TFIOS Review

“The Fault in Our Stars” transcends the divide between life and death

Young adult writer John Green launches witty novel

Tiffany Chan '15

Contributing Writer

To write his bestselling books, author John Green usually draws inspiration from his unique community of Internet followers. As one half of the VlogBrothers, a YouTube sensation that debuted in 2007, Green’s novels appeal to a legion of people who affectionately call themselves “Nerdfighters.” Though Green’s newest book “The Fault of Our Stars” explores weighty material such as cancer and death, he still maintains his characteristic style of warmth and wit.  

“The Fault in Our Stars” tells the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen year old terminal thyroid cancer patient. While an experimental treatment has temporarily extended her survival, Hazel’s hold on life remains incredibly tenuous. Hazel has withdrawn from school, only leaving the house to attend classes at a community college and group sessions for cancer patients at a local church. Enter Augustus Waters, an attractive cancer patient in remission. Green describes him as “a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles, with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a Voice that Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin.”

As their friendship develops, Hazel shares her favorite novel “An Imperial Affliction,” which is told from the point of view of a girl who, like Hazel herself, is also diagnosed with cancer. Though “An Imperial Affliction” was purposely written by its author to end mid-sentence, Hazel and Augustus are still incredibly curious as to the fate of other characters. The novel focuses on the duo’s 'star-crossed' romance and follows all their obstacles to reach Amsterdam, where they meet the author of “An Imperial Affliction” in order to learn the fates of the characters in what has become Augustus’ favorite novel as well.

His first solo book in four years, Green writes in his characteristically witty and sharp tone and the plot unfolds in a very elegant, thoughtful manner. The novel is inspired by many different aspects in Green’s own life, including his previous experience as a chaplain in a children’s hospital and his friendship with a cancer patient and ardent Nerdfighter named Esther Earl. The realistic and compelling circumstances of the two characters facing the physical and emotional challenges of early mortality creates a depth that other young adult novel books such as those of “The Twilight Saga” could never emulate.

Unlike other books of the target demographic, the burden of cancer isn’t romanticized in this novel. Such aspects of the book may discourage some younger readers but draw in older audiences for its down-to-earth portrayal of difficult subject matter. Hazel’s struggles are true to reality and Green does not attempt to cast her as a character above the limitations of humanity. Rather, she is aware that she is actively engaged in the struggle for her life and what that means for the people that she loves the most.

Neither are Hazel and Augustus are not portrayed as brave saints, they are simply teenagers who are trying to wrestle with the inevitable desire to be remembered after they are gone. Throughout “Stars,” the characters are concerned that they will be like other cancer patients who, as Augustus puts it, have “become their own disease.” They feel like outsiders because of their illness and are somewhat cynical because of it.

While you would be hard pressed to find a teenage boy that talks about “existentially fraught free throws” as Augustus does, he and Hazel are relatable characters who you can find in real life. Both have the same hobbies and interests like anyone in their age group; Hazel watches “America's Next Top Model” almost religiously and Augustus plays violent video games just like many devote Nerdfighters.

In the months before its release, Green promised Nerdfighters that he would sign all 150,000 copies in the first printing of “Stars.” Green also completed a promotional tour with his brother, the other half of VlogBrothers, that spanned 16 cities in three weeks that started at the nearby Wellesley Middle School. The book immediately debuted on The New York Times bestseller list and was already at the top of pre-orders for Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

“The Fault in Our Stars” is a departure not only from Green's previous work but from other titles that address cancer in the genre of young adult fiction. It would have been easy for “Stars” to have simply become another “cancer book” to be forgotten. Green, instead, endows his characters with real voices, albeit incredibly erudite and quick-witted ones. “The Fault in Our Stars” serves to be a book that demands to be remembered and speaks to the universal human condition rather than just to young adults. I think that many a Wellesley woman has felt like an outsider and grappled with if and how she will make a difference in the world. Because of this, I think that this may be the best work from John Green yet.

What I've learned at Wellesley(so far)

French the Llama, it's been over a year since I've updated this blog!

As you may or may not know, since the last post I made here I have graduated high school and started my first year at Wellesley College(which is what I want to be the focus of this post).

However, I just want to take a moment and say that if you're a senior or junior in high school who has not received that first college letter: breathe, and relax. Lots of people get into college each year, and you will too. Once you do, the anxiety you have will melt away and life will be beautiful. That's not to say you should stop paying attention altogether, but the feeling like every quiz and test will affect you getting into college or not will subside, leaving you able to concentrate on you know...learning stuff.

I think that now would be an excellent time to state that Wellesley College has not paid me to write this and I haven't quite planned out everything I'm going to say so if I say something that is critical...I mean it in a loving way(because sometimes it does make me go crazy yet I still love my school)?

So talking with people that I met in high school about the first semester has made me think about my own school and how it's different than the "typical" college experience. My first semester isn't as exciting as it might have been if our school was in the heart of the city nor is it as chill as it might have been with guys to diffuse the tension. I haven't even been at Wellesley for very long but I can say with complete sincerity that I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I've been given by attending this school. The best professors in the nation grace our classrooms while I am surrounded by so many talented, strong, independent women.

