John Green

[Charlie Brown]

I think it's fair to say that John Green is one of those "love him or hate him" authors. His works include The Fault in our Stars, Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska.

I thought it would be interesting to have a discussion on his books and hear people's opinions on his writing. I just finished Paper Towns last night and thoroughly enjoyed it, which was a different experience I've had compared to when I read some of his other books.

So what do you think? Are you a fan of Green? If so, what do you like about his books, and what are your favourites? If you're not a fan, why not?

 

[Klippy]

I liked John and his brother Hank when they did Vlogbrothers (Brotherhood 2.0) stuff. I've since stopped watching their content, but they're both really nice guys and I'm happy for John's success. I haven't read the books or seen the movie(s), but he's well-deserving.

 

[Circuit]

John Green as a person is great.

As an Author, particularly for The Fault in our Stars, I didn't like it. That's not to say I hated it, there were many points I could agree with people that he did right... Just the characters and story were a bit lacking in my opinion. I might pick up another book of his at some point, but there are many Authors I want to read more right now.

 

[maccrash]

bit of a guilty pleasure of mine: his novels are surely incredibly cliched and bring nothing new to the table, but they're incredibly entertaining pulp and sometimes that's all I can ask for. I'm not a huge fan of The Fault in Our Stars because of its furthering the romanticization of cancer, but I mean. it's an okay book. Looking for Alaska is wonderful, though.

 

[Her]

i'd rather get put into a woodchipper a la fargo than read anything by john green again

 

[Gulpin]

I read The Fault in Our Stars the day before I went and saw the movie back when it came out, and I honestly felt that the movie did a better job at telling the story. I really did not like his writing very much and there a lot better YA writers out there whose characters are more real and not so blatantly built to be adored. Since I didn't really enjoy reading The Fault in Our Stars, I didn't read any more of his books until a few weeks ago, when I picked up Looking for Alaska. Unfortunately, it did not change my opinion. The plot was rather boring and I was mostly angry at how fake the characters seemed, at least from my point of view. A friend has suggested I read Paper Towns, but I'm not sure I want to be disappointed a third time..

On another note, I do applaud John Green for his work on World History crash course. Those videos taught me more for AP World History than the class did, and I'm pretty sure they are why I was able to score well on the exam.

 

[Charlie Brown]

i'd rather get put into a woodchipper a la fargo than read anything by john green again

ahaha which of his books have you read?

I read The Fault in Our Stars the day before I went and saw the movie back when it came out, and I honestly felt that the movie did a better job at telling the story. I really did not like his writing very much and there a lot better YA writers out there whose characters are more real and not so blatantly built to be adored.

I agree. I read TFiOS in 2013 iirc after a few of my friends urged me to read it, and the characters were what really annoyed me. I feel that they were really fake (the way they were constantly philosophical and saying all these "deep and profound" things all the time really irritated me). I felt the characters in the film felt a lot more real though.

The plot was rather boring and I was mostly angry at how fake the characters seemed, at least from my point of view. A friend has suggested I read Paper Towns, but I'm not sure I want to be disappointed a third time..

Ah that's a shame :( I haven't read LfA, shame to hear the characters felt fake in that as well. I've heard from some that Paper Towns and LfA are quite similar so not sure if you would want to give PT a go. That said, I read TFiOS and didn't like it, read An Abundance of Katherines and felt pretty neutral about it (didn't dislike it too much, but I didn't really like it either), but I really enjoyed Paper Towns. *shrugs*

 

[Pepperton]

Jeez, didn't realize so many people felt such a strong disliking towards JG and TFIOS. I really liked the book, probably the only book I've ever read that brought me close to crying, and the movie was not bad either. Haven't read Paper Towns, but I plan to before the movie. I think he's a cool dude.

 

[Her]

ahaha which of his books have you read?

abundance of katherines and the fault in our stars are the ones i've read in full

aside from the whole Cancer Romance thing going on in tfios, the whole thing was just weird. it was just page after page of pseudo-intellectual silly ass metaphors (the cigarette.....) that just reflect upon how he in general is a psuedo-intellectual loser

but more to the point, his stories are like... sofia coppola if every movie she did was perks of being a wallflower

 

[Charlie Brown]

aside from the whole Cancer Romance thing going on in tfios, the whole thing was just weird. it was just page after page of pseudo-intellectual silly ass metaphors (the cigarette.....) that just reflect upon how he in general is a psuedo-intellectual loser

Yeah the metaphors and intellectualism and constant 'wittiness' really irritated me in TFiOS :/ I just couldn't bring myself to like the main characters at all unfortunately.



Reading this thread it's quite interesting seeing people's opinions on John Green beyond his novels - as a person, his videos, etc. I haven't watched any of his videos or read/watched any interviews with him so it's all quite interesting seeing these different perspectives.

 

[Ryoutarou]

I feel that they were really fake (the way they were constantly philosophical and saying all these "deep and profound" things all the time really irritated me).

This right here amounts to most of the problems I have with his books. I'm taken out of the experience so often because I end up thinking to myself "What teenager actually talks like this?" time and again. The only book of John Green's that I've actually enjoyed was Paper Towns. Again, there were moments when I was taken out of the story by realizing how cliche and manufactured his characters were but I enjoyed the overall story and I loved the road trip portion. That was the first book from him that I read, I went back to Looking for Alaska afterwards and was so disappointed.

John Green as a person is really great though. I love Vlog Brothers and the various Crash Course shows he and Hank do and listening to him on HankGames is a great way to kill time every now and then.

