When I first finished reading The Fault in Our Stars, it was 3 a.m. and my heart plummeted. What a lovely book. This quote from the novel sums up how I feel: “Sometimes, you read a book … and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless … all living humans read the book. And then there are books like – insert book here – which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like betrayal.”

The Fault in Our Stars tells the story of cancer-stricken 16-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster. Knowing she has a terminal disease, she doesn't do much except watch “America's Top Model” and read The Imperial Affliction over and over. Hearing “cancer,” you might expect a story of bravery and heroism, where the illness is the antagonist and somehow the protagonist overcomes the awful torture, but The Fault in Our Stars is not like this. It features cancer, but not as the main topic.

Although death and cancer and loss and sorrow are all prominent in these pages, it is also a downright cheesy, sappy, awfully clichéd love story that makes the hearts of teenage girls flutter and the eyes of experienced adults roll. And I loved every single page of it.

A character like Augustus Waters is rare: he is a charismatic, inquisitive, and thoughtful old soul who was a victim of osteosarcoma, losing a leg to the disease at a young age.

Even though cancer is such a morbid topic, Green manages to show a sensitively humorous side of it through his characters: Augustus is constantly joking about his stub and being one-legged, and Hazel constantly complains about her lungs sucking at being lungs.

Green manages to examine life, love, and death with an honesty few could hope to achieve. He shows how scary cancer can be, but manages to make life fascinating and wondrous, even if the pain of cancer resides in it.

The Fault in Our Stars is my favorite book. I feel that those who haven't read it haven't seen the cruelty or beauty in life. But at the same time, I keep this book close to my heart since it's more special to me than I possibly could have imagined when I first opened it.