No faults in John Green’s stars

The Fault In Our Stars and Looking For Alaska are two of the most successful novels by John Green of the six he has written. We take a look at the John Green books becoming popular around the halls

Mackenzie Filkins, Arts & Entertainment Editor

When it comes to choosing a book to read I have some rules: no cancer books, no humor books, no books centered around a boarding school and never a book from a guy’s point of view, let alone a male author attempting to write as a female. John Green’s two novels Looking For Alaska and The Fault In Our Stars break all those rules. Not only did he get my attention and a large number of other seahawk girls attention but also many other young adults. Enough to be a New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal bestseller, Indiebound bestseller and countless others.

Green’s first novel to be published got him a Michael L. Printz Award. Looking For Alaska begins with sixteen year-old Miles not able to find the “Great Perhaps” which he has only read about in his dad’s memoirs. In order to find it, Miles leaves his friendless school in Florida and enrolls himself in Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama. Once there he finds Chip Martin who is referred to as “The Colonel,” Takumi the MC, Lara from Romania and Alaska Young. Miles finds Alaska beautiful and fascinating, despite her roller coaster of emotions.

Greens latest novel, The Fault In Our Stars, is about a sixteen year old girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster. She was diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer when she was thirteen. Her life has taken a slow course, living for her parents and waiting for the next doctors appointment. Until she meets Gus, formerly diagnosed with osteosarcoma, at the Cancer Kid Support Group. Together they form a bond that looks past Hazel’s oxygen tank and Gus’s prosthetic leg. John Green has made it clear that his book was not created to give a message that cancer kids exist to make the healthy ones grateful. Perhaps this is why John Green’s novel is more successful than the average cancer based book.

Junior Emily Mishko says, “It was an emotional roller coaster that changed my life. Do I sound poetic, like John Green?”

What makes John Green’s multiple novels so enjoyable to read is not so much the topic, as it is his writing style. The characters are more entertaining to read about no matter who the character is. At times it may be difficult to get past the cheesiness behind The Fault In Our Stars but ultimately the book is somehow heart breaking and uplifting. His writing does not talk down to teenagers in a way that young adult books typically do. The theme of Looking For Alaska does not rest on the fact that teenagers have a lack of experience so they must be immature and unintelligent.

“He’s a very relatable author with good details in his writing,” Sophomore Morgan Blalock said.

Nowadays, Looking For Alaska is read in high school English classes which I am sure many students would take over books like Things Fall Apart. No offence to Chinua Achebe. The Fault In Our Stars is soon to premiere as a movie in June starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort. John Green also has a YouTube channel which he co-hosts with his brother, Hank Green, called vlogbrothers. Looking For Alaska and The Fault In Our Stars are books that make their audience laugh just as much as it makes them cry and I highly recommend reading them.

20th Century Fox