[REVIEW] The Fault in Our Stars

"What am I at war with? My cancer. And what is my cancer? My cancer is me. The tumors are made of me. They're made of me as surely as my brain and my heart are made of me. It is a civil war with a predetermined winner." (page 216)

Title: The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green

Publisher: Dutton Books

Publication Date: 2012

Pages: 313

ISBN: 978-0-525-42600-4

I rate it 5/5 stars

You might be wondering why do I give it 5 stars when I used to give it a 4. Well, at my first reading for this book, I felt sick and tired because (I'm on broken-heart stage) I was on my holiday-but-not-so-holiday trip. Also my mind was not in this book anymore (honestly I was just thinking about eating and eating and eating and sleeping, yes, unfortunately not the real holiday). That's why I re-read it before I make this review. And yes, this book deserves those stars. Because after I read it for the second time, I want to read this book for the third and fourth and fifth and sixth and multiple times as long as I'm alive!!!

Also, you (maybe) have read some reviews about The Fault in Our Stars and yes, I have to admit that their impression about this book are mostly amazing and their reviews are beautiful or so. I used to think that it might be better if I didn't make this review because there's already a lot of reviews of The Fault in Our Stars (and I apparently have no idea how the review should be). But then I ended up here, so here's my review.

"I'm like a grenade, Mom. I'm a grenade and at some point I'm going to blow up and I would like to minimize casualties." (page 99)

There's a sixteen-years-old girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer which turning her lungs to be the lungs-that-sucked-at-being-lungs. Yes, she is a cancer survival and her parents insisted her to join Support Group with the reason She Deserves A Life. Her life depends on her cannula, oxygen tank, Phalanxifor which keeps her alive for years, and the routine scan for checking her cancer growth.

In the same place called Support Group, a new seventeen-years-old hot boy suddenly appears. He named himself Augustus Waters, but you can simply call him Augustus or Gus (Hazel calls him Augustus, anyway). He had a little touch of osteosarcoma but now his condition is normal enough. Not like Hazel, Augustus' life depends on nothing but fate.

You will soon assure that they were just two people meet somewhere and then fell in love. Yes, because just as same as other stories, two people will love each other. But that's not their fault. Both of them are defined as stars (for me) and it is the nature of stars to cross.

"That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt." (page 63)

There are (so much) reasons why I do love this book (so much). Sorry for saying So Much too much. Please don't worry because So Much never means The Real So Much because if it does, this will be no longer a review but a spoiler. I just feed you with Five So Much, really.

1) The Fault in Our Stars tells story from Hazel's PoV. I love her random and honest thoughts. The way she sees thing is uniquely amazing. And her sense of humor (which makes me laugh so often) that she doesn't even recognized has reinforced me that Hazel always acts just the way she is. All things about Hazel are so original that we often found it in most girl's characters.

2) Augustus Waters, the only boy who really knows How to Hold A Cigarette Than Any Smokers, the boy who loves and be loved a lot. He's not my most favorite character here in this book (Hazel does), but he has all perfection the best guy had. Things that make me love him: he loves reading, he's totally hot and cool at the same time (lol), and he used his Wish for his crush. :')

3) Sweet relationship between Hazel Grace and Augustus, of course. I couldn't agree more with the person who said 'beautiful couple is beautiful' to them in Amsterdam. I think they're not only beautiful. They're beautiful, sweet, amazing, and PERFECT!!!

4) Friendship between Hazel Grace, Augustus, and Isaac. I must say that Isaac is the best friend ever, Augustus is a self-aggrandizing bastard, and Hazel Grace is Just Hazel. Together they've made a perfect trio and I definitely love them. Gonna miss the moment when they played Counterinsurgence together. Gonna miss the Night of the Broken Trophies. And of course, gonna miss the day when they threw eggs toward somebody's car.

5) I like the fact that An Imperial Affliction and The Price of Dawn are their books. I definitely like the word Okay is their Always. I do also love Augustus' metaphor and Hazel Grace's ceci n'est pas une pipe shirt.

I can say that The Fault in Our Stars is a simple book with the mainstream theme called cancer and so. Even so, the marks it left are truly devastating. Not easy to cure the scars left by this beautiful but heart-wrenching book. It's perplexed me why I still want to read this book over and over again. The only thing on my mind is that the story might be existed (so far away from fantasy thing) and I believe it does exist because it's so close with reality.

The Fault in Our Stars teaches us to stay alive and live our best life today before that time comes. Recommended! The great book you don't want to be missed.

"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." (page 153) 

You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she like hers. (page 313)

NB: listed on my 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge