Chapter 1

Notes The narrator, Hazel Grace Lancaster, is a 16-year-old girl with thyroid cancer that has “long-settled” metastases in her lungs. Her mum and regular “Doctor Jim” both think she has depression (Hazel, however, believes depression is a side effect of dying). She must carry a two-litre green oxygen tank in a little steel cart that wheels behind her. Her mum insists she attend a support group located in the basement of an episcopal church. Hazel finds the group “depressing as hell”, with “decrepit” cookies and watery lemonade for the attendees. Only one person is over 18: Patrick, the group leader, who likes to boast about surviving what he calls “balls” cancer. ...