Hazel-Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters are two young star-crossed lovers who have met by chance through a support group. They have a love story like no other even though it has been numbered. Hazel is a cynical girl who has cancer and could die at any moment and that there is no point to life and that she will die soon. We have Augustus, the ever so optimistic and full of life handsome young man. There is one thing which he says which describes him in a nutshell. ‘I intend to live an extraordinary life’.

 

These two individuals are very different but are brought together by a book which gives Hazel a lot of meaning in her life. We are told that the book is about cancer, which seems like an odd book because it just feels like Hazel has given in to her cancer and is so focused on it that it has formed as being part of her whole life. Augustus also gives this book a try with his reservations about it and it turns out that he loves the book. His face lights up when he speaks about the book to Hazel and we see a friendship building up from that.

 

Augustus is full of life and he is living his best life but he also has cancer. It is interesting how this book even though it has cancer and death in it, we are blown away by his excitement of life and what it means to him. Hazel’s journey is given to us from the moment she got cancer to the moment she realises that this is her life now, with the cancer. Augustus does not like to dwell on his illness because that is not him, it has happened to him so it is not part of his being.

 

Augustus is an existentialist and he says and does everything with conviction.  He believes that there is a point to everything otherwise there would not be any point to living. He doesn’t say what he believes in, but he definitely believes in something. Throughout the novel there is a cute little romance which occurs between the two characters and no one wants this relationship to end, because it all looks like a fairy-tale. The realities of cancer are brought to us through both Hazel and Augustus when they both fall ill. Even if this is a book, the feelings and human elements are all real and as painful as it might be to deal with life, it only makes us stronger.

The title of the novel already tells us that there is some bad news for us, either in the form of fate or in our own actions, being faults. The fate in this novel is that these two individuals meet and they both have cancer and they both grow fond of a novel which brings them together. The choices which we see in the book reveal the character`s nature. Hazel is stronger because she has chosen to go beyond what she knows especially when she travelled to Amsterdam with Augustus and her mother.

 

She has decided to go with the boy that she likes and this is all a leap of faith because she does not know what the outcome of this is. She does fear hurting Augustus though because of her illness. She knows that it will hurt Augustus and she says, ‘I want to minimise the casualties’. She has seen the pain her parents go through any time she has to be rushed to the hospital when something is wrong due to the cancer. But is means so much to her that Augustus loves her deeply even though she has cancer and does not let her cancer become part of her identity.

 

The movie version of this book is great and the characters played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, two really good actors who make us feel their love, pain and be excited and intrigued by the choices and meanings in their lives. The screenplay is great but, for all book lovers out there, you will know that the movie version of a book never serves the book justice. I know that some people have watch the movie version of this book and maybe do not wish to read the book. But it is so much more satisfying to read the book because there is more to feel because you do not need to see something in order to feel it, you will just know. Also, there is more detail and description in books.

 

I strongly recommend this book, it is a beautiful read. It teaches us that no matter our circumstances are, our days on earth are numbered and we must make the most and best of the choices and destinies which we have been given.