2013+The+Fault+in+Our+Stars

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=//__**hat0008 Review: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green**__//=



This novel is one of the best I’ve read. //Ever.// I probably owe John Green’s writing at least 80% of all the tears I’ve shed in my life – from all the laughing-like-a-maniac moments to the cry-your-heart-out-never-be-the-same-again moments. TFIOS, to me, was the most emotional book this talented author has written. Of course, since it //is// John Green we’re talking about here, emotional trauma is expected.

One of the things that probably make it as amazing/hilarious/heart-wrenchingly sad as it is the fact that the awesome, funny, intelligent and (no matter what she says about strength) strong main character Hazel Grace Lancaster has cancer. Her lungs, in her own words, suck at being lungs, and she needs infinite help just with breathing -- but she has strong views about not letting her cancer become her. Now, I know when you read 'cancer', you were probably thinking, ‘oh, great, another cancer book’, but it’s not full of clichés and heartfelt last words and wishes and stories about being strong and fighting etc. As the plot continues and the reader gets to know the characters, we automatically feel empathy for these people and their misfortune – for being blind, for having a prosthetic leg and of course, for having lungs continually filling with liquid; we feel bad that these amazing, intelligent, charismatic people have limited days – but their limited days, as Green shows us, can be better than some of our not-so-limited days.

We follow these characters through the twists and turns of a hard teenage life, relating to some bits and not knowing how to feel with others and I love nearly every single word of it – once you’ve finished reading this you’ll probably understand why I say ‘nearly’. All in all, this is a life-changing read – truly, it will change your view on your life and how you live it. And possibly the word ‘okay’.

Though, a word to the wise, I would recommend you read this book (or any of John Green’s novels) in a place where you feel free to bawl your eyes out. I rate this book 5/5 stars and I give this rating due to the fact that this novel is just. Amazing.

A soundtrack to suit this novel is hard, as the story is so diverse and unique. I may be a little biased, but lately I have been listening to OneRepbulic’s new album and I think that //Counting Stars// and //Something I Need// are good songs that kind of relate to the message this novel is getting across - well, as good as a song/book connection could be.

**__hat0008: Words & Images of Things I Believe the Text Relates to:__**






 * Cancer
 * Lungs
 * Humor
 * Romance
 * Teen
 * Young Adult novel (YA)
 * Support Group
 * Amsterdam
 * America
 * Indianapolis
 * Okay?
 * Okay.
 * // The Price of Dawn //
 * // An Imperial Affliction //
 * Peter Van Houten
 * Hazel Grace Lancaster
 * Augustus Waters
 * Isaac

__**hat0008: Discussion Director**__ **//Come up with five open-ended questions about your selected text.//**
 * 1) // What do you think about Hazel's weekly Support Group meetings? //
 * 2) //What are your thoughts on Isaac and Monica's relationship? Do you think Monica acted selfishly? Explain what you think you would have honestly done if you had been in her position.//
 * 3) //What do you think of what Peter Van Houten became? Do you have any sympathy? Also, do you agree with his views on the characters in a novel?//
 * 4) //What are your thoughts on the ending of the book? Do you wish it had ended differently? If so, explain.//
 * 5) //If you were to write a short epilogue for TFiOS, what would happen to Hazel, her parents, Augustus's family, Isaac and Peter Van Houten?//

**__hat0008: Connector__** //**In four sentences that use connecting words,**// //**explain connections that you can see between your novel and the real world.**// This novel, in comparison to other 'cancer books', it is more relatable and realistic, owing mostly to the fact that Hazel, Augustus nor Isaac put up a 'brave front' or 'fight heroically'. For example, Jodi Picoult's book, // My Sister's Keeper //contains many over-used lines and cheesey cliches - not to say that the book/movie wasn't good, because they both were. However, it would be hard to write a cancer book without including these tell-tale, eye-roll-inducing characteristics, but as it is now obvious, John Green has. TFiOS, on the other hand, doesn't only explore the life of a cancer patient in love and at war with her inner turmoil (about being a grenade, etc.), it explores the life of a teenage Hazel Grace Lancaster,who falls in love; who almost loses hope but then finds her other in the form of a metaphor-loving, prosthetic-leg-yielding Augustus Waters.

__**hat0008: Artist**__ //**Choose five events that take place in your book that you think could be illustrated in some way. List your choices in chronological order.**//


 * 1) The Support Group meeting when Hazel first meets Augustus.
 * 2) The Night of the Broken Trophies.
 * 3) The //Funky Bones// picnic.
 * 4) Their first kiss at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam.
 * 5) Augustus's fake funeral.

