Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to re-examine her perspective on love, loss, and life. Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. This novel is exceptionally well-written, where first love, sex, friendship, and identity — common concerns in Young Adult narratives — are experienced in the crucible of terminal illness. Hazel and Gus's emerging love is punctuated by bouts of vividly-described illness, and they confront questions of life after death in between banter and romantic gestures. Green's narrative resolutely does not sanitise or diminish suffering: physical and emotional suffering are anatomised. Hazel's cancer has spread to her lungs: she has had a temporary reprieve due to successful participation in a drugs trial, but her cancer is incurable. Gus is in remission from osteosarcoma, which required the amputation of one of his legs. Death, loss, grief, guilt and disillusionment are grappled with. Gus and Hazel are dazzling in their witty and heart-felt exchanges, and we witness these in scenarios as diverse as hospital settings, children's playgrounds, cancer support group, Anne Frank's house, and at the home of an embittered but brilliant author. This book will appeal to all readers, not just those who are experiencing cancer directly. This edition includes some colour photographs from the film adaptation.

Teenagers; Young Adults; Adults