The Fault in our Stars, by John Green
If I Stay, by Gayle Forman
The Fault in our Stars is a novel about a sixteen year old girl with thyroid cancer who is forced by her parents to attend a support group for cancer patients. It is there that she met 17 year old Augustus Waters. They were introduced by a mutual friend, Isaac, who was an eye-cancer patient. Slowly, they fell in love but all ended too soon when Augustus’s osteosarcoma came back that had once cost him his leg. It was a journey that taught both Hazel and the readers of The Fault in our Stars that there is life after death.
Published on January 10, 2012, the novel sold more than nine million copies worldwide and received critical acclaim for Green’s characters, plot, themes and the philosophical quotes that became memorable. The movie was released on June 2 2014 in theaters and the DVD was released on September 16th 2014.
If I Stay is a romantic but taunting tale about a girl who was born to rock and roll. She has carefree parents who loved her for who she was as well as a brother named Teddy. Though she seemed left out of her family members’ rock and roll attitude compared with her passion for the cello, she was best friends with her family. She also dated an older, upcoming rock star Adam Wilde and had her best friend, Kim Schein, to support her every step of the way. Her life was pretty much great until she had started thinking about either attending Julliard or sharing her life with Adam. The happiness and joy in her life ended when a car crash that killed her parents and her brother Teddy. The story often flashes back to Mia’s life and flashes into her current state in the hospital.
The sequel of If I Stay is Where She Went. The movie adaptation, under the same name, was released on August 22nd 2014 and the DVD came into stores on November 18th 2014.
I have noticed many similarities between the plots of The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay. Let me list some of them. Firstly, there’s a teenage boy and a teenage girl who have had met, fell in love and took a chance on romance while it lasted. Secondly, a tragedy takes place and the leading character decides whether to move on or stay miserable without their better half. Thirdly, both of these movies are triggers for the waterworks of the audience. They also share the same message: There’s life after death and all we can do is move on from that and have others do the same. And this may not be an important fact, but both of these movies were made at a low budget estimated to about $12 million dollars for The Fault in our Stars and $10 million for If I Stay. However, The Fault in our Stars took the prize home because the film earned $304,186,490 million globally while If I Stay earned about $78.3 million worldwide. Finally, despite the amazingly written plots and the huge box office difference between both films, they both have given us the opportunity to connect with our inner Mia Hall and Hazel Grace.
What I have learned from these two books is that life moves on with or without you. Things happen with or without reason. We can move on if we choose to accept what has happened to us or we can forget moving on and stay where we are while time itself passes by quicker than a lightning bolt.
Personally speaking, these books have enlightened me (if you’re into enlightenment). The novels show how romance is strange enough to exist and yet people like Hazel Grade and Augustus Water from The Fault in our Stars, and Mia Hall and Adam Wilde from If I Stay took their chances in love and explored long enough to see it end.
