The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars, young-adult romance novel by American writer John Green known for its exploration of meaning in life and death through the perspective of two teenage cancer patients. The title is a reference to Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, wherein the Roman general Cassius says to the politician Brutus: “Men at some time are masters of their fates, / The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
“I’m like a grenade, mom. I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?” —Hazel describing her fears to her parents
The Fault in Our Stars follows Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old with terminal thyroid cancer. While attending her cancer patient support group, she meets Augustus Waters, a 17-year-old boy who is in cancer remission but whose osteosarcoma has cost him his right leg. While the pair are immediately attracted to each other, Hazel is reluctant to enter into a romantic relationship with Augustus because she fears that her condition has made her a “grenade”—that is, she will eventually hurt everyone in her life by dying.
John Green has confirmed that while An Imperial Affliction (and its author, Peter Van Houten) are not real, he based the idea of the novel on Infinite Jest (1996) by David Foster Wallace, and The Blood of the Lamb (1961) by Peter De Vries. The title, however, is based on the Emily Dickinson poem “There’s a certain Slant of light” (1861).
As the pair navigate their burgeoning relationship, they agree to read each other’s favorite books. Hazel’s favorite is An Imperial Affliction, a novel that deals with cancer in a way with which she strongly identifies. The book is peculiar, however, in that it has no conclusion; it instead ends abruptly, as though the protagonist has suddenly died. Unsatisfied, Augustus tracks down the book’s author, Peter Van Houten, who lives in the Netherlands, and sets up a trip for both himself and Hazel to meet the writer, who he hopes will explain to them what happened to the novel’s various characters.
“It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.” —Augustus on why he holds a cigarette in his mouth without smoking it
The Fault in Our Stars is thematically rich, exploring questions related to pain and suffering that apply to both its cancer-afflicted characters and general readers. Hazel and Augustus discuss what it means to live and die well, worrying that dying abruptly will render their lives meaningless. When Augustus is asked his greatest fear, he answers with just the word “oblivion.” The characters grapple throughout the novel with the moral indifference of a universe in which children contract terminal diseases. In the process, Green both lightheartedly mocks and angrily condemns clichés and social mores associated with cancer.
Green was initially inspired to write what he called his “Children’s Hospital Story” by his time working as an apprentice chaplain at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. However, he was dissatisfied with every draft of his initial manuscript and was deeply saddened by what he witnessed at the hospital; he set the story aside, along with his desire to become a minister. He revisited the idea occasionally for the next 10 years, during which time he published four other novels. He also developed a sizable online following on the video-sharing site YouTube as a co-producer on the channel “Vlogbrothers,” which he created with his brother Hank Green.
In 2010 a fan of Green’s named Esther Grace Earl died of thyroid cancer at age 16. Earl’s death had a profound effect on Green, who had come to know not only Earl but also her family and friends. Green returned to work on his “Children’s Hospital Story” in 2011, this time centering the tale around a teen girl with cancer rather than a chaplain, as he had intended in his initial draft. He later commented: “my anger after [Earl’s] death pushed me to write constantly.” Green wrote part of the novel as a writer-in-residence at an apartment in the Spui of Amsterdam, courtesy of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
The Fault in Our Stars was published in 2012. Powered by Green’s online following, the book debuted at the top of The New York Times bestseller list and was later chosen as Time Magazine’s number one fiction book of 2012. On June 6, 2014, a movie adaptation starring Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster and Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters was released. The film was generally well-received and earned $307.2 million back on its modest $12 million budget. Green later authorized a Hindi-language film (released in 2020 as Dil Bechara, or “The Helpless Heart”) and a stage play based on the book. By 2021 the novel had sold over 23 million copies, making it one of the bestselling books of all time.
