Reading Log of "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green

Table of contents

1. Before reading the book
- Description of the book cover
- Expectations of the book

2. While reading the book
- When did I read what?
- Summary of each chapter
- Description of the main characters
- Profile of Augustus Waters
- Description of the most moving scene of the book
- Diary entry from Isaac’s perspective
- Collage of my favourite scene

3. After reading the book
- Personal opinion about the ending
- Critique of the book
- My own cover

Before reading the book

Description of the book cover

The background of the book’s front cover is light blue. There are two big clouds, a white one and a black one, which are the things you recognize first. The title, “The Fault in Our Stars”, is written in the black cloud and the name of the author, John Green, is written in the white cloud. The font resembles the fog in the clouds, which makes it very suitable for the rest of the cover. Altogether, the front cover looks like a sky with some clouds. Above the two clouds is a yellow dot and it says that the book is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. This is kind of an advertisement because the publisher of the book wants you to think that the book must be good as it is a bestseller. At the bottom there is a quote from a famous German-Australian author, Markus Zusak. He tells us about the feelings he had while reading the book and that he wanted to read more books by John Green.

On the back cover, there is one quote from the famous newspaper “Time”, which tells us how good the book is. The next paragraph is kind of an advertisement as well. Again, the designer of the book cover wants us to think it is an incredible good book. The last paragraph summarizes the plot very roughly. We can guess that Hazel and Augustus fall in love, although it is not written in the text.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Expectations of the book

As I have already seen the movie and read the book as well, I know what the plot is about and I know that I like it. When I went to the cinema to watch the movie, I was a bit sceptical because I normally do not like dramatic and sentimental films but afterwards I was very impressed how good it is and it was actually the first movie I have ever nearly started to cry. A few months later I decided to buy the book because one of my friends told me that it is pretty good. Again, I was very sceptical because I did not want to read the book in case I do not like it as much as I liked the movie. I was not sure, whether the author could describe the story as good as it is described in the movie and I thought that I would not like the book at all if it was not as great as the film. Another thing I was not really sure about was that I do not read a lot of fictional books. I mean I do read a lot but mostly no made up stories. Obviously there was a lot of doubt whether to read it or not but finally I ended up reading it – and I did not regret it.

While reading the book

While reading the book

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Summary of each chapter

The book starts with a quote from the book that is mentioned in “The Fault in Our Stars”, An Imperial Affliction. The quote is about a man looking at the sea. He sees the waves and the water as a metaphor for time.

Chapter One (24/05/15)

The main character, Hazel Graze Lancaster, a girl suffering from terminal cancer, lives with her parents. Her mom makes her attend a support group for children and teenagers who are diagnosed with cancer as well. She meets Augustus Water there, who has joined the group because of his friend Isaac, who attends the group as well. Augustus and Hazel get to meet each other and he invites her to his house to watch a movie with an actress, who looks like Hazel Graze according to Augustus.

Chapter Two (24/05/15)

Augustus drives with Hazel to his house. On the way, Hazel Graze explains her cancer story to Augustus. When they arrive at the house, Gus’s parents are cooking. They welcome Hazel and the two teenagers go downstairs into the basement, aka Gus’s room, to talk. Hazel makes Gus read her favourite book, An Imperial Affliction and she promises to read one of Gus’s books. After that they watch V for Vendetta, a pretty famous movie. At the end of the chapter they say goodbye and say that they would catch up soon.

Chapter Three (25/05/15)

The next morning, Hazel’s mom wakes her up because it is her thirty-third half-birthday, which means she turns 16 and a half years old. To celebrate the day, Hazel Graze meets up with her old school friend Kaitlyn. They hang out in a shopping centre and talk about anything and afterwards they go shopping. After Kaitlyn leaves, Hazel buys the second book of the book series Gus fancies.

Chapter Four (25/05/15)

Hazel starts reading An Imperial Affliction again and we get to know what the book is about. It is about Anna, who has cancer and the book ends in the middle of a sentence because Anna probably dies. Because Hazel Graze wants to know what happens after the ending of the book she wants to track down the author. After a while Hazel calls Augustus and because she realizes that Isaac is with him and apparently very depressed and sad, she comes over to help. When she arrives, Gus tells her that Isaac and his girlfriend broke up. As a therapy Augustus offers Isaac to destroy all of his basketball trophies.

Chapter Five (25/05/15)

After a while Gus calls Hazel and tells her what he thinks about An Imperial Affliction. He also loves the book and they talk about it for quite a while. Somehow Augustus contacted Van Houten, the author, and he surprises Hazel with an email he got from Van Houten’s assistant. At the end of the phone call they discover “Okay” as kind of a promise to each other, like Monica and Isaac used to say “always”. Hazel writes an email to Van Houten and asks him to give her some information about what happens after the end of her favourite book. In this chapter Isaac has his operation as well and gets blind because of that. The next morning Hazel Graze gets an answer from Van Houten, who tells her that he could impossibly write about the ending of the book but he offers her to talk about it if she ever finds herself in Amsterdam, where he lives. At the end of the chapter Gus offers her his “Genie Wish”, a wish that all children with cancer get from an organisation and because Hazel has already used her wish for a trip to Disney World, Augustus wants to take her on a Trip to Amsterdam.

Chapter Six (25/05/15)

Home again, Hazel tells her parents about Gus’s generous offer to take her to Amsterdam. They are both not sure whether that is a good idea because of her disease. She is very sad and also confused about her feelings for Augustus. After she checked the Facebook page of Gus’s ex-girlfriend, who died of cancer, she decides not to risk hurting him, too. At dinner she bursts and tells her parents that she is like a grenade that is about to explode and kill everything around it. Later this evening, her parents come to her room and talk about it and say that they do not see her as a grenade, but love her without any exceptions. Hazel finally falls asleep but the next morning she wakes up and has a massive headache.

Chapter Seven (25/05/15)

Hazel Graze’s parents take her to the hospital right away and she faints. Later, she wakes up in the ICU alone. She learns that the headache was not caused by a brain tumour, but by fluid in her lungs. She has to spend six more days in the hospital until she is finally allowed to go home. Augustus, who has been waiting the whole time in the hospital, can talk to her and he tells her that the trip to the Netherlands is not possible until she gets better. Hazel does not accept that and asks her mom right away if she could go to Amsterdam.

Chapter Eight (25/05/15)

Hazel attends a Cancer Group Meeting with all her doctors and they discuss her current situation. At the end of the meeting, Hazel asks whether she can go to Amsterdam and two of the three doctors say that it is okay but one is against it because he doesn’t want to risk anything. Hazel is incredibly sad that she can’t go and she calls Augustus. They meet up and Augustus tries to comfort her. The next morning Hazel receives an email from Van Houten’s assistant, who tells her that everything is set up for her trip next week. Hazel tells her mom that they have to tell Van Houten that they won’t come but her mom tells her that the trip is actually on and the doctors agreed to let her go.

[...]