From Indianapolis to Amsterdam, The Fault in Our Stars takes characters Augustus, Hazel and Isaac on an emotional, heart-wrenching story of living life even while you fight to survive it.

Written by John Green, the story follows Hazel, a 16-year-old fighting terminal, stage three thyroid cancer, which has spread into her lungs and sent her spiraling into a bout of depression. Her mother, in an effort to get Hazel back to her old self, forces her to attend a cancer support group. Here, Hazel meets cancer survivor Augustus, and an incredible friendship is born.

The Fault in Our Stars is very well-worded and is full of lessons on life. Augustus and his unlit-cigarette is a wonderful metaphor. He likes having a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, and he likes putting one in his mouth occasionally, but he never ever lights it. For him, the cigarettes are one area in his life where he can have power over his body and what does and does not kill it.

The beauty of some of Green’s deeper metaphors, however, may be lost on the average teen reader. Green is an amazing writer, one of the best young adult authors on the market, but his concepts are a bit advanced, or maybe it’s just that his main characters are super intelligent (which they are); at any rate, the popularity of the book among adults rather than just teens shows that it includes some higher-level thinking. Then again, that is not always a bad thing.

Love, life, death and all of its horrors – not a set of topics that the reader expects to bring laughter with the tears, but Green manages it in this heart-warming novel. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.