But now to debunk some cliches. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend of mine who has on several occasions made it clear that single-sex education is not for her(which is completely fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinions). When asking about my experience though, she said "What, does everyone steal eachother's Longchamp bags?" implying that everyone has Longchamps bags to steal because we are all from affluent families. While I know that Wellesley girls have a reputation for being "princesses" it irks me to hear this because you only need to walk on campus for about 5 minutes to realize that we are a college comprised of women from all over the world, of varying ethnicities and social backgrounds. So I thought it was a pretty egregious error to assume that Wellesley girls would all have, or want to have, designer bags and be petty and try and steal from eachother(even though we all seem to have enough disposable income for those designer bags?).

It wasn't until I got to school that I realized that the Ladies of the College have quite the reputations, which(highly simplified) falls into the patterns of: harlot, recluse or simply...lesbian. I admit I was taken aback but then I realized: who cares? These arbitrary labels say NOTHING about the types of people we are and even if they are true, our sexual preferences and how we spend free time say nothing about if we are good or bad students and more importantly if we are good or bad people.

Though I will note here: these students are people. My classmates are not saints or sinners. I don't happen to like every person I encounter and even those I do like still make me frustrated sometimes. But I cannot deny that they are still amazing people; they participate in microfinance, fly on the trapeze and share ridiculously bad 80's music videos with me(LH and AA, here's looking at you). They are interested in everything and anything under the sun. From my observations though, they are incredibly passionate about whatever it is they have chosen, which is worth celebrating. And the community is endlessly supportive of us; which I think is our school's greatest strength. There is no aspect of your personality worth being embarassed about nor any interest of yours worth being belittled; Wellesley is trying to isolate men and banish them from the premises, they are trying to remove people who would disrespect others, which in the past has predominantly been men. While women are not paragons by any means, the truth of the matter is that women face a fair bit of discrimination by virtue of simply being female.

I've also heard the argument that single-sex education is a detriment to us, making it so that it's harder to function in the "real world", I would argue to the contrary. After spending a few months at Wellesley, it seems that Wellesley is trying to make us stronger so that our ideas and causes can have longevity and legitimacy in the world beyond college. Our motto is Non ministrari, sed ministrare, which loosely translates to "Not to be served, but to serve[others]". The college seems to be encouraging us to use our education to create change in the world and to use a cliche quote from Gandhi "We must be the change we wish to see in the world", that is we need to care a lot about our cause to have any hope of convincing others to care about it too. For me currently, that means social advocacy: trying to stop derogatory names from being used, for anyone, for any reason. It can make you a little crazy, because I will admit that I notice things that many people would think are harmless and I make a stink about it but if I didn't, then hateful words would just be perpetuated...which is bad.

I'm going to stop here because this post is becoming incredibly long. So in short, it's been a really wacky ride for my first semester at college but I am returning in a few days time so it would appear that I am quite ok with it. Wellesley is a diverse place filled with people who are passionate about a lot of different things: reading books, protesting Wall Street, pick your poison. Wellesley, you make me crazy a lot of the time, but I still love you and can't wait to be back in a few days.

Goodnight

Writers' block

The College Essay. Just when seniors think they have gotten everything big done, here it is. "Write something to the college to show us something that we couldn't otherwise get from your application"

0.o
What if I really am everything my application says I am, and nothing more. What if I don't think my lowly experiences are worthy of your attention, Mr. Harvard Admissions dude?

Well that kind of sucks doesn't it. As of right now, I have 181 words of my essay which needs to be at least 250 words long. I have no idea how this is going to work.

better get cracking then.

Snowy days and stormy nights.

Hey imaginary readers. Tiffany here-your one and only source into the not so scandalous life of one of Winchester's malcontents. A short entry here for now-I have more work to do but I daresay I shall have a reflective entry about the year 2009. For now however, I shall content myself to studying for the one and only thing that makes ALL collegebound juniors cringe. I do believe that "SAT" is the only acronym known and feared by every man, woman and child on the Earth. Or maybe just in the US or those trying to get into the country, and let's face it-that amounts to pretty much the same thing in the grand scheme of things. As a test date in January looms ever closer, it is my responsibility to make sure that I score that perfect score, or at least somewhere near it. Once this is achieved, I MIGHT have a chance of entering the hallowed halls of an Ivy League College...until then, I shall simply remain a sad scared little girl trying to be the bigshot, classy lady. Maybe one day.

xoxo Tiffany

And there I was thinking things were going so well.

...And then there are those days when I wish I'd never heard of Winchester in the first place. This time last year, I was safely tucked away in my house with my friends, optimistically looking at how fabulous this next semester would be. And it was.

This year, I'm still safely tucked away in my house; but it is a place devoid of company. There are approximately four stacks of test prep books that I am supposed to be working through, but quite honestly-I don't feel like doing them. Instead, I decided that I would come on here and rant about it instead.

