The most achingly beautiful novel published in recent years is The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS) by John Green. Called “damn near genius” by Time magazine, this book has caught the attention of the public. Green is a young adult author, who has written several other bestselling novels such as Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns. He writes not just for the young adult reader, but with the reader in mind. Green had a been attempting to write a ‘cancer book’ for most of his literary career, and finally found the inspiration in a young fan named Esther, who died of cancer. TFIOS is fiction, and Green goes out of his way to outline the importance of fiction in a modern day society. In the Author’s Note of TFIOS, Green cautions readers to not assume stories matter only if they are based on real events.

Hazel Lancaster, main character and narrator of TFIOS is a typical teenage girl who just happens to have cancer. She is stubborn and smart, cautious and steady, and she lives on the front porch of death. Augustus Waters, the other main character, is fond of many things: unlit cigarettes, metaphors, and Hazel Grace. Green pens a tale of rugged hope, witty retorts and love beyond the commonly accepted notion of ‘young love.’ There are symbols hidden at every turn, and elements of foreshadowing in every scene. Green uses language fitting for the teenagers he presents. There are concepts, like the difference in infinities and the inevitability of oblivion, that one would not commonly find in but the thickest of books. Green presents tragedy with a forced smile, which the reader learns is the bravest thing of all. Green’s words are simple and to the point, cutting in their poignant bluntness. The plot twists with the daily terrors that cancer brings, and leaves the reader in a pool of tears, praying for more. Green, similar to another one of the characters in the story, refuses to divulge what lies in store for Hazel after the novel ends, saying that TFIOS is no longer his book. In a Q&A section of his website, he responded to a question about Hazel’s future with the statement, ‘…I don’t make decisions about things that happen outside the text of the book… no story is ever over, because every human life ripples into every other one…” Green, who now has a fervent internet following, continues to be a teacher in the lives of hundreds of thousands of readers.

Anyone who enjoys metaphorical, philosophical novels questioning the point of existence will enjoy TFIOS. A reader may not want to feel ‘sad’, but there is so much more to the book than that. It is a book about living with pain, and feeling the hope shine through. John Green is a brilliant author who understands what it is like to be a teenager in the desperately tricky world of growing up.