Author Spotlight: John Green

So I've read two of John Green's novels, and I highly recommend both of them! If you're a big YouTube user and really into video blogs, you may know him from that. He was/is a "vlogger" before he became a NY Times Best Selling Author. His first novel, Looking for Alaska (2005) was inspired by his time at a boarding school in Alabama.

Looking for Alaska is about this boy who seeks a "great perhaps". The boy (our narrator), Miles Halter (nicknamed Pudge), is an outcast and lacks a social life at home in Florida. So he goes to attend a boarding school in Alabama. He wants a fresh start, and he gets it, along with some much needed close friends. Miles is fascinated by last words, he's read a lot of biographies of famous or historical figures, and memorized nearly all of their last words. He falls for this girl Alaska, who in her own strange and mysterious ways teaches him a lot about life.

When I read the back cover, I assumed that this would be about a boy who falls for a girl who then goes missing and then try to find her. But that was not the case. Something much more intense happens.  With gripping emotions and pensive thoughts, you get sucked in and really question life or feel relieved that someone else has thought or asked the same questions as you have at one time or another. Looking for Alaska makes readers look for a lot.

John Green's second novel, which I read before Looking for Alaska, was great! I mean, I laughed, I cried. It seriously should be made into a movie. (I really hope someone makes a film adaptation!) The Fault in Our Stars (2012) is told from the perspective of a young woman, and Green hit the nail on the head. I can say as a 20-something woman I felt really connected to Hazel.

Hazel, the narrator, is a 16 year old cancer patient who is forced to attend a support group. At support group, she meets Augustus, who is a 17 year old patient in remission (he's also an amputee). Hazel is afraid to fall in love with Augustus, even though there's no denying their connection. She needs an oxygen tank, and knows how sick/weak she is, and she doesn't want to start something she can't finish. However, Augustus won't give up on her, he's too attracted to her. Their bond over a book, turns into friendship, which develops into a true love. We watch as they both go through good and bad, laughs and tears, and it will have you laughing and tearing too.

One of the things I loved most, is that Green didn't sugarcoat the characters' illnesses. He really showed how cancer can effect someone. The characters, like real people, have good days and bad days. Everything is not as pretty as it sometimes is made out to be. I feel that sometimes cancer is downplayed because it is so common (unfortunately) or that in movies or other mainstream media, the characters look happy all the time or if they have lost their hair  it's glorified. Cancer, depending on which type and depending on the person, can be simple or not have many effects. Or it can be brutally painful or grotesque.


Both novels were great, I finished each of them within two days. Green does a great job of developing characters that feel like real people, and the story lines take you down their paths. You share the emotions of the characters. Not many writers can create characters that connect with readers the way Green does.