As a young adult novel, I think that John Green aimed for The Fault in Our Stars to be mostly realistic so that it would more easily appeal to the target audience of young adults who, like the main characters in this book, are also navigating adolescence and growing up. Simultaneously, the maturity of the main characters Augustus and Hazel Grace seems far-fetched for their ages; their dialogue is too suave or not awkward enough to be convincing for two teenagers who have just met and clearly have feelings for each other. But the most realistic aspect of the book is the part of the story surrounding Augustus’s, and especially Hazel’s, cancer. Hazel’s inner conversation about the short time she has left to live, the degree to which her friends, her parents and Augustus will be affected by her death, and the struggle of being a regular teenager while dealing with cancer are woven realistically throughout the first seven chapters. These thoughts add a sense of reality and rawness to the book that otherwise wouldn’t be there. A part of the reading that really sticks with me is when Hazel realizes the immense pain she’s certain to put anyone who loves her through when she eventually dies; during a conversation at the dinner table she says to her parents, “I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the causalities” (99). This quote not only struck me as being a very painfully truthful realization of someone who knows their going to die soon, but as realistic because I think that, reversely, everyone has had points in their lives when they’ve been scared of suddenly losing someone they love, while simultaneously knowing that it’s out of their hands.