313 pages

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult

Published January 10th 2012

Publisher: Dutton Books

5/5 stars

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

(from Goodreads)

Hazel  Graze, a 16 years old teenage girl who has lung cancer. She used to have ‘flat’ life because of her illness. She regulary attends the Supporting Cancer Group and always be the most silent one.

Augustus Waters, a 17 years old boy who has osteosarcoma which caused one of his leg should be amputated. He uses his artificial leg in daily life. He never, i think, noticed Hazel before until she speaks up:

“There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.”

Hazel amazed him, and then they start to be friends and build a relationship. There’s only thing they share: books, especially An imperial Affliction. Hazel was curious by the story about Anna’s (the main character of the book) mother. She and Augustus and her mother even wnt to Amsterdam to meet the authot, Peter Van Houten, but they didn’t get what they want. Augustus promised her that he’ll write the sequel for her.

Despite of that, their “holiday” had proved their love. i like the romance story and i felt furious everytime the romance scenes are suspended at the begining. But, i like the way Augustus love Hazel. While i read it, i wish i were Hazel L.  But, sadly i say, Augustus also told her that the cancer had already invaded almost his whole body. Honesly, i cried when i read about Hazel and Augustus’s moments before he died. It is sweet yet painful. And i was drowned by my own tears when he died. (That’s why i don’t like sad ending stories).

At the end of the story, we can find out that Augustus had already written the story for Hazel. But i’ve been disappointed because in the end, just like Hazel who already wnet to Amsterdam because Van Houten promised her to tell Anna’s mom’s story, i didn’t get what i want. What happen with Anna’s mother then? Will john Green tell us if we asked?

Here are some quotes i got from the book: