The book that I read was "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green.  The copyright date is January 2012.  This book is  realistic fiction and romantic themed. This book is also going to be turned into a movie in a few months! The story is narrated by a sixteen-year-old cancer patient named Hazel, who is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she unexpectedly meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Augustus Waters, an ex-basketball player and amputee.  Hazel Grace Lanscaster was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung and thyroid cancer when she was 13 and has been holding up only from a drug called Phalanxifor.  After meeting Augustus her life is starting to get back to a better ease.  It also includes all of the things they did together.  In "The Fault in Our Stars" the author believes that love is a very fragile thing and that no matter what happens you can love and be loved.
         This book is told by the point of view from Hazel.  Hazel states that after going to one of her support group meetings she meets a guy named Augustus ( Gus ) Waters.  Soon after they meet the fall in love and start doing everything together.  One of the major things they do is take a trip to Amsterdam to meet an author that they are both obsessed with, so that he can answer some of their questions about his books in person.  Although the author did not give them what they wanted the still got the results they were looking for.  The intended audience is teenage kids around my age.  This book is classified as a realistic fiction and romantic story because it could happen in real life and has real life situations.  This author reminded me of Suzanne Collins with the Hunger Games series.  Both books were very interesting to me because they would give hints about what was coming up.  Also at the end of the chapters, for both books, it has a heart pounding ending to the end of the chapter that makes me want to keep reading! It took some serious effort for me to put this down.  The author's style is a happy but sad story.  Happy because it's adorable seeing to cancer patients together and having the time of their lives.  Sad because is has an extremely emotional ending.  It is effective for the audience because it tells them that cancer victims can do just the same things that everyone else can do.  " That was the worst part about having cancer: the physical evidence of diseases separates you from other people." - Hazel.  "They just piss me off sometimes.  And I don't want to be pissed off today" - Augustus.
          This book has defiantly made me look at cancer patients and what they go through very differently.
       It didn't make me change my ideas about cancer and diseases though.  The thing that makes it fit in with my own personal view of the world is that it told me that no matter how much stress, struggles, or horrible things that happen to you you can still have hope on something good.  Ex. Augustus and Hazel meeting.  Currently this book has not reminded me of any others that I have read.
          This is defiantly one of my favorite books now!  The author did a great job on writing it.  He made me feel what the characters were feeling and experiencing.  I would absolutely recommend this book!

Riley Whitford
11/6/13
Rating : **** 4/5