The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 313 pages

This book could so easily have been a maudlin tear-jerker.  The beauty and wonder of what the author accomplished is that the story is about teenagers with cancer, but there is humor and dazzling dialogue, instead of the tone of a funeral dirge, throughout the book.

Hazel meets Augustus in a support group for kids with cancer.  They become friends and eventually, more than friends.  At one point when Hazel cautions Gus not to tell her that he is in love with her, he says “I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things.”

Both these teenagers, and their friend Isaac, are honest with their feelings, to the extent that one sympathizes with them, but one has tremendous admiration for their courage and strength.  Hazel is the narrator of the book and says at one point, “worry is yet another side effect of dying”.  One of the other characters in the book says, “What a slut time is.  She screws everybody.”

Hazel’s parents are attentive and careful with her.  What I especially loved is that her mother is the strong one, and her dad is the weepy one, never too embarrassed to break down and sob when Hazel’s condition worsens or when his emotions peak.

I really liked this book and would recommend it to everyone.   Without giving the plot away, it probably is pretty evident that there is a lot of sadness before the book ends.  Throughout the book, however, the teenagers remind each other over and over that “the world is not a wish-granting factory”.