So, what was an Imperial Affliction?

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2015)

The Fault In Our Stars is a love story about a teenage cancer girl (Hazel Grace) and a survivor of cancer boy with one leg (Augustus Water), and a sequence of drama surrounding their families and friends from a cancer community group. I usually don't read books or watch films in which I could guess the story is going to be a sad ending. I like John Green, a famous author of young adult books, and read a couple of his books including "Paper Town" and "An Abundance of Katherines." I bought this book when I took a few pages at a book store.
The story is unexpected in a good way with a sprinkle of the author's jokes and humors through the characters, and it's no just a cancer girl story who has a miserable and painful life with supporting family and friends. One of the things I like about the story is that Hazel and Augustus get to know each other through her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, written by Peter Van Houten. The vague ending of the book has caught her for years to eager to ask questions to the author, and that makes the two teens fly to Amsterdam to meet the author. It's very dramatic and exciting scenes in that a story is created in places from two countries, as well as it makes the handicapped characters overcome the difficulties of traveling for their dream.
The whole story about An Imperial Affliction never described, but quotations from the book leave footprint stunningly, seemingly that that casts a meaning of life through conversations between Hazel and Augustus. While the story of An imperial Affliction sounds epic, Van Houten's quirky and socially twisted personality disappoints the two teems. But the trip in Amsterdam builds their bond more tightly, and the story is going to be a moving ending.
This is not entirely a sad story, but it involves with sadness and heartbreak towards the characters. After the story ended, I felt it satisfied me as if a missing piece is matched into the story, rather than it left out only sadness.
On the same day I finished the book, I watched the film of The Fault In Our Stars. Shailene Woodley portrays Hazel so well, and Peter Van Houten, played by Willem Dafoe, matches the original image.