Why I Stopped Reading John Green's Books But Now I’m Rethinking It

I’m sure there are hipsters out there that read The Fault in Our Stars before all the hype around the movie. Just as I’m sure a lot of people read his previous work before that and decided he’s an instant-buy author, The True Hipsters in my opinion.

Obviously, I’m not one of those. I only knew about TFIOS after
the movie talk begun, with all the ebook offers popping out of nowhere with their customary “Soon to be a major motion picture” all over it. So, like a true Bookworm, I read it before the I watched the movie simply because that’s how things are done :D

And I LOVED IT! Of course it broke my heart (if you didn’t read the book or watch the movie get on with it!), of course I loved the writing style and of course I went back for more! I picked up Looking For Alaska first and I wasn’t surprised that I really liked it. I don’t think I wrote a review for this one but I’ll definitely do it when I reread it. One thing I really liked about was that it was different from TFIOS with totally different points behind them and setting (BOARDING SCHOOL. YES!).

So I know that Paper Towns is being turned into a movie and I don’t miss a beat, I go buy that book ‘cause I need it in my life! And then I read it.

And, then, Whooooshhh!  I don’t know how I feel.

Like, if I read that book before Looking For Alaska, I’ll definitely would have had the same reaction I had to Looking For Alaska. However, I couldn’t get over how they were both so similar! Pudge -> Quentin, Alaska -> Margo, Chip -> Radar…. What is that? I almost DNFed it based on that I hated they were so similar. And not only the characters, but the plot also. What does John Green think all teenage girls are that volatile with extreme emotional issues? Does he think all teenage boys are clueless and awkward? I know, I know there is a variety of characters where at least one of them represent each one of us, but still… It didn’t sit well with me. And I heard An Abundance of Katherines is the same deal.

-_-

So I decided John Green books are not for me. I love the easy, funny, writing style but his characters annoyed me so that’s it.

But, I went to the Paper Towns movie and I really liked it (Movie Review coming up soon) and decided that maybe I was too hard, driven by expectations. I really like the lessons behind each of his books I’ve read and even if the characters are annoyingly similar, if I overlook that then we have something awesome.

I’ve become a lot more wary around him, but I’ll be picking up books he co-wrote with other authors (Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan) or maybe Let It Snow come Winter.

Not gonna read An Abundance of Katherines, though. I’m not masochistic xD.