'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green - A Heartfelt Book Review

Hazel Grace, in 'The Fault in our Stars,' "But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.”

The book, 'The Fault in our Stars' by John Green can easily be brushed aside as another tragic love story of two teenagers. But read it the way it is meant to be read -with your heart, between the lines and you will be enamored by the world the author has created for Hazel and Augustus, the star crossed lovers.    

The book is tragic, it's poignant, it is heart breaking but even in the face of the inevitability of separation and death, it is not without hope and joy. And that is what sets the book apart.

For me, the book celebrates love and life within the finite boundaries of life and the infinite possibilities of timelessness. It is about the understanding that no forever, however long, lasts forever and that no now, however short, is any less than that forever. 

The book is a must read for all those who love being in love. It is dedicated to all those who yearn for a soul connection with someone and find it only to have to let it go too soon. The book is a reminder to live in the moment  and to find joy in the little infinities captured inside the bigger infinity. 

I smiled through my tears while reading through the 313 page long book and that sums up both the tragedy, the sweetness of love and the intensity of emotions between Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters, beautifully and powerfully captured by the author. 

To give the author due credit, he even managed to insert funny moments into such a tragic tale and the literary eloquent conversations between the two 'sesquipedalians' was riveting even though sometimes they bordered on the superfluous.

However, the reader is left to wonder that, if the fictional author in this book, Peter Van Houten had chosen to explain the aftermath of his book, 'An Imperial Affliction' to Hazel and Gus, had he not been the temperamental, wasted guy he was portrayed as; would it have taken away from the main plot of this book? Was it necessary to add the tragedy of an unrequited wish to a story which was already sad? Was it because the author also wanted to convey that in real life one should not be foolhardy or romantic enough to stake it all on one wish, the fulfillment of which is not in one's hand? As Augustus remarks, 

Or did he want to say that some things in life and like life tragically remain like that- unfulfilled, incomplete, unanswered?

There are some beautiful, emotionally intense lines in the book which will be quoted for years in the world of romantic fiction. 

These are my favorite ones :)