John Green takes on Shakespeare

Kristen Copple and lakecentralnews

The soon-to-be movie adaptation, John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” has been highly acclaimed since its 2012 release. It was a New York Times #1 Best Seller for seven consecutive weeks and currently stands in third. The novel deals with one of the worst diseases known to man–cancer.

The novel takes place in Indianapolis and is narrated by sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster. It tells of Hazel’s love story with Augustus Waters, a cancer patient in remission. They fall in love, but this story is no “Twilight.”

The reader feels an array of emotions throughout, from happiness to sadness and anger to laughter.

“Well, that book definitely dropped an anchor on my heart. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is a great read for anyone who loves a book that will hug your emotions and then kick them in the gut at the same time. A must-read for any avid reader,” Joseph Clark (12) said.

There are a lot of cancer books out there, but this Green novel looks at the disease from a different angle that incorporates humor, despite being a book involving illness.

“You definitely get a different perspective. Most books aren’t written from a dying teenager. [The characters] found humor and happiness, which showed me how, even though these kids were in a bad situation, they made it better. It’s easy to connect with the characters because there’s a lot of detail. You feel for them,” Veljko Mileusnic (12) said.

The title comes from the William Shakespeare play “Julius Caesar.” Cassius says, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings” (Act 1 Scene 2). It appears Green did not agree with Shakespeare on the topic of fate, and he decided to speak out.

“The Fault in Our Stars” movie premieres on June 6.