The Fault in Our Stars, a movie based on a best-selling book by John Green, was recently released in theaters. This film was so popular that Edge of Tomorrow, featuring the renowned Tom Cruise, actually flopped in theaters just by competing against it. But does this cancer story deserve that hype? I think so, and now I will analyze how this story is different than what I think the public is used to.

The movie is faithful to the book, so I will be reviewing the plot. It is told by a reclusive 16-year-old cancer patient named Hazel Grace Lancaster who complains, especially when her parents force her into a Cancer Support Group. They want her to be a “teenager” and enjoy life, rather than attending Cancer Support Groups. It’s clear to her that the people around her don’t see her as a normal teenager because they are too preoccupied with the fact that she may eventually die. All she likes to do is re-read her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten because she believes that it shows how terminal cancer realistically affects people. Soon, she meets two friends at her Support Group, Isaac and Augustus. Issac is blind and Augustus has one leg; the latter finds her interesting.

Green realized many cancer stories were not from the patient’s perspective, so he wrote in Hazel’s. Now, giving the perspective from the dying patient rather than from loved ones may not seem revolutionary. However, when stories about pain are told straight from the horse’s mouth, it allows people like me to react on a more personal level. After reading this book it hit me that the media portrays the ill as fragile little lambs defined by their suffering. Truth is, they are still flawed human beings, just like everyone else. Hazel like a normal teenager is rebellious, if not whiny. Augustus tries to make sure that she doesn’t become her disease. Just because Hazel is dying, the world revolves around her. When she does something wrong, people do get mad at her.

This is a story worth being told. The fact that cancer patients are still prone to flaws and shouldn’t have their illness consume their individuality is something worth sharing. We should still treat them as if they were everyone else because that is what many of them want to be.