Supposedly a young adult novel but it would appeal to most people. It's a love story with a twist, both young people are suffering the devastation from cancers. Hazel is telling the story, and she suffers from a form of lung cancer. She has been close to death a couple of times in her sixteen years but because of a wonder drug, she has been given a hiatus from the cancer, though she must carry with her, at all times, an oxygen tank. She is not your typical cancer patient if there is such a thing. She is an iconoclast, sees her existence differently, sees her cancer as part of her, just a cell that dooms her a bit earlier than the rest of us. At a meeting at the local church for cancer patients, she meets Augustus, an outgoing, lively good looking kid who takes immediate interest in her. After the meeting, she ends up going home with him, where he lives with his parents, and they connect, with the same wry, dark sense of humor, similar interests and predicaments. Augustus has had to have a leg amputated but he is cancer free, different from Hazel who is just in remission. We watch as they become closer and closer, despite the fact that Hazel worries about being a 'grenade', someone ready to blow up at any time (die of cancer) injuring or hurting everyone that loves her, her wonderful parents and, of course, Augustus. He finally convinces her to live with the idea that those she leaves behind will be injured but that's the way it is.
They bond over a book by a Dutch writer, who speaks to them, with his own dark view of existence, dark humor, death of it's young protagonist, and the book ends with many unanswered questions of the characters who survive. Hazel reads the book weekly, writes to the author but never gets a reply. Augustus, however, does make contact and through the Make A Wish program, they both manage to fly to Amsterdam, meet the reclusive writer, now an obvious misanthrope, who spends little if any time with them, insults both, and they leave disenchanted with the writer they so admired.
Things change when they get home. Augustus, supposedly cured, discovers a pain in his leg, gets a Cat Scan and finds the cancer has spread over his entire body, dooming him to a certain and most likely quick death. The rest of the novel describes how they deal with the certainty of Augustus's death. It's an emotional final third of the book though inspiring as well as they deal with this 'thing' with courage and compassion. We witness how Augustus deals with death, how he treats those he loves. Hazel must live through his death, then the funeral, then her life after his death. The only silliness in the book is at the end, at Augustus's funeral, when the misanthropic writer Van Houten arrives, apologizes for his behavior, and tells Hazel about the inspiration for his novel, the death of his eight year old daughter. The two reconcile some what, then Van Houten leaves.
After the funeral, Hazel discovers that Augustus left her a final letter, searches his computer and bedroom to no avail but finds it in an email he wrote to Van Hooten. She reads it and the book ends with his words: "I am so lucky to love her...You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my chances I hope she likes hers." An emotional book, a tough look at cancer and death, definitely not a beach read but I can see why my granddaughter Hayden and all her friends have read it and went to the movie the first night is showed.
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