Summary
![Picture](/uploads/8/0/5/3/80539432/565599125.jpg)
We are introduced to a sixteen year old surviving with lung cancer, Hazel Grace Lancaster. Her condition makes it tiring to perform physical tasks, and she has to pull an oxygen cart around to make sure she gets enough. Since her parents and doctor agree that she is depressed, she attends a support group, and at this support group she meets Isaac, a boy with retinoblastoma, and Augustus Waters, a boy who has previously had osteosarcoma.
After the support group meet, Augustus invites Hazel over to watch a movie. They spend time together, and eventually agree to read each other’s favourite books. Hazel’s favourite book is called An Imperial Affliction, and she explains how she has all of these unanswered questions about the characters’ lives in the story after the book ends, because it ends midsentence. She also explains that she has tried to contact the author by sending letters, but he has never replied.
The next day, they spend time with Isaac, who is emotional as he lost his girlfriend and will lose his sight. He previously had one eye removed, but now has to have his second eye removed and will be blind. His girlfriend broke up with him, and that is the only thing he says that he is upset about. Augustus encourages Isaac to take out his anger, and he breaks Augustus’ old basketball trophies with his approval, as he expresses his indifference towards the sport.
After Augustus finishes the book, he has questions himself, and manages to contact the author by finding the email address of his assistant. He shares the email, and through this Hazel is able to ask her questions. When the author, Peter Van Houten replies, he explains that he cannot answer in writing, and would rather reply in person, inviting them to visit him in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the dream of visiting following through on his offer seems unrealistic for someone in her position.
However, Augustus, curious himself, takes Hazel on a picnic, where he offers his foundation’s wish, as Hazel has already used hers, for the two of them to visit travel to Amsterdam for a few days. Hazel makes it clear that she doesn’t want to get too close to him, because she wants to minimize the number of people she hurts when she dies. Before they can leave, fluid fills up in Hazel’s lungs and she has to go to the hospital. Her treatment is slightly altered, she now has a new machine to deliver oxygen in her sleep, she will now have to go regularly to get fluid drained, and she spends time at home to recover. Hazel and Augustus spend more time together, and she soon discovers that the trip is still on, because her mother approved it, even in her condition.
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During the flight, the two watch a movie, and spend a lot of time expressing their view on life in deep conversation. It is at this time that Augustus says that he is in love with her, after knowing her for a little over a month. The evening of the day that they arrive in Amsterdam, the two share dinner at a restaurant that Peter van Houten arranged and paid for.
The next day, they finally get to meet the author, but he is nothing like they expected. He is a rude, drunken old man who insults them and refuses to answer their questions because he sees the reality of the world, and the characters’ lives are fiction. It turns out that Peter did not expect the two to actually try to visit, due to their circumstances, and his assistant had been the one to arrange their dinner. After this emotional catastrophe, his assistant, Lidewij, brings Hazel and Augustus to the Anne Frank house as an apology. This is where the two share their first kiss. Later that night, Hazel tells Augustus that she loves him as well, and the two sleep together.
During their final day in Amsterdam, they spend some time in a café, after which Augustus tells Hazel that he is not as healthy as let on. In fact, after a PET scan, he found that he had cancer growing nearly everywhere in his body, which means that he does not have much time left.
When they return home, they get together with Isaac and help him egg his ex-girlfriend’s car to help him get over her. After this, though, Augustus’ case worsens quickly. Hazel spends time with him, but he is definitely not his strong, positive, energetic self anymore. He gets Hazel and Isaac to write him eulogies and practice them at his pre-funeral a week before he dies.
Hazel struggles with accepting Augustus’ death, fantasizing that he is still with her in many ways. It is a surprise when Peter Van Houten attends his funeral, and explains that Augustus had written to him and told him to attend and answer Hazel’s questions after, but Hazel refuses to listen to what he has to say. She learns from Isaac about something Augustus had mentioned that we had been writing before he died, and she searches in the only places she can think of before figuring out that he mailed it to Peter. Hazel finally gets to read it; it is a letter that Augustus had written about Hazel, what he would have had as her eulogy, and it ends with Hazel accepting that it is worth it to be close to someone, even through the pain.
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