"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." Julius Caesar (I.i.140-41)

For about a year I've heard people talking about John Green and how much young people love his books.  People raved about Looking For Alaska, and I was tempted to start with An Abundance of Katherines...then someone said, "Start with his newest book: The Fault in Our Stars."  John Green has a new fan.  In the back of the "Exclusive Collector's Edition," Green answers some questions readers have posed on his website.  When asked about the title, Green responded:

There’s a moment in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar when one Roman nobleman says to another, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”  And in the context of the play, that quotation makes perfect sense—these two guys did not suffer some unjust destiny; they made decisions that led them to their fates.

However, that quote has since been decontextualized over and over and used universally as a way of saying that the fault is not in the stars (i.e., fate/luck/whatever) but in individual people.

Well, that’s ridiculous.  There is plenty of fault in our stars.  Many people suffer needlessly not because they’ve done something wrong or because they’re evil or whatever but because they get unlucky. (4)

Green creates a world in which two teenagers, both dying of cancer, meet in a support group and fall in love.  However, the novel is so much more than a love story and certainly not meant to simply pull at the reader’s heartstrings.  It is about taking control of our lives and being strong while needing the support of others.  Hazel is an only child who sees the pain and sacrifices of her parents and worries about them.  Augustus has a brother but also knows the special ties that bind him to his parents. 

Early on in the novel Hazel says, “That’s the thing about pain.  It demands to be felt” (63.)  She has learned to live through it.  She earned her GED and is attending college classes, but she knows what the treatments have done to her and lugs an oxygen tank with her – a literal lifeline.  And as one character says, “There is no honor in dying of” (217).

There is so much more to this novel including a novel that is Hazel’s obsession.  And I never give spoilers.  The Fault in Our Stars has been made in to a soon to be released movie.      I will NOT see it.  Having seen a movie poster, I fear it will be the new Love Story: a sappy tear-jerker romance.  The story in my mind is the one I want to remember.  I do not care who plays Hazel or Augustus…read the novel.  Savor the intertwined strands of real life and the important characters not mentioned in this review.  Read The Fault in Our Stars.

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books, 2012. Print.