An Imperial Affliction
John Green The Penguin Group 2012 313 pages
Character Description
Hazel Grace Lancaster- Hazel is a teenager with cancer in her lungs and she always has a new journey each day. But her life changes after she meets Augustus Waters.
Augustus Waters- Augustus is a teenager with a prothstetic leg. He has been NEC for 14 months. His life also changes after Hazel has come along in his life. He calls her Hazel Grace not "Just Hazel".
Augustus Waters- Augustus is a teenager with a prothstetic leg. He has been NEC for 14 months. His life also changes after Hazel has come along in his life. He calls her Hazel Grace not "Just Hazel".
Issac- Issac is Augustus's friend and he was how Hazel and Augustus meet because he asked Augustus to be at Support group with him. Issac has a glass eye and is going into surgery for his other eye and when he is done he will be totally blind.
Mom Lancaster- Mrs.Lancaster is Hazel's mom and she is always there for her whether she is in the shower and she screams or if she is downstairs. She means the world to Hazel.
Dad Lancaster- Mr.Lancaster is also always there for her as well. He loves her so much and he is Hazel's world to Hazel like her mom.
Plot Summary
The story is narrated by a sixteen-year-old cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster,who is forced by her parents to attend a support group in the "Literal Heart of Jesus" where she subsequently meets and falls in love with a seventeen-year-old Augustus Waters,and ex-basketball player,as well as an amputee.
Conflict
Hazel Grace Lancaster is battling lung cancer. She meets Augustus Waters who has been NEC for 14 months. Hazel has an obsession of reading her favorite book "An Imperial Affliction" She loves reading that book over and over again. She has Augustus read the book and he loves it too. They get invited to Amsterdam by Peter Van Houten the author of the book. But Hazel gets fluid in her lungs a week before they leave. Her doctors that she can't go because it would be too much of a risk of flying. She gets an email from Lidewij Peter's assistant. She asks her mom if they are actually going and her mom says "I wasn't supposed to tell you until your dad got home." She ends up going, her mom, and Augustus.In the middle of the trip Augustus says to hazel that he had a PET scan because he had an ache in his hip. At the end he ends up not there anymore and that just breaks everyone's heart.
Title Explantion
The title is inspired by Act 1,Scene 2 of Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar,in which the nobleman Cassius says to Brutus: "The fault,dear Brutus,is not in our stars,/ but in ourselves,that we are underlings."
I think another good title for the book would be "A new Beginning of life" because she gets to live her dream of meeting Peter Van Houten because of a new beginning of meeting Augustus Waters.
Book Review
I think the book was AMAZING! It was romantic,funny,and sad. My favorite quote from the book was "Pain demands to be felt," that's my favorite quote because, well, they have cancer and they love the book "An Imperial Affliction" and that quote is Hazel and Augustus's favorite quote in the book. Out of 1-10 to recommend/rate is 1,000,000,000, because it was such an awesome book. I love that part when they go to Amsterdam and especially when Augustus is on the plane, because Augustus was freaking out and it was really funny.