The Fault In Our Stars Book Review

“With robot eyes you can probably see through girls’ shirts and stuff”- Isaac Chapter 20

This I feel is the best quote I could possibly start with. Yes, I love the dynamic of Hazel and Augustus’ relationship but honestly the Augustus and Isaac bromance is what I live for in this book.

They are friends long before Hazel and Augustus are friends. Hell, Isaac was the one to bring Augustus to the support group in the literal heart of Jesus. Whilst Augustus and Isaac do tease each other like when Augustus is comparing Isaacs boob technique to a breast exam. However, it goes deeper than that with these two.  Isaac absolutely destroys most of Gus’ basketball trophies which is what our dashing male protagonist needed to finally let go of the hatred which he had and was know longer having to live with it literally surrounding them. They are loyal to each other to the end, allowing their jokey mask to slip at the prefuneral. Amongst a monologue about robot eyes, Isaac says he’d rather be blind than see a world without Gus. I feel like a lot of people only remember this scene for Hazel’s eulogy whereas I think it’s a huge moment for Isaac because he’s showing his love for Gus.

I have conflicting feelings about Hazel as well. Yes, she has some amazing moments like the entire period when Gus got sick. She could have easily done a Monica and just left Gus. However, a defining trait of hers keeps her strong through all of it which is her maturity.

Maturity and overcoming problems is a huge theme throughout the book. It’s a tragic maturity which affects everyone who has suffered or known someone to have suffered from cancer. The only people who have an almost immaturity are Hazel’s parents. They are scarred by when their only child was on the brim of death and continue to kind of wrap her in cotton wool because of this. Hazel maturity came from countless bad news being delivered repeatedly. Isaac also has it rough when he finds out his “always” had a tag line of ‘until your condition becomes too much for me’.

Overall, I liked the book but I prefer Gus and Isaac’s relationship over Hazel and Gus. I think John Green’s writing style is beautiful but my favourite book of his is ‘Looking for Alaska.’

I hope you enjoyed the review and comment any other post ideas you want to see!