Filipinos the 'most obsessed' fans of The Fault In Our Stars

MANILA, Philippines - It's not readers in the United States, where the author came from, not the romantic Spanish or the book-looving Indians.

Filipinos are the 'most obsessed' fans of award-winning author John Green's young adult hit 'The Fault In our Stars,' Time Magazine reported on Saturday.

In an article by Jack Linshi, data from Google show that the Philippines's search volume index for the term "The Fault In Our Stars" is more than double that of the United States's score of 44, with 100 as the highest. This was followed by Singapore (38), Australia (37) and New Zealand (36).

"Why the Philippines? During the U.S. colonization of the Philippines (1898-1946), Filipino literature, including fiction, was heavily influenced by American works, according to the Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts," the article read.

It added that since 1935, English has been an official language in the country where romance novels called “Tagalog pocketbooks” have become popular during the 20th century.

The Fault In Our Stars, which debuted at the top spot of The New York Times Best Seller list in January 2012, tells the teenage love story of Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, who met at a support group for cancer patients. The story was inspired by the life of 16-year-old Esther Earl, a Massachusetts girl who died of cancer in 2010.

The book became wildly popular in the US and abroad, and was received positively by critics. It was then adapted into a movie, which opened in the Philippines last June 5. The main characters were played by Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, Divergent) and Ansel Elgort (Carrie, Divergent). Just before the film premiered, Filipino fans took to Twitter and used the hashtag #ICanSeeTheStarsFromThePhilippines in anticipation of the movie.

Green is a young adult fiction author, who won the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska.