When I finished this book I did so with a smile and a "hmm," because it sent me to bed thinking. I like when a book does that to me. Don't get me wrong: this is a very sad, very touching story. It's a good story. It's a sweet story. It's.... it's Titanic. 
 Unlike Titanic though, The Fault in Our Stars comes with a message. It got four stars for excellent writing and a good story, but the fifth is for a message. I'd argue this message is so powerful and scary (and touching and beautiful) I'd recommend it to every student in my 7th grade class, if they were just a bit older to know of something more serious than a highschool crush. But I digress (which is often the case). Let me get back to what happens in the story, and then I'll talk about the message. 
 One line that always resonated with me was "I was a hand grenade that never stopped exploding." No, you won't find this quote in this book, because I got it from Marilyn Manson. Grace basically says the same thing: she's a grenade, and one day she'll explode, hurting everyone around her. That's why she doesn't want Gus (Augustus), her love interest, to get too close. You'd think Grace's "grenade syndrome" is in her cancer-hastened mortality, but no. We are *all* grenades who are about to explode, afraid to hurt the ones we love. Let me explain. 
 See, a classic love story is made of two people: Grenade-tossers and those who jump on grenades in an attempt to save them. This is, conveniently, a point Green emphasized in the story via the video game they keep playing and the letter G. Grace was the Grenade. Gus the one who jumps on the Grenade. The three Gs, together, and you have a love story. This is a known formula, which would explain why I compared it to itanic. 
 Reading beyond this point, I'm afraid, would ruin some of the surprise in the story, even though I doubt there's one. But be warned anyway. 
 (view spoiler)[I know what you're thinking. Grace thought she'd die on Gus first, so it was her who really took the grenade, right? But no. The truth is much more painful than that. Gus gave up his wish and eventually his life (by denying treatment and going with her to Amsterdam) for Grace. He was angry, because he was disappointed. He was disappointed because he failed to make his mark on the world. instead, he left a mark only on one person only. And that person, in her infininant human wisdom, explained back to him that that exactly all we can hope to do is humans in this world: make an impact on one person at a time (I don't think she realized that when she told him that though). 
 Gus had a choice. A choice we all make when we love someone. His choice was to *not* be a cancer victim. He lived his life to the fullest, as best as he could, completely ignoring his disease for as long as he could. He did it through Grace, a person who gave him the reason to live this way. At one point he tells Grace about a visit to a museum where he sees images of different war heros and such, angry that not a single picture is of a cancer survivor. Everyone's a hero, yet, no one will remember the people who had cancer. That's because cancer (in this story at least), is a state of mind. It's a mood, basically something like saying "I feel like cancer today." What Green did, beautifully, is to tell a cancer story about two teens who have cancer, yet somehow it's not about cancer at all - it's about making choices and living life (and no, it's not about love either, it's about what love *does*). And life, like it or not, doesn't give a rat's ass if you have cancer, if you're blind, or if you won the lottery. And that's the message folks. 
 Unlike Titanic, or other love stories who brought me to the verge of tears, this one was yelling at me to get up and do something before I too will succumb to mortality. And its this urgency I wish I could send to all the teens I'm teaching. (hide spoiler)]