THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
All About The Fault In Our Stars
The Story
The story takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana, where
sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster reluctantly attends a cancer
patients' support group at her mother's behest. Because of her cancer,
she uses a portable oxygen tank to breathe adequately. In one of the
meetings she catches the eye of a teenage boy, and through the course of
the meeting she learns the boy's name is Augustus Waters. He's there to
support their mutual friend, Isaac. Isaac had a tumor in one eye that
he had removed, and now he has to have his other eye taken out as well.
After the meeting ends, Augustus approaches Hazel and tells her she
looks like Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta.
He invites Hazel to his house to watch the movie, and while hanging
out, the two discuss their experiences with cancer. Hazel reveals she
has thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. Augustus had osteosarcoma,
but he is now cancer-free after having his leg amputated. Before
Augustus takes Hazel home, they agree to read each other's favorite
novels. Augustus gives Hazel The Price of Dawn, and Hazel recommends An Imperial Affliction.Hazel explains the magnificence of An Imperial Affliction: it is a novel about a girl named Anna who has cancer, and it's the only account she's read of living with cancer that matches her experience. She describes how the novel maddeningly ends mid-sentence, denying the reader closure about the fate of the novel's characters. She speculates about the novel's mysterious author, Peter Van Houten, who fled to Amsterdam after the novel was published and hasn't been heard from since.
A week after Hazel and Augustus discuss the literary meaning of An Imperial Affliction, Augustus miraculously reveals he tracked down Van Houten's assistant, Lidewij, and through her he's managed to start an email correspondence with the reclusive author. He shares Van Houten's letter with Hazel, and she devises a list of questions to send Van Houten, hoping to clear up the novel's ambiguous conclusion. Hazel is most concerned with the fate of Anna's mother. She figures that if Anna's mother survives her daughter's death, then her own parents will be all right after Hazel dies. Van Houten eventually replies, saying he could only answer Hazel's questions in person. He invites her to stop by if she is ever in Amsterdam.
In the midst of her struggle over what to do about Augustus, Hazel suffers a serious episode in which her lungs fill with fluid and she goes to the ICU. When she is released after a period of days, she learns that Augustus never left the hospital's waiting room. He delivers Hazel another letter from Van Houten, this one more personal and more cryptic than the last. After reading the letter, Hazel is more determined than ever to go to Amsterdam. There is a problem though: her parents and her team of doctors don't think Hazel is strong enough to travel. The situation seems hopeless until one of the physicians most familiar with her case, Dr. Maria, convinces Hazel's parents that Hazel must travel because she needs to live her life.
