I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.
— Hazel Lancaster
The Fault in Our Stars is the fourth solo novel by author John Green, released on January 10th, 2012 . The book focuses on a girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster, who is suffering from terminal cancer and is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she meets Augustus Waters, a boy in remission from cancer.Before the book was released, it reached #1 on the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists in June 2011, shortly after its title was announced. Barnes & Noble had accidentally released more than a thousand copies prematurely, however, the fandom vowed not to spoil the book for those who had not received copies.A blog where John answers questions about TFIOS is currently available here for anyone who has finished reading the book, and only for people who have finished the book. (It is no longer password-protected, although one still runs a high risk of major spoilers.)
Tropes present in The Fault In Our Stars include:
A Good Name for a Rock Band: The Hectic Glow, a band "so beautifully underground that they don't even exist".
And Zoidberg: The sign Hazel's father holds up at the airport - "My Beautiful Family (and Gus)"
Artificial Limbs: Augustus has a prosthetic leg due to his osteosarcoma.
The Big Damn Kiss: Hazel and Augustus, in front of a crowd of tourists, in the Anne Frank house.
Bilingual Bonus Pronouncing the Dutch names in actual Dutch is quite entertaining.
Peter van Houten is "Pay-ter fahn Haotehn"
Lidewij Vliegenthart is "Lee-de-vigh Fleehuhnthart"
And so on, and so forth.
Black Comedy: In spades. Hazel and Augustus's jokes about how Augustus is so handsome he literally blinded Isaac and "took Hazel's breath away." Also, Isaac's eulogy for Augustus at the "prefuneral."
Bavarian Fire Drill: When Monica's mom finds Gus, Hazel, and Issac egging her daughter's car.
Danger Takes A Back Seat: Peter Van Houten scares Hazel when he pops up in the back of her parents' van.
Dead Man Writing: Hazel and Lidewij track down Augustus' last letter to Van Houten, which turns out not to be the sequel to "An Imperial Affliction" but his eulogy for Hazel.
Death by Newbery Medal: C'mon...it's a book about two teenagers with cancer who fall in love. How did you not know how this was going to end?
Chekhov's Gun: An Imperial Affliction, as it leads Hazel and Augustus to Amsterdam to met Van Houten.
Though to Green's credit it's a hell of a lot more sincere and deep than the typical usage of the trope.
Kaitlyn: "Oh, my God. I've seen him at parties. The things I would do to that boy. I mean, not now that I know you're interested in him. But, oh, sweet holy Lord, I would ride that one-legged pony all the way around the corral."
Hazel: "Kaitlyn."
Kaitlyn: "Sorry. Do you think you'd have to be on top?"
Hazel: "Kaitlyn."
Kaitlyn: "What were we talking about?"
Fictional Counterpart: The Genie Foundation, which grants wishes to cancer patients. Also, Free Catch All (Craigslist).
Ill Girl: Hazel was diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at age 13, with tumors in her lungs.
Jumping on a Grenade: Augustus enjoys doing this in video games to save the fictional schoolchildren. In a more poetic sense, when Hazel doesn't want him to love her because she is a "grenade" and her death will hurt him, he does anyway.
Killed Mid-Sentence: Anna in An Imperial Affliction, which ends right in the middle of a
In-universe, An Imperial Affliction is named for a phrase in the Emily Dickinson poem "There's a certain slant of light."
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Augustus Waters is a gender-inverted example, not only drawing Hazel out of her slump but helping her realize her dreams before the end.
Except Augustus isn't really a straight example in relation to Hazel, because she doesn't really buy into his grand heroic worldview. Instead of it being this grand revelation for her, she sees it as more staged and slightly off-putting (such as in his big rehearsed Dutch symbolism picnic/speech).
She says she likes him best when that falls away. Also, she refers to how he subverts the expectations of that trope when wailing about how he wants to die during a particularly bad night after he's found to be terminal.
Not quite a straight example of this trope in either case, as everyone knows neither of them are dead when they have the “prefuneral” for Augustus—who actually does end up dying days later—or when Gus and Van Houten write a eulogy for Hazel.
Refuge in Audacity: Gus' speech to Monica's mom after she catches him, Hazel and Isaac egging Monica's car, which actually succeeds in getting her to leave them alone to finish their vandalism.
"Ma'am, your daughter's car has just been deservedly egged by a blind man. Please close the door and go back inside or we'll be forced to call the police.
Shrug of God: John Green has had to do a lot of this to fans who want to know what happened to the characters before/after the contents of the book; this becomes somewhat humorous in light of the fact that there’s also a significant in-universe example where Hazel and Augustus ask Van Houten what happened to the characters of An Imperial Affliction and he tells them he doesn’t know.
Shout Out: At one point Augustus muses that it would be awesome to fly in a super fast jet that could follow the sun; John's admitted to being a fan of Phineas And Ferb, and this was the plot of their first special.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Hazel refers to Augustus and herself as this several times, most notably in her eulogy at the prefuneral.
Hazel mentions that you say thank you a lot in a hospital (think ocular impairment) and an art museum where a Himalayan creature of his affection is employed (look over there!).
The entire book is one big Take That to the Glurge and Tastes Like Diabetes that most cancer stories are filled with.
Teen Genius: Like many other John Green characters, Hazel and Augustus are insanely philosophical and verbally articulate for their age.
Notably, though, they do get several things wrong. Hazel misunderstands both relativity and the concept of infinity, and Gus says "soliloquy" when he means "monologue." According to the author, this was on purpose, to show that even though they're very intelligent, they are still young and inexperienced.
The Fault in Our Stars kind of deconstructs the majority of illness tropes.
Augustus even alludes to this on page 173. "Like, are you familiar with the trope of the stoic and determined cancer victim who heroically fights her cancer with inhuman strength and never complains or stops smiling even at the very end, et cetera?"
"According to the conventions of this genre, he kept his sense of humor until the end, did not for a moment waiver in his courage, and his spirit soared like an indomitable eagle until the world itself could not contain his joyous soul. But this was the truth..."
for anyone who has finished reading the book, and only for people who have finished the book. (It is no longer password-protected, although one still runs a high risk of major spoilers.)
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