You may know John Green from his book, The Fault in Our Stars, which of course was made into a film and went on to sell ridiculously well, and very good it is too, but, luckily, there are more books to explore and enjoy.
Don't let his target audience put you off either because, for those who don't know me, I can tell you, I am far from a young adult, but reading John Green still puts a smile on my face, and a frown come to think of it.
In England we have just been treated to a new eight-part miniseries based on John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, which wasn't bad, but whatever you may think of that, please don't let it put you off reading the book because, in my humble opinion, Looking for Alaska is his best.
It deals with death, alcohol, teenagers finding their place in the world and it touched a nerve with me, there seemed to be an honesty about it, it felt raw, which I liked.
Turtles (for short) runs it a close second, dealing with anxiety and mental health issues with aplomb, and has I think, influenced many an author I have read this last few years.
I found, An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Town quite formulaic and so less enjoyable but they are a quick read and all I want sometimes is a little teen angst to get me through the day.
So, The Fault in Our Stars, the big one, the movie one, the book most of you would have heard of. As I said above, The Fault in Our Stars is a good book, the subject matter (children dying of cancer in case you didn't know) is sad but handled in an interesting way and I can see why this book has found fame. I found Augustus and Hazel's relationship believable and you feel the emotion throughout the book, that one of them may die, but their obsession within the story about a fictional book about a girl with cancer did annoy me somewhat.
Overall though, I can recommend John Green to all, regardless of age or gender, just don't stick to The Fault in Our Stars, the world is bigger than that.
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