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In March of 2005, I received a call from our Penguin Children’s Book representative inviting me to a dinner in Kansas City to meet author John Green who had a new book for teens titled “Looking for Alaska.” The week prior I had been diagnosed with breast cancer, but hadn’t met with any surgeons or oncologists just yet. I didn’t know how I was going to make that 2.5 hour drive with my mind racing with cancerous thoughts. Somehow I made it to the restaurant and during the next several hours I was completely entertained by this gentleman, giving me a reprieve from worry for a little while... at least until the drive back home. 

I found John Green so funny and charming that for the next few years I would seek out all of his new releases. I cringed my way through “An Abundance of Katherines,” in which the protagonist is dumped nineteen times by girls named Katherine. (Not too far-fetched, considering John Green was dumped 53 times in real life.) And “Paper Towns” he had me clutching my sides while reading bits like: “Those of us who frequent the band room have long suspected that Becca maintains her lovely figure by eating nothing but the souls of kittens and the dreams of impoverished children.” With writing like that, how could I *not* have an author crush on this man who could both make me laugh out loud *and* forget about cancer? 

Then a few months ago, I heard a rumor that John Green had a new book coming out. I called the same rep that invited me to dinner all those years ago to see if I could get a preview copy. After signing my name in blood promising I wouldn’t release it to the masses, I received a bound manuscript in the mail. I started reading “The Fault in Our Stars” and... it’s about cancer.  Hazel Lancaster met Augustus Waters at a cancer support group. Hazel [16-years-old; thyroid originally, but now in her lungs] was there because her mother had decided she was depressed. (Hazel found it odd that depression is always listed among the side effects of cancer, when actually it’s a side effect of dying.) Augustus [17-years-old; osteosarcoma] was there to support his friend Isaac [17-years-old; “fantastically improbable eye cancer”] who had already lost one eye, and was about to undergo surgery to remove the other. So Gus and Hazel walked into a support group neither wanted to attend, and a passionate and beautiful friendship emerged that day. 

“The Fault in Our Stars” has been embargoed for so long, I’m afraid of spoiling the book for future readers. I will say that John Green has a knack for creating situations that call for plausibly brilliant characters. (Since she was diagnosed at age 13, Hazel was able to get her GED in three years and is taking college classes. Of course she sounds smart. And there’s also something about cancer that makes one grow up in a hurry.) And Green’s plots are completely thought through, providing an extra buffer to criticism. (Hazel’s favorite book soon becomes Gus’s favorite, and why wouldn’t he use his Miracle-Network-ish-wish to fund a trip to Amsterdam to track down the author to see what happens next? It’s not like they have to attend school or anything.) 

I once heard a statistic that one-in-three people will have some form of cancer in their lifetime. And with those odds, you can bet that every one of us will be affected somehow by the disease. “The Fault in Our Stars” is a make-you-laugh and make-you-cry book about cancer, but honestly, the subject matter doesn’t make the book. The writing does. And John Green’s writing ability will make you forget about the real world for a little while... at least until the drive back home. 

Review by Beth Golay

The Fault in Our Stars (Hardcover)

By John Green

$17.99

ISBN-13: 9780525478812
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Dutton Juvenile, 1/2012

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