Photo credit: Charlotte Whittington

A girl sits on her bed and reads “The Fault in Our Stars.” The book, written by John Green, follows two teenagers, Hazel Lancaster and Augustus, or Gus, Waters as they navigate a relationship complicated by Hazel’s terminal cancer. Green’s consistent embrace of Hazel’s darker lens of how she sees the world is one of the many elements that made this book excellent.

Everyone who meets me knows that I love to read. My room is covered in books, and I have a bookshelf stacked to the brim. So when I was in a Barnes & Noble — one of my favorite stores — and saw “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, I decided it would be worth trying. My mom had tried to get me to read the novel for years, saying it was one of the few books to make her cry, so I finally caved. Since I’d lost interest in the book once when I was younger, and I’d never cried over a book before, I didn’t believe it would have the same effect on me.

I was wrong.

I underestimated the emotional impact this book would have on me by a long shot. I finished it in three days, and it was the first book to ever make me cry. Green is an excellent writer who puts emotion into every line of dialogue, and now that he is releasing a new book in September, I plan to eagerly wait at my nearest Barnes & Noble to buy it.

“The Fault in Our Stars” follows Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old girl diagnosed with terminal Stage 4 thyroid cancer that spread to her lungs. Due to a (fictional) miracle drug, Phalanxifor, which shrunk her tumors, Hazel has extended her life, but she knows she will eventually die. At a support group for those fighting cancer, Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a boy in remission for osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. The rest of the story follows their growing relationship while Hazel comes to accept that she won’t be around much longer, and she chooses to enjoy the moments she has now.

After finishing the book, what stuck out to me was the emotional tone Green adopts from the beginning while talking about Hazel’s experiences. In an interview, Green said he based the book on his friend, who died at 16. He said that despite the stereotype of disabled people having distinctly different lives because of their conditions, they actually live just like we do.

“We imagine that people with a terminal illness live a fundamentally different life than our own, but they don’t,” Green said. “Their lives are just as complex and meaningful. They have as much life and joy, and anger and frustration — everything we experience.”

Green uses Hazel to embody this statement. People always pity her, yet she still tries to live a normal life. She still wants to do normal things, whether it’s reading or talking to Augustus, and be seen as normal — just like every teenager. When a special opportunity comes up later in the book that would tax her body immensely but achieve one of her greatest dreams, she chooses to go after it.

Green devotedly portrays how Hazel feels about her diagnosis and her life, and embraces the more pessimistic, dark lens through which she views the world. The first-person perspective explores Hazel’s feelings in a poignant way that a third-person narrative never would have. I almost felt like I was Hazel at some points, struggling to breathe through slowly dying lungs as I found true friendship with a boy who had fought his own cancer, his own version of my fight, and won.

Green clearly dedicated a lot of time delving into Hazel’s personality, which shines through in how she spoke to both the reader and other characters and how she sees the world. Her relationship with Augustus is portrayed beautifully, with sensitive dialogue and witty comments every couple of lines. Green’s skill in bringing fictional characters to life through their clear sense of humor makes this book so special.

Lastly, Green’s unique writing style stands out from other authors in this genre. I examine writing styles closely to improve my own writing, and I noticed how he writes the book as though he were a teenager. He uses ”like,” “um” and other filler words a lot, something most authors usually avoid for clarity purposes, but for this book, it works perfectly.

Green also uses other punctuation tools and silence to express how the characters are reflecting and reacting to events within the book. For example, Hazel and Augustus have a picnic in a small park together at the beginning of their friendship. During the picnic, Green includes awkward silences and ellipses during their conversation to highlight their small but growing comfort with each other, something common among teenagers.

Overall, this book was an enjoyable, sentimental read that I will end up rereading over and over again, only to start sobbing every single time.