is fuuny but sad. Amazing but heart wrenchingly horrible. It's reality but also fantasy. To put it simply it is AWESOME.

I just read that amazing fanfic. It's TFIOS from issacs point of view. It was real and funny and honestly sounded like John green. It even made me cry. Go check it out on fanfic.net an just look up the fault in our stars. I think it's the first result.

My favorite scene was Gus' pretty funeral and when Isaac egged his ex's car.

Ha! Loved those scenes!