Gino Ndiko, Grade 12
UWCEA Arusha Campus



The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green and published on January 10, 2012, is one of my favourite books. It is a young adult romance fiction novel. John Green is a well-renowned American author and YouTube content creator born in 1977. He is accredited with several achievements such as the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska. He has written several other books that debut at number one on The New York Times Best Seller List such as Looking For Alaska, Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines. Green also creates educational YouTube content on a channel called Crash Course where he analyses numerous novels.

His famous novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was inspired by his time working as a student chaplain at a children’s hospital with children with fatal illnesses and injuries. The title was inspired by Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, where the line “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” This line was said to Brutus by Cassius, the nobleman. " In 2014, a coming-of-age romance film based on the novel was produced with the movie managing to win several Teen Choice awards.

This book follows the lives of two teenagers, Hazel and Gus. It is narrated by Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old living with thyroid cancer. She meets and falls in love with Augustus Waters, a seventeen-year-old survivor of osteosarcoma who had to have his leg amputated. With Hazel being such a unique character in young adult novels, the novel gained large success. It tackled several issues one would face as they live with a terminal illness while a teenager as well such as depression. It also highlights the importance of friendship, which is seen through the way Gus and Hazel comfort their friend Isaac after his girlfriend breaks up with him immediately after losing his second eye to cancer. Despite the epic love story that they shared, Gus succumbed to his cancer at the end of the novel.

This book resonates with so many people on a deeper level with the several life lessons that are in it.  It made me appreciate all the people who love me. Hazel did not like the fact that Gus was so obsessed with leaving a legacy behind, wanting the whole world to love and remember him. Although Hazel’s life is not perfect, she is grateful for the time she spent with Gus before his death. When Gus says, “I’m a roller coaster that only goes up my friend, “ I immediately admire his optimism despite his battle with cancer. Gus' personality creates a wonderful contrast to Hazel’s realistic approach when she says, “The world is not a wish-granting factory.” We can always hope for the best, but sometimes the fault is indeed with our stars.

Bibliography

Works Cited
“John Green.” John Green, www.johngreenbooks.com/. Accessed 28 July 2022.
“John Green.” Wikipedia, 3 Jan. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Green. Accessed 28 July 2022.
Wikipedia Contributors. “The Fault in Our Stars.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars. Accessed 28 July 2022.
---. “The Fault in Our Stars (Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars_(film). Accessed 28 July 2022.

Image Courtesy: ​https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11870085-the-fault-in-our-stars