 

[Blue_Bird]

I've only read one book of his, The Fault In Our Stars, it was good, not great but good. It doesn't really stand out to me in comparison to other novels I've read around the time it came out. I'm not sure if I read it again now if it would affect me differently or not now that my mom has been diagnosed with cancer.

 

[Charlie Brown]

This right here amounts to most of the problems I have with his books. I'm taken out of the experience so often because I end up thinking to myself "What teenager actually talks like this?" time and again.

Yeah exactly, I couldn't get that out of my head while I was reading TFiOS. Though funnily enough, when watching the film adaptation I found it more bearable/natural but that might be because I just didn't notice it, or I was too emotionally involved aha.

but I enjoyed the overall story and I loved the road trip portion.

I'm actually the opposite. I didn't dislike the road trip portion, I just preferred the earlier part of the book where the characters were looking for clues and exploring and piecing together bits of the puzzle. The road trip was still definitely fun but it wasn't the highlight for me.

That was the first book from him that I read, I went back to Looking for Alaska afterwards and was so disappointed.

Ah, shame to hear that :/ I'll probably still give LfA a go but we'll see.

 

[antemortem]

echoing what I said in another thread:

but more in a sense I don't think they're all original among themselves. Each book has a very similar core character that, while facing different issues, all speak and express their emotions in the same way. The mannerisms of one protagonist are closely aped in another, seemingly unique storyline. I still love Looking for Alaska though.

I really enjoyed Looking for Alaska because the layout of the book and the sense of disparity cast on even the reader is unmistakable and makes for an enticing, incredibly difficult read to drop. At least, that's how I felt about it. I'm not much for the corny, run-of-the-mill metaphors that run rampant throughout all of his other books, though.

 

[Melody]

I enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars; but not because it was particularly good writing or because of the characters themselves. I enjoyed it because it was a solid story. If anything it was a stand out romance novel; which is rare these days since most books don't do romance well without getting overly steamy. I can forgive the cliche, because it was done particularly well, better than you can expect from the YA genre. The intellectualism did seem a little bit forced at times, but it was refreshing; few writers seem to be able to do metaphor that much. I've never disliked metaphor myself personally, and don't get why anyone else would dislike it.

If you let the hype define your view of the book, and forget that it's purely a YA novel in the same vein as Artemis Fowl or Alex Rider, you're going to be disappointed. If you read it like a YA book it actually reads pretty well.

 

[Esper]

I've only read The Fault in Our Stars. Haven't seen the movie. I do like his history videos though.

I dunno. Maybe I was just that kind of teenager, but I didn't feel like the characters were fake or unrealistic. Maybe I'm being naive, but I thought that with having cancer their outlooks on life were bound to be different. I know I was pretty pretentious as a teenager and thought I was so smart and deep and all that so seeing that in the characters seemed real enough to me. Plus, you know, it's a book and as long as the characters have a certain consistency as you read then stuff that seems unrealistic just starts to become part of the story and the characters.

 

[Cherrim]

I discovered John Green through vlogbrothers (I think that one time that Youtube helped out with Project 4 Awesome charity one year and they were constantly on a 24 hour livestream?) and I think I've read all his books since then? I can't think of any I haven't read, at least. The best one is probably TFIOS, especially since it's accessible to more than just YA imo. My personal favourite is An Abundance of Katherines because I'm a nerd who likes math references. u_u;

I don't have cancer, but I do deal with a few chronic health conditions and even though I was well beyond my teen years when TFIOS came out, it still became a book I really appreciated. The whole time I read it, of course I was sitting there thinking "thank goooood i don't have cancer" but just the way the day to day BS that comes from having to be careful with your health and how the characters handled it like it was so routine? I dunno, seeing that represented in such a normal way really resonated for me. I saw a lot of discussions about the book after its release where neurotypical, able people were talking about how the book kind of reminded them that sick people are people too, with lives and dreams and daily issues, to put it simply. That people are more than just their diseases or sicknesses or health problems. And for me, with my relatively minor stuff, that's not quite such a big deal. I get by just fine whether people recognize this or not... but the idea that people much younger than me still coming to grips with chronic illness might find comfort in a book like this? That's so valuable to me. A book is about much more than just its character or plot. If the themes and ideas really resonate with people to the point that they take something positive away from it, that's important, and I think TFIOS especially is a book that really encourages that.

I've seen a lot of criticism for John Green's writing but I'm not sure how much of it I can get behind. I see a lot of complaints that his characters are completely unbelievable and while I'm not really a fan of the manic pixie dream girl type that some of his books tend to favour, for the most part I always found his characters to be written fairly realistically? They are pretentious teenagers and I was a pretentious teenager once. I used to see people say the characters used too many big words or thought they were too smart but all I can think when I see that is "lmao have you seen a teenager's blog??" The internal monologuing in those books are no different from reading my friends' 3am Livejournal posts back in the day, lmao. :P It didn't seem off to me at all, but then, I probably had the same fairly typical middle-class white person upbringing that John Green did, so! Maybe it's a product of non-widened horizons, I dunno.

Anyway, I think John Green is a cool guy. The educational work he does on Youtube is phenomenal and I have to admit I've always found his half of the vlogbrothers videos to be my favourites. I'm probably gonna go see the Paper Towns movie because he's been so enthusiastic about its production all year, even though PT was probably my least favourite of his books. TFIOS was a great adaptation so maybe they'll do wonders for this one too.