John Green’s Books to Read

While Waiting for Turtles All The Way Down

This week we get Turtles All The Way Down in our hot little hands. It’s John Green’s first book since The Fault In Our Stars debuted on the New York Times bestseller list nearly six years ago. Yes, we’ve been waiting nearly six long years for another story.

As we’re now in the final stretch for Turtles All The Way Down, it’s time for a re-read of the best of John Green.

The Fault In Our Stars

Let’s start with the most recent, the first movie, most well-known, and which probably caused increased tissue sales. It’s the story of Hazel Grace, a teen doing all the normal teen things, but while battling cancer. It’s a heartbreaking story that’ll simultaneously have you in fits of giggles. Trivia: John Green lost a challenge on vlogbrothers and had to sign 150,000 pre-ordered copies. His brother Hank signed some too and if you buy a secondhand copy it could be signed.

Paper Towns

If you only saw the movie, you need to read Paper Towns. Q and Margo Roth Spiegelman’s adventures in Sea World are every person’s dream (but with some of those revenge pranks maybe it’s best left a dream). Paper Towns is the story of Q’s crush on his popular neighbor, and her desire to escape from her life that’s not as perfect as it seems.

Looking For Alaska

Did you dream of going to boarding school? John Green actually went to boarding school and his experiences influenced Looking For Alaska. By the way, Alaska is a girl, not the place. She’s a teen girl who blames herself for her mother’s death when she was eight. Alaska and her friends play pranks on their teachers, discover teen drinking, and try to work out the meaning of life. I’m being intentionally vague, even though this was John Green’s first novel, it’s a lot deeper than my description but, spoilers.

An Abundance of Katherines

Colin Singleton was a child prodigy who feared he wouldn’t be a genius and had dated 19 girls named Katherine. All with the same spelling. After the breakup with number 19, his best friend convinced him to go on a summer road trip. They end up working in a small town for a woman whose factory manufactures tampon strings. Nothing else, just tampon strings. OK, so that’s a small part of the story and more an aside. An Abundance of Katherines is the young adult coming of age, boy meets girl, but as with all of John Green’s books, the characters are realistic and relatable and draw you in, regardless of your age.

If you want a sneak peek of Turtles All The Way Down, John Green read the first chapter in a vlogbrothers episode last week. Sadly, it doesn’t contain any actual turtles.

Read more by Bianca Smith