The Holes In Our Hearts- TFIOS review

The Fault In Our Stars ,or TFIOS, as people these days prefer calling it ,is one of the most feel good books that I’ve read in a long time, and trust me when I say long time, I mean it. After reading the book, you feel like you have lost something, a big chunk of your heart is missing, and Hazel has taken it with her. Yes, I know that happens after every good book has been devoured, licked, sniffed, eaten,etc(whatever you prefer), but this book goes an extra mile. I love it. Yes, there, I said it, I love this goddamn book. No, I have not been bribed by anyone to confess that.

Enough of my feelings (yeah, I know they do get out of control at times, but I’ll try putting them on the back burner for a short while.) Let me just give you a brief of the book, which is by the way, being made into a feature film, so if you are not a reader and a movie buff instead, you can watch the movie. But as is the case with all the movies that have been “inspired” by books, I don’t think will do John Green’s story much justice. Anyway, not dwindling from the topic( yes, I can do it), let me tell you about the story(phew, finally).

TFIOS is the story, ehm, love story of Hazel Grace, a girl in remission from Cancer and a boy Augustus Waters also in remission. So after you have felt sad/bad about these two, you can move ahead and start loving these two. Hazel doesn’t want to make more connections in the world for the remaining period of her life as she thinks she will be hurting those people when she dies. Sweet, I know! And then there is Augustus, who is full of life and basically the exact opposite of Hazel. He lives each day as his last, and even smokes a cigarette that is not alight, something to do with his philosophy of laughing at death. They meet in a Cancer Support Group and Augustus falls for Hazel on first sight, she resembles his ex (typical). Oh, I forgot to mention, Augustus is totally hot, yeah yeah, it’s a teenage book so everyone has to be hot, even dying people. Then Augustus flirts with Hazel and they get to know each other more by talking on phone throughout the night, reading each other’s favourite books, Hazel’s An Imperial Infliction and Augustus’ Price of Dawn. Ah, ye olde Romance.

Meanwhile ,their mutual friend Isaac who has eye cancer and already had only one eye gets operated and loses the other eye as well as his Hot(surprise) girlfriend Monica, who couldn’t deal with Isaac going blind and all. Hazel has a dream, a wish, of knowing the ending of An Imperial infliction which was not written in the book and wants to know about it from the author Peter Van Houten by going to Amsterdam, and Isaac like a true boyfriend decides to give her his “wish”. They then go to Amsterdam to meet the author who surprisingly turns out to be a meanie. A drunk mean,  at that. He treats them horrifically and they leave his house. Nut don’t you think that their trip goes to waste. Nah, that never happens. They go to the Anne Franke House and kiss in public. Yay, you go guys. Then they have lovely lunches and dinners and something else as well, in their room, you catching my drift? After returning from Amsterdam, Augustus reveals that his cancer has returned and he might be dying, soon.

By this time, my heart was shattered into a hundred pieces. And then a million more pieces when Augustus calls to hear the eulogies hazel and Isaac had written for him or when he goes to egg Monica’s place with Isaac and Hazel. And after many many emotional moments Augustus bids his goodbye. He leaves Hazel a eulogy asking her to be happy with her choices. And the book ends with hazel accepting to be happy with her choices and the readers heart broken, wiping snot in their tissues, bawling openly and wanting to start reading the book all over again. At least that is what I felt. Ah, I forgot to mention, Van Houten drops by on Augustus’ funeral and tells Hazel about his cancer stricken daughter on whom he had based Anna from his book, but that doesn’t make him any less of a douche, so that is there.

In the end , I conclude by saying that this book does that to the heart of a book reader what a chocolate cake does to foodie. So this is the chocolate cake of books, guilty pleasure. 

Book Reviews, John Green, The Fault In Our Stars, fabulas