The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

The Fault in Our stars is a novel by award winning novelist and popular YouTube vlogger, John Green. He writes the tale of a 16 year old girl, Hazel Grace Lancaster as she deals with the trials and tribulations of having thyroid cancer - “Thyroid originally but with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in my lungs”. (5) The story encompasses Hazel’s love of her parents, notions of heroism, and her feelings for Augustus Waters, a seventeen year old boy with one leg that she meets at a cancer support group.

Green writes with sentiment and style in a way that does not depict Hazel as sagacious like many cancer books have a tendency to do to their characters - as though having cancer gives them some sort of omniscient power. He makes a point to illuminate Hazel as an ordinary girl in an unfortunate situation, and rectify throughout the book any misconceptions we as readers might have had. It is one of the most notable aspects of the book that it does not become gratuitously indulgent, as many cancer novels do. Having previously worked as a Chaplin at a children’s hospital for about five months in 2000, Green has personally observed many sick children and the ways in which they act, how they are both similar and different to healthy children, and “ever since then, I've been trying to write a funny, honest story about it, and it just you know, took a while.” He balances his use of sentiment, humour, adolescent curiosity, and honesty in his writing in a way that will make you laugh whilst crying. Drawing inspiration from the variety of people he has met and befriended with similar conditions. In this book Green actually goes as far as to reference something one of the kids he met whilst doing his chaplaincy told him, “There is only one thing in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you’re sixteen, and that’s having a kid who bites it from cancer.” (8) He delves into the importance of family, friendship, and love; values that, whilst perhaps amplified occasionally somewhat in the book, everyone can relate to. Green’s perception of family in this novel is one that he laced throughout purposefully; something that I personally feel might be partially inspired by Esther Earl.

Esther Earl is the girl whom John dedicated The Fault in Our Stars to. Esther was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of twelve, later joined the Nerdfighter community, and when she was fifteen her online efforts with Nerdfighteria helped raise the Harry Potter Alliance $250,000. Ever since this event she has become a sort of lightning rod for the nerdfighter community. Esther died of cancer on the 25^th August 2010 at just sixteen, and later that week in a vlog John spoke about her, death, and its effects; "We all want to do something to mitigate the pain of loss or to turn grief into something positive or to find a silver lining in the cloud. But I believe that there is real value in just standing there, being still, being sad, bearing witness to Esther's life and allowing ourselves to be transformed by it."

This book appears to be a testament to her life, without actually being about her life – John makes it very clear that Hazel is not Esther, because despite their similarities there are also many distinctions between them. Esther frequently spoke about the importance of loving your family and life, and was acutely aware that she was a human being and not someone to be idolised as a hero because of her cancer. “Some war,” he said dismissively. “What am I at war with? My cancer. And what’s 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 is made of me. It’s a civil war, Hazel Grace, with a predetermined winner.” (216) Esther Earl actually also spoke publically about her confusion regarding her opinions on her cancer, “I sometimes wish I’d never gone through this,’’ she said “and then I realize that if that happened, I wouldn’t be who I am, and then I get all, like, ‘Oh, that’s just confusing.’ But then sometimes I do wish it never happened, the cancer thing.’’ She wasn’t an extraordinary person, but rather a normal teenager, she could argue with her parents, cry, and get angsty just like everyone else.

This is one of those books that can fill you with a sort of evangelical zeal that will in turn encourage you to sit at home annotating for days, just for the fun of it. Expect to get out your highlighters, pencils, etc. It’s a book that changes perspectives and ideas and misconceptions that people might have. Chances are you will go through a whirlwind of emotions, at so many points before recommending it to your friends and rereading it over and over again.

This book, whilst being classified as a young adult novel is a book filled with deep metaphors and meanings, similar to that of The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. It embraces the aspect of water most significantly, the way it both destroys and constructs, drowning, the water in Hazel’s lungs that suck at being lungs, Amsterdam, and Indianapolis. Family is also a very important motif, as Hazel asks frequently what happens to the people in An Imperial Infliction, her favourite book - that happens to end midsentence - however she never asks about the character of Anna, the narrator, but focuses on the people Anna would have left behind– this is a point purposefully made by John Green to explain the way Hazel worries about the aftermath of what might happen to the people she loves after she dies. Specifically to her mum as she is very aware of her mum’s fear of no longer being a mum. To surmise this comes to a point where John makes his readers aware that despite any death, the relationship that exists, still remains. This is proven in the very last line of “I do.” (313) Because this is meant in both the sense that despite Augustus’ death Hazel still continues to love him, and also purposefully is chosen because of the connotations it has that clearly relate to marriage.