The Fault In Our Stars

Submission 16,012

About

The Fault in Our Stars is an American young adult novel written by John Green of the Vlogbrothers and published in January 2012. The book, which tells the story of two teenagers who meet in a cancer support group and fall in love, was met with highly positive reception and subsequently adapted into a feature film with the same name.

History

Book

John Green first announced the plan for his fifth novel The Fault in Our Stars in a Vlogbrothers episode on June 29th, 2011, followed by its publication on January 21st, 2012. The book was inspired in part by Green’s work earlier in his life as a chaplain at a children’s hospital, and in part by Esther Earl, a teenage cancer patient whom Green had befriended before she succumbed to the illness in 2010. A book of Earl’s writing titled This Star Won’t Go Out^[20] was published on January 28th, 2014, and featured an introduction written by Green. The title of the book, The Fault in Our Stars, is inspired by a quote from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar:

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

In the video Green also announced he would sign all pre-ordered copies of the book.

Film

The film rights were optioned^[4] in late January by Fox 2000. On October 5, 2013, the film’s release date,^[5] June 6th, 2014, was announced. On January 29th, 2014, 20th Century Fox uploaded the first trailer for the film. In less than five months the video gained over 20 million views. The trailer went on to break the record for most liked YouTube video, with more than 307,000 likes.

Premise

spoilers

Hazel Grace, a teenager with terminal cancer, is forced to go to a support group for teens with cancer by her parents. There she meets Augustus Waters, who has been in remission for a year. The two quickly become close, and she introduces him to her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. Augustus decides to use his Make a Wish to go with Hazel to Amsterdam to meet the book's reclusive author. While in Amsterdam Augustus tells Hazel his cancer has returned, and it's terminal. The two return home, and spend as much time as they can together before Augustus finally dies.

Reception

Book

The book topped Amazon’s bestseller list in June of 2011, shortly after its title was announced and it was made available for preorder. The novel debuted at number one on the New York Best Seller list,^[19] and remained on the list for 78 weeks. The book sold over 10.7 million copies and was translated in 46 languages. On May 29th, 2013, Green published a post on his Tumblr^[21] titled “Why Has The Fault in Our Stars Been So Successful?” Explained as a list, he concluded the success could be explained by six things (each of which he expounded upon in the post):

"1. People like it.
2. I have the best editor in YA publishing and have been working with her for nine years.
3. My entire backlist is with the same publishing house.
4. Elyse Marshall is my publicist.
5. Penguin just happens to the best right now.
6. My readers are evangelists."

Film

Upon the film's box office release on June 6th, 2014, it earned a rating of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes^[6] and a score of 69 on Metacritic.^[7] It earned $8.2 million^[8] on June 5th, 2014, the day before its official release. The film became the biggest earner the weekend of its release, earning over 48 million dollars.

Online Presence

As of June 2014, the film's official Facebook page^[9] has gained over 4 million likes and its Twitter^[10] account has gained over 440,000 followers. The movie also has an official Tumblr blog, through which it ran a contest to see which state's post would get the most notes. The four states with the most notes (Florida, Ohio, Texas and Tennessee)^[11] were visited by the film's stars and John Green. The Tumblr also features behind the scenes and fan photos.

Fandom

On Tumblr, The Fault in Our Stars is often referred to by its abbreviated form TFIOS^[14] and there are numerous fan-run blogs dedicated to the novel and the film, including tfiosnews^[15], tfiosmovienews,^[16] and tfios-moviee.^[17] On Reddit, fans of the novel created /r/thefaultinourstars/^[18] for discussions related to the film. As of June 2014, there are over 4,000 fan art submission tagged The Fault in Our Stars on DeviantArt.^[12]

It's a Metaphor

It’s a Metaphor is a memorable quote from a dialogue scene in from a teaser for the upcoming 2014 teen drama film The Fault in Our Stars. Upon the release of the teaser in April 2014, this quote, which is said by the male protagonist Gus to analogize an unlit cigarette in his mouth to a test of will, spawned a parody photo fad and a photoshop meme on Tumblr.

#Johning

#Johning is a Twitter based photo fad that involves posing for a picture while lying on the floor with one’s legs over the footboard of a bed and a laptop on the stomach. It is a parody of a photograph of young adult author and vlogger John Green published by Hollywood Reporter in May 2014.

Proud that I utilise the same writing position as NYT best selling author realjohngreen. Try it at home! #Johning pic.twitter.com/ArAXKEzVVM</p>— Charlie McDonnell (coollike) May 1, 2014