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'The Fault in Our Stars': John Green reveals the novel's 'epically terrible' original ending

Green said that when his editor read the original ending to 'Fault,' she thought it was so bad that she told him: 'I can't tell if you're kidding.'

  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Fans may be surprised by what “The Fault in Our Stars” author John Green says was the original ending to his young adult novel.

Green participated in an interview with the Ohio news channel WOIO, which was also conducted with “Fault” star Nat Wolff. During the talk, Green discussed how he first concluded “Fault.” He called the original ending “epically terrible.”

“Should I even say?” Green asked Wolff. “You know, don’t you? The not-good terrorist ending?”

Wolff’s eyes widened, and he said, “No.”

(Spoilers for “Fault” follow, so beware!) 

According to Green, in that particular ending, protagonist Hazel and the writer Peter Van Houten, who had become friends with both Hazel and her now deceased boyfriend Augustus, “decide that they want to honor Augustus by finding a way to die in a sacrificial way that reflects something about who he was.” So they make a plan to track down and kill a drug lord, despite the fact that they themselves will perish because of those protecting the drug lord. They then decide not to go through with the plan (“almost,” Green noted, “like I myself was thinking that maybe it would be a bad idea.”)

“I’m not an expert or anything,” Wolff deadpanned. “But I think I’m happy with the ending that you chose.”

Green said that he sent the original draft to his editor and she told him, “I can’t tell if you’re kidding” about the ending.

Check out a video of the full interview.

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