The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

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Life is full of ups and downs, life and death, love found and lost, but when cancer is brought into the mix all of these elements are compacted into a much shorter time when the ill person is still a teen. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, supplies an in depth view on what this situation might be like, as seen through the eyes of  Hazel, who's lungs are failing her, and Augustus, who lost a leg to cancer.

The two star crossed lovers' paths intersect for the first time at the cancer group meeting at a church in what they have deemed the heart of Jesus. From there a relationship develops around a love of literature, family, and the life that they want to hold onto so desperately in spite of the odds that are against them.

Hazel shares her favorite book, The Imperial Affliction, with Gus, along with the backstory of how much the book means to her and her ongoing attempt to connect with the author, Van Houten, in order to find out what happens to the characters whose stories are left unfinished. Hazel used her "Make a Wish" for Disneyland, Gus has held onto his and uses this opportunity to take a trip with Hazel and her mother to Amsterdam to meet Van Houten.

Though, the author doesn't live up to their expectations, there is so much more that surmounts the two starry eyed kids' expectations that the unfairness of their not surprising, yet horrible, fate will bring tears to the eyes of anyone with a heart.

Green more than delivers what has come to be expected of him as an author in this telling of lives that are too short. Lives that could have been remembered by many, but now will be immortalized in the hearts of a few. The reader will be left wondering if, in such a case as this, a greater memory in fewer means more. I think so.