Green Adventures

It is no secret that John Green is a heavy hitter in the YA book community. You can log into Goodreads, search any book of his and instantly be hit with an astonishing amount of 5 star reviews. Somehow I went my whole young adult life without ever reading a book by him and decided to give it a try. I ended up reading two of his books and I wasn't impressed by either.

The first John Green book I read was The Fault in Our Stars.

Synopsis: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumors in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind

Average Rating: 4.57 out of 5 stars

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Don't get me wrong, I did like this book, I just didn't love it. I found Green's writing to be a little hard to swallow sometimes, almost obnoxious and I found the possibly devastating subject matter to be... not very devastating at all. What I did find devastating however, was the fact that I couldn't love this book as much as I wanted to, as much as everyone else did. I enjoyed the story, I just think if Green had gone more for quality and less for quirk, it would've been a much more successful read.

The second book I read by John Green was Looking For Alaska.

Synopsis: Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

Average Rating: 4.27 out of 5 stars.

My Rating: 1 star.

I can't even begin to tell you how hard it was for me to finish this book. (I have a feeling a nerd fighter is going to jump out from behind me and kill me, but...yolo and stuff). I didn't find this book to be insightful or relatable. I frankly found the characters to be annoying, and I just wanted to punch Alaska. I think a lot of my distaste for this book stems from the fact that I am past the teenage angst stage and as a 22 year-old, I don't understand the angst as I would have when I was say, 16. With that said, I'm sure if I read this at a different time, I would've liked it a lot more. Still, I'm not a fan of Green's writing. HOWEVER, I do admire him. The way he captures the YA audience leaves me breathless. Kudos Green, but it's not you; it's me.