1.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. Recorded by Kate Rudd.
[Audiobook]. New York: Brilliance Audio,
2014. ISBN 1491510706.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
In many ways, Hazel Grace Lancaster is a typical teenager. She likes pizza and watching trashy television
on the couch. She’s witty and sarcastic,
and occasionally depressive – but she has good reason to be. Hazel has cancer. Facing her reality and dragging herself to
support group where she “communicated in sighs” with her friend Isaac used to
be her normal existence. Then she met
Augustus Waters – who’s wit and sarcasm match her own and challenge her to live
for once – even though she’s dying. Through
health scares and a disappointing but exciting trip to Amsterdam, Hazel and
Augustus find something special in each other and cherishing each moment, even
knowing that “[t]he world is not a wish-granting factory.”
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
From the very first pages of this
book, the reader understands that it might not have a happy ending and that’s
okay. In fact, knowing your dealing with
Hazel Grace’s cancer, you almost expect it not to be. There were many times within the book, I was
afraid it would end as Hazel and Augustus’s favorite book, “An Imperial
Affliction” does – mid sentence, with the reader left wondering or saddened at
the sudden loss of a dear friend. John
Green creates characters that you can almost feel breath along with you – even if
it’s Hazel’s stuttering wheezing breath through a cannula. You fall in love with the setting and the
people the same way Hazel falls in love with Augustus, “slowly, and then all at
once.” Everyone has known someone with a
disease or cancer in their life and Green keeps this book from being a pity
party of the poor kids with cancer and more about life and making choices and
learning to accept what you have, even when you want to push it all away. The characters are not happy, but they don’t
have to be. The setting is normal,
except for one fantastic trip through the streets of Amsterdam, but it’s all
believable. Every step of the journey is
real – from throwing eggs at a person’s car for breaking your friend’s heart to
falling in love even when you’re scared and don’t want to. Green’s language brings to life more than
just the characters. I was especially
happy with the casting of Kate Rudd to read the audio. She gave Hazel’s voice sound within Green’s
language. I could imagine her pulling
her sharpied oxygen tank bag along, internally cursing her lungs and laughing
at a friend’s comment. Hazel’s fitting
eulogy had me in tears, especially as she recounts her own struggle with
life: “You gave me a forever within the
numbered days, and I’m grateful.”
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
NOMINATION FOR GUARDIAN CHILDREN'S FICTION PRIZE
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER (#1 for Seven Consecutive Weeks)
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST SELLER
INDIEBOUND BEST SELLER
BOOK SELLER BEST SELLER
TIME MAGAZINE #1 FICTION BOOK (2012)
KIRKUS BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2012
From NPR.ORG – "[Green's] voice is so compulsively
readable that it defies categorization. You will be thankful for the little
infinity you spend inside this book."
From BOOKLIST – “Happily, Green is
able to transcend such pitfalls in his best and most ambitious novel to date.
Beautifully conceived and executed, this story artfully examines the largest
possible considerations—life, love, and death—with sensitivity, intelligence,
honesty, and integrity. In the process, Green shows his readers what it is like
to live with cancer, sometimes no more than a breath or a heartbeat away from
death. But it is life that Green spiritedly celebrates here, even while
acknowledging its pain.”
5. CONNECTIONS
Gather other books by John Green such
as:
• PAPER TOWNS. ISBN 014241493X.
• LOOKING FOR ALASKA. ISBN 0142402516.
Gather other books about surviving
and reclaiming life such as:
• Downham, Jenny. BEFORE I DIE.
ISBN 0385751834.
• Lowry, Lois. THE GIVER.
ISBN 0544336267.
• Kline, Christina Baker. Recorded by Jessica
Almasy and Suzanne Toren. ORPHAN TRAIN.
ISBN 1480537381.
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