It’s finally here– the movie (almost) every teenage girl has been waiting for: The Fault In Our Stars. Originally a young-adult novel based on a true story by John Green, director Josh Boone seamlessly made the book come alive.

Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) was diagnosed with metastatic thyroid cancer at age 13 and lives a quiet life expecting to soon die. Her parents force her to go to a support group filled with other “kids like her,” where she meets the charming and handsome Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort). Gus had osteosarcoma, but after having part of his leg amputated, is living cancer-free. He’s mainly only at support group for his friend, Isaac, who has one marble eye and soon will be blind. Hazel, who usually goes straight home from support group, ends up with Gus and his undeniable charm at his house. Gus is as genuine as can be. He doesn’t care about Hazel’s cancer story, he just wants her “real” story: whatever it is about Hazel Grace that makes her unique.

After Gus promises to read Hazel’s favorite novel, An Imperial Affliction, the two begin to spend much time together. All Hazel wants is answers. She wants answers about the ending of An Imperial Affliction. And Gus being the spontaneous and caring man he his, makes Hazel’s wish come true. The author of An Imperial Affliction, Peter Van Houten, lives in Amsterdam and Gus, Hazel, and her mother set off for a three-day journey to meet with Houten; the man with all the answers– or so they thought.

While Amsterdam didn’t turn out the way the Hazel and Gus hoped, in some aspects in turned out even better. Amsterdam is where the ”friends” fell in love. Between an intimate candle-lit fancy dinner and a couple romantic scenes, Hazel and Gus define teenage love beautifully.

Unfortunately, stories can’t always have happy endings. Without giving away the entirety of the film, there are twists and turns that left the audience wiping their tear-stained sobbing faces. Luckily, humor, although slim, does seem to weave it’s way through the story.

All in all, the movie captured the highlights of the novel. Every crucial scene was depicted with similar dialogue and for the most part, the way I imagined it. But I missed some of the smaller scenes that can only be found in the book.

In the beginning of the novel, there was much more detail and frequencies with Hazel attending support group. While the movie included the main support group scene when Hazel met Gus, it skipped the sorrowful details of the support group constantly losing its members to their illnesses.

One scene I was really disappointed with was the couple’s romantic dinner at Oranjee in Amsterdam. If you haven’t read the book, you probably thought this to be one of the most romantic scenes in the movie. In the book, Hazel and Gus sit outside and John Green paints the most incredible picture of their surroundings and interactions with one another. As such a vivid scene in my imagination, I was upset to not see my visions come to life on the screen.

Before the atmosphere in the theater became even heavier than early on with loud sobbing and sniffles, a scene with Isaac, who at this point is blind, eggs his ex-girlfriends car. This had the audience actually laughing– a relieving break from the tears. There was something about this scene that I enjoyed more thoroughly than in the book. Maybe it was simply the sound of the audiences laughter lightening the mood, but job well done, Boone.

I hate to admit it, but this movie didn’t get more than a couple teary-eyes out of me. Trust me, I’m not a heartless monster, it’s actually pretty common of me to cry at movies. Something about already knowing the outcome of the story made the reality of it easier to handle. It probably didn’t help that I went to see the movie with a friend who is anti-sad sappy love stories, either. The final chapter of the book hit me much harder than the movie and definitely got some tears out of me.

If you haven’t had a chance to see the movie, I’d highly recommend doing so, but please, for your own sake, read the book first.

The details in the book made me much more attached to the characters than the movie did. Josh Boone did a fantastic job bringing this wondrous novel to life. However, movies just never beat the book.