I'm extremely confused by all of this conversation about Hazel dying because I didn't interpret the ending that way at all. I understood the fact that inevitably Hazel was going to dye, her lungs could only be drained so many times and I figured eventually her experimental treatment might stop working but she says herself that her lungs suck at being lungs but they could continue that way for a while. At the end she's reading the note Gus wrote to Van Houghten and when she says I do; I agree that it was a very powerful ending but I think she is just saying that she forgives him for hurting her. It comes across this way, at least to me, because throughout the book she gave him the choice by trying to keep him at a safe distance from her emotionally. He knows that she's dying there is no confusion about it, but by the time she had fallen in love with him, he was already hiding his illness from her. I think the ending is just her reaffirmation that she doesn't regret their time together despite having to go through losing him. This is the one and only books that's actually drawn a tear from me and it wasn't their romance or anything it was watching/reading the cancer deteriorate Gus. The whole book Hazel's sick we've never known an un-sick Hazel but the way it illustrates the demise of Augustus both physically and emotionally was pretty raw, and I appreciated that it wasn't sugar coated in this aspect.
oh heck, Gus's deterioration was probably one of the most gut-wrenching parts of the book. The way he just wanted to do such a simple thing as buy cigarettes for himself and he actually fails, and he's racked with terror. That was a haunting scene. There's something fitting about the fact that Hazel's "real" eulogy for Gus was spoken for him in private, at "Jesus' heart" with only Isaac as witness. One of the lines that still strikes me most: funerals are for the living. There's something so simple - so obvious - about that line and yet I've never, ever thought of it. It's like the very line resonates with exactly how you've been feeling/thinking whilst reading the book.
That was a heartbreaking scene. I loved Augustus' character, with his mocking death by not lighting the cig he carried in his mouth to being the hero in the video game he played with Isaac. I am totally not going to make a character based off of Augustus Waters in Fallout: New Vegas. I did think it was cool that he was the one who uttered most of the powerful lines such as "pain demands to be felt". Again, so obvious but I didn't even think of it. Yes, pain does demand to be felt because it's your body/soul telling you that there's something wrong and you need to pay attention to it. You can't ignore it or else it'll just get worse. Pure genius on Augustus' part.