**__hat0008; Hazel Grace Lancaster's Fakebook__** 

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//__ The Fault in Our Stars __//__ by John Green SAC __
// The Fault in Our Stars // is written by accomplished author, John Green. The main protagonist, sixteen year old Hazel Grace Lancaster (who narrates the story), has terminal lung cancer (terminal meaning incurable) and a loathing of cancer clichés. The other protagonist, seventeen year old NEC (No Evidence of Cancer) cancer survivor Augustus Waters. These two characters interact in a mostly playfully, always intelligent and curious way – no matter what the setting; even if they are at Hazel’s average American house, or Augustus’s, or the Literal Heart of Jesus, or even Amsterdam. Green has a knack for creative setting descriptions. One of the most dominant themes in the story would be ‘love conquers all’, or something along those lines; because, as much as Hazel tries not to, she // does // fall in love with Augustus – and he with her. More themes would include ‘courage’, ‘fighting’ (not the literal sense, but the fighting often associated with cancer patients), ‘love’, ‘friendship’, ‘humour’, and the inevitable oblivion. There are a lot of quotes to support these themes, with one of Hazel’s supporting her anger and desperation to not hurt anyone else; “I’m a like. Like. I’m a // grenade //, Mom. I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up (meaning she’ll die, as her cancer isn’t curable) and I would like to minimise the casualties, okay?” I think this quote (and many others) allow the reader to think (and learn) about real life cancer patients and how they // actually // feel. Green’s main male character, Augustus, used a lot of literary devices throughout the novel – whereas Hazel only liked to point out incorrect uses of literality – but one that he obviously prefers over the rest is of course, the metaphor. Augustus is often mentioned with a cigarette in his mouth – a cigarette which is never, not once, lit. “It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.” – direct quote from Augustus Waters, page 14. By ‘you don’t give it the power to do its killing’, he means that while it is unlit, it’s harmless. It’s only when you put a lighter to it that it starts its killing. Augustus loves this metaphor specifically because he likes the idea that he can have something that kills between his lips that can’t actually //kill.// He makes it look like he smokes to show that he won’t smoke, to show, in turn, that he doesn’t want to die. Similes and personification are also used often throughout the story (Bluie the bear, the Literal Heart of Jesus, Funk Bones, etc.), but they aren’t nearly as abundant as metaphors. By far, the most dramatic and heart breaking event in the book is when Augustus dies from a cancer reoccurrence. His health had been dwindling for a while, but his //sudden// death still hit the reader – and Hazel, his best friend Isaac, and his family – hard. This brings about the topic of //death// – and how unbeautiful it really is. Many people try to beautify death, but in all honesty, with Augustus’s death as an example, most deaths are sudden, tragic and by no means poetic. The reader is, of course, still hurt by his death. Hazel, on the other hand, had known for a while that she was in love with a grenade – and she had prepared herself for it. Not to say that as in she didn’t care or was hurt – she cared deeply, and was hurt deeply, but she knew she mustn’t let it drag her down. She was grateful for the times they had – for their little infinity. // The Fault in Our Stars // is a heart-warming, funny and dramatic coming-of-age book. It shows a connection between real-life cancer patients and their lives and thought outside the hospital and Hazel – it shows that not all cancer patients are the stereo-type for ‘strong’ and ‘courageous’, who ‘put up a brave front until the end’. A connection that is well thought through is the one between the first sentence and the last two: The first: //‘Late in the minter of my seventeenth year …”// and the last two: “//I do, Augustus. I do.”// The connection I noticed was that the opening sentence indicated that Hazel was telling the story of something that had happened in her past, and the last two showed that was what she still thought, in the future – in present tense. Green often laments (in the author’s notes of his books, in his vlogs (the vlogbrothers on youtube), that his work is fictions – that it is not real. But connections can be made from his writings to the real world. //The Fault in Our Stars// is a rewarding read, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone – maybe over the age fourteen/fifteen.

**__ Book Review by ken0022msc __** The book I am doing a review on “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green. The book was wonderful it had love, grief, loss, and many other things. I thought my phone was hard to put down once I started. Hazel Grace Lancaster has cancer, in her lungs. She spent most of her time in her room, minding her own business, until her mother thought she had depression, which as a result to get out more was to go to a Support Group, where she met her friend Isaac. If it wasn’t for Support Group, Hazel would have never met Augustus Waters. Augustus has osteosarcoma, and had to get half of his right leg amputated.

