Review: The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Narrator: Kate Rudd 
Format: Audiobook
Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
Source: Purchased from Audible
Amazon | Audible | Goodreads
★★★★★

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

The Fault in Our Stars is absolutely brilliant. It is perfect… Though it may be early to make this claim, it could possibly be my favorite book of the year! It’s always difficult for me to write reviews on books that I love this much. I feel that I can never quite do them justice. I will let a quote from The Fault in Our Stars describe it for me:

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” – The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

That’s exactly how I feel...  All of us have had our lives touched in some shape or form by cancer. Whether it be watching an actor fight it or a family member, it’s not a foreign thing to us. This book is not just about Hazel and Augustus, it’s about humanity. Anyone who reads this will be able to find some truth in Green’s words. Yes, I have never read any of his previous books… *GASP* I know, crazy right? But this experience has made me contemplate why have let such a gem of a writer go unread for so long… Green’s writing is beautiful, poetic, and completely genius!

Green wrote about a dark subject and yet maintained some glimmer of hope throughout. While this story did make me cry, it did not devastate me. In fact, it was extremely inspirational. The characters were easy to love, understand, and relate to. I couldn’t get enough of the playful banter between Hazel and Augustus! Even living on borrowed time, their relationship progressed naturally and developed into a beautiful, deep love.

I cannot forget to mention the phenomenal narrator of this audiobook, Kate Rudd. It would have been easy for the narrator to take the emotion too far and overdue it. But not Kate! She portrayed the perfect amount of emotion in every single situation. The narration was so real and believable, that it only added to the beauty of Green’s words! She is genuinely talented.

The Fault in Our Stars left me with what can only be described as "that wow feeling." As readers, you all know what I’m talking about: When you sit silently for awhile after finishing a book because you are so in awe of what you had just experienced. You don’t just read or listen to this book, you experience it in the deepest sense… It will make you want to live your life differently! It will change you. And it has certainly set the bar high for the rest of the upcoming YA books this year. The Fault in Our Stars receives my highest recommendation for any reader, regardless of genre!

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