An Imperial Irony

The book, The Fault in Our Stars, could’ve had a much better, more conclusive ending. While I’m not, in any way, degrading Mr. John Green’s writing, there are ways that could’ve better summed up things. In the novel, Green’s main character, Hazel Grace, is obsessed with a book called An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten. Hazel drones on and on about how the novel ends mid-sentence and how she wishes she could somehow figure out a way to know what happens to the other characters written in Van Houten’s book. I can’t help but wonder the same thing about The Fault in Our Stars. Yes, I understand that Augustus Waters, Hazel’s cancerous boyfriend, dies and Hazel is okay with it and that was supposed to be the ending. However, there was no more on the two families and the youth group and Issac. I’m aware that a book has to end at some point but this was just not how. Ending a novel with a letter written to Van Houten from Augustus about Hazel Grace wasn’t a conclusion to anything but the fact that Augustus did indeed love her.

At the end of the novel, Lidewij sends Hazel Grace the letter that Augustus writes to Peter via email. Peter specifically explains to his assistant that he has nothing else to add, but I completely disagree. The letter itself was mediocre, but ends with “I like my choices. I hope she likes hers.” (Green, 313). Hazel then girls the monologue of a response: “I do, Augustus. I do” And then that’s it. The book comes to a close and as a reader, I feel as though there should be more—there needs to be more. I wouldn’t even mind if the narrator went into a five paragraph explanation of why she felt she made good choices, but her simple response to this simple letter wasn’t enough to my curious and insatiable mind.

The book was great but the ending was incomplete. On page 282 of The Fault in Our Stars, Isaac’s last lines are spoken. Isaac was a good friend of Augustus’ and, in my opinion, proved to play an important role in the storyline itself. However, John Green chose not to give insight on how he felt post-death of his best friend. Was he sad? Of course he was, but it was not clearly expressed. He says, “Gus really loved you, you know” (Green, 281), which is something completely irrelevant to his own feelings. The fact is that  Isaac has known Augustus longer than Hazel and despite whatever relationship the two cancerous teens shared, Isaac shouldn’t be used as the character that makes the protagonist feel better. He has feelings, too, and it is clear that John Green fails to admit that through his writing. This all brings me back to my main point of there not being any clarification of the other characters and their future. He barely even discusses the future of Hazel Grace. I find it to be very hypocritical of Green to complain about a loose ending when he, himself, fails to tie up the ends of his own novel.