I feel as though my life is kind of at a standstill right now...which is ironic when I then think about all the work I have to get done. My first months here have been such an emotional rollercoaster ride. Things seem really topsy turvy and I'm not exactly sure what I want to do once I get back...time to take out the claws, I guess. The bitch is back.

First post. Because God knows I don't have the patience to sit down and write this by hand

It has been six months and one day since I moved to Winchester. 184 days. It feels like I have been here for an eternity, when in truth-this is a relatively short amount of time. 1/33 of my life, to be precise. And yet the changes that have occurred have been numerous enough to span several years-and now that I think of it, I really have had more changes in these few months than I have had in years.

Many people ask me which I like better-Hopkinton, or Winchester. The truth is, is that these towns are incomparable. Both are wonderful in their own ways, despite some flaws. Hopkinton is my hometown, and always a part of me. The rolling hills of rural suburbia are near and dear to my heart. Perhaps what was hardest about moving away from there was the fact that I never had done it before. The people I was leaving behind were my friends since pre-school. Unlike the college bound seniors, I had no desire to leave our little town, as backwoodsy and bucolic though it may seem to you. There is a strong sense of community within the entire town, though there are cliques but that is true of anywhere you go with any heterogeneity in its population. Mostly, I was just scared of what I would find in Winchester and sad that it wouldn't be the same. So many potential good times I could spend with my closest friends, my chlorinated family, and yet I would be wasting away in a place that I never wanted to be in in the first place. All the plans I had thought of in my head, Prom, Graduation, our last Pep Rally-these were all suddenly irrelevant because I would have no part in them. Instead, I would put amongst strangers, trying to figure out what should have been the two last golden years of high school and struggling to get by. I was disappointed because I thought I had had everything figured out perfectly, and I had the system wired so that I knew I would get exactly what I wanted. I had a team, friends and...well, a life. I was giving it all up, and for what?

I could not have been more wrong. True, the first few days were supremely uncomfortable. I still remember wanting desperately to run out of the pool that first practice because I was so embarassed that I didn't know anyone's name and no one knew me. So many unfamiliar faces, in a school that seemed much bigger than the small town one I had just come from. I thought the whole reality check thing wasn't going to be something I felt until college, when suddenly you get knocked off your high horse by some professor and your have your confidence trashed, in front of a class of hostile students no less. I struggled through the pre-season, and cried for the team I was forced to give up. My friends at home sympathized, but what could they do to help? Not much. The first week of school wasn't so much better, getting lost every day. I tried to walk in the hallways like I knew where I was going, but I think it was probably really obvious that I was completely clueless. These few weeks were like a living Hell. Thanks to some fantastic people here though, the story has a happy ending. Eventually I found my way around, and suddenly things didn't seem so bad. Gradually it felt more natural to be in those cramped 1970s classrooms, dark and dismal though they seemed at first. While the structure of the highschool certainly leaves something to be desired, the people within the school make things seem ok. People, for the most part, were incredibly friendly and helpful. The group of friends I have found, while histrionic at times, are really quite spectacular and the swimmies, both over the summer and the girls' team this fall, have made me proud to be one of them. I feel that some people got incredibly comfortable around me, and thus had a weird sense of security and a little while back that really hurt me. But even then, I had a core of friends already that were trying their best to help me out and that meant the world to me.

So where does that leave me? Well I can't really say that I completely belong to Winchester because I doubt I ever will. But I can't exactly pick up and leave without feeling a sense of remorse either. I know I keep referring to Hopkinton as "home" but I can't help feeling that that's not completely true anymore. For a while, I was worried about the type of person I was shaping up to be here. Some of my longheld ideas were called into question, time and time again. Some of the things I considered doing were petty to the highest degree. I worried that people here would think that I was insubstantial and easy to take advantage of, to forget. And for a while there, it seemed true. People seemed perpetually annoyed at me for complaining, and always being dissatisfied. Now though, I think I'm past all of that. After regaining a modicum of my former composure, I think I'm ready with a brand-new(at least to the people here) attitude. Hopefully I can move forward and be the go-getter I used to be, and the one I'm hoping I still can be. On the whole, I am certainly thankful to have moved to Winchester. Are things perfect? Certainly not. Am I scared by some of my craaaaaazy intense classmates? Well yes. Do I feel pretty mediocre here? Yuh-huh. Is it all worth it though? I'd like to think so. While it's true that the social dynamics here are much more convoluted and complicated than in Hopkinton, I think the ride has been worthwhile thus far. Am I still bitter about having to relocate halfway through highschool? A little bit. But considering how sucky the story looks on paper, things have been pretty smooth thus far.

So ends my first blog entry here...I decided I wanted to start a blog so that 1) I could rant without having to worry that my friends are going to be dying of boredom and 2) To see my growth over the last years of highschool. (sentimental tear). But really. Go ahead and follow me after this post, if you want but I'm letting you know right now: I'm not writing for an audience, this is simply what I think about Life...and all the fun things it contains. The rest of my posts probably won't be so long, but I thought it was appropriate for this first entry. Viva la Vida.

Love,

Tiff