“Were she better or you sicker, then the stars would not be so terribly crossed, but it is the nature of stars to cross…”

Hazel has always known she was terminal. Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that bought her a few years, her diagnosis didn’t change. She had come to terms with this fact, that is until plot twist Augustus Waters shows up at her Cancer Kid Support Group. Suddenly Hazel had a lot more to live for, and a lot more to lose. Hazel hadn’t really contemplated how unfair her life is until now. Hazel always tries to keep her distance from people, afraid of hurting them when she dies, but that gets harder when Augustus is around. She can’t keep him away, but what will happen when she dies? 

Hazel has to deal with all of these problems in John Green’s heartbreaking book. At the beginning of the book, Hazel is so afraid of hurting the people around her, she distances herself from everyone. It’s not until she meets Augustus that she realizes that she is hurting the people around her by distancing herself. Augustus helps Hazel come out of her shell, Hazel learns to open up to people and show them her personality. Augustus makes Hazel think of herself as more than cancer. But having cancer doesn’t mean that you are a saint, only focused on making the world a better place for everyone. Hazel struggles throughout the whole book with not being the perfect role model with cancer. It makes her angry whenever people talk about how she’s fighting valiantly with her disease. And it makes her even angrier when people talk about how someone with cancer fought to the very end. It makes her angry because cancer isn’t pretty, people aren’t fighting with swords raised, charging into battle, they are in hospital beds while tubes drip chemicals into them, hoping to kill cancer that their own body made. Hazel is happier than ever with Augustus Waters, but when cancer rears its ugly head and reminds her that she can never be a normal girl, she falls back into her cancer spiral. Hazel is desperately in love, but will never be with Augustus because of this terrible disease. She and Augustus are the star-crossed-lovers of the modern age; forever doomed, not by their families, but by their diseases.