This book has so many surprises it’s hard to say how many, to the very happy, shocking moments to the saddened and can’t believe that happen moments, some of the moments in this book almost made my cry, also some made me laugh. It’s amazing how an object made from paper and ink (in my case pixels and lights) can make someone feel these emotions from something they wrote down.

I had never read a John Green book until I read this one, and have never felt these emotions from a book. Well, I have, but not expressing it as a read (usually in my mind not out loud). I loved it, this is literally the second ever book/phone that I have ever struggled to put down, first was Harry Potter. The way he writes is like you’re in the book, not just reading it.

Hazel Grace Lancaster wants cause the least amount of causalities on this earth while she is still on it. Hazel saying this too her parents said “I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?” She doesn’t want to hurt anymore people in her life that she happens to. She is probably one of the most strong, and caring people I have ever read. It’s amazing what she goes through and continues in with life.

Augustus Waters, funny, metaphorically resonate, half smile kind of person. No matter what he went through he still never gave up. The only thing he feared was oblivion, when Augustus said that in Support Group Hazel made an input on her thought of oblivion. Even when he was in his worst he still tried to help the one he loved, even if it cost him.

**__ Discussion Director By ken0022msc __**

** Come up with 5 open-ended questions about the section of the text you have just read. **

Pp. 63 – 210


 * 1) How did you feel when Isaac went blind?
 * 2) How did you feel when Hazel was told she was allowed to go to Amsterdam?
 * 3) What did you think when Peter Van Houten didn’t think of an ending for Anna’s mother.
 * 4) What do you think might happen next after the Anne Frank Museum?
 * 5) How did you feel when Augustus told Hazel about the cancer?

**__ Connector By ken0022msc __**

** In 4 sentences that use connecting words, explain connections that you can see between the section of the text you have just read and the real world. **

Pp. 237-248

My connecting moment with the story is that I had my Uncle die of cancer in his early 30’s; I don’t really remember what type of cancer he died of though, all the people who were close to him were extremely upset. Augustus Waters died of osteosarcoma in the fault on our stars, same with the people with Augustus, people who were close friends, or even just friends from school were all upset. With my Uncle we went to his grave to watch him be put in the ground, as I walked over there to put a flower on his coffin I could see it, it was a really sad moment. At Augustus funeral they went to his grave and watched him be lowered into the ground.

**__ Artist By ken0022msc __**

** Choose 5 events that take place in the section of text you have just read, that you think could be illustrated in some way. List you choices in chronological order. **


 * 1) Pg. 164 A shirt with a pipe on it saying in cursive (Ceci nest pas une pipe) This is not a pipe (Rene Magritte)
 * 2) Pg. 94 Computer screen with “We all miss you so much. It just never ends. It feels like we were all wounded in your battle, Caroline. I miss you. I love you.”
 * 3) Map Of Amsterdam

**__ Literary Luminary By ken0022msc __**

** Select at 4 special passages from this section of your reading. You might select a passage because it is; humorous, well written, important, surprising, thought-provoking, informative, confusing, controversial, or other. **


 * 1) Pg. 18 “There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this – I gestured encompassingly – will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive forever. There will be a time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.”
 * 2) Pg. 25 ““They don’t kill you unless you light them, “he said as Mom arrived at the curb. “And I’ve never lit one. It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.””
 * 3) Pg. 96 “”I’m a grenade,” I said again. “I just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there’s nothing I can do about hurting you; you’re too invested, so just please let me do that, okay? I’m not depressed. I can’t be a regular teenager, because I’m a grenade.””
 * 4) Pp. 196-197 “I felt the ball in the base of my throat hardening as I watched him pull a cigarette from his pack and stick it between his lips. He leaned back and sighed. “Just before you went into the ICU, I started to feel this ache in my hip.”“No,” I said. Panic rolled in, pulled me under.He nodded. “So I went in for a PET scan.” He stopped. He yanked the cigarette out of his mouth and clenched his teeth.Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to try in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but A Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile. He flashed his crooked smile, then said, “I lit up like a Christmas tree, Hazel Grace. The lining of my chest, my left hip, my liver, everywhere.””

** Record 5 words from your passages and look up and write down their definitions. **

- Oblivion - destruction or extinction

- Metaphor – a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

- Bacchanalia – the Roman festival of Bacchus

- Compartmentalize – divide into discrete sections or categories

- Constellations - a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure


 * __ Hazel Lancaster Fakebook __**

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 * Augustus Waters Fakebook **

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