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John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (the novel) isn’t pitched as a romance (the movie certainly is), but I would argue that it nevertheless is one. Seventeen year olds Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters are intelligent, strong, searching for a meaning in their pain filled life, and dying (a side effect of both living and cancer)—all while falling in love with each other. The novel is the story of their romance, yet by Regis’ standards, it cannot be labeled as such. Why?
The Fault in Our Stars only has five of the eight essential elements—the first five to be specific. Some might argue that the barrier is Hazel’s initial resistance to Augustus’ affections, that Hazel’s stint in the ICU is the point of ritual death, and that what they share in Amsterdam counts as the betrothal; however, I disagree. Labeling these as the final elements completely ignores the fact that Hazel and Augustus are dying and that Augustus later dies. Their togetherness is only temporary and in fact soon gives way to a much bigger barrier—death. And death, unlike a betrothal to the wrong person, moving away, or a difference in social class, cannot be overcome.
But then, what of these two lovers? Does their romance not count as such simply because they never got far enough down a checklist? Regis’ list works fine for a healthy couple destined for forever in each other’s arms, but I argue that Hazel and Augustus’ love story is just as worthy of the title “romance” even if it leaves the reader with tears in her eyes and no “and they lived happily ever after” emblazoned on the final page.