John Green is an author who has been publishing books since 2006, ranging from semi-autobiographies to research on tuberculosis. This is my journey with John Green & how he became my favourite author within a matter of weeks.
The most popular of his eight books, The Fault in Our Stars, was published in 2012 and may be familiar to many freshmen this spring. The novel tells the story of young cancer patient Hazel Lancaster living between life and death and includes themes of morality, oblivion, and good coming from bad. Despite the novel’s success, freshman Mahima Dondapati thought that it was “high-key buns,” and especially disliked the cigarette metaphor because she thought that it was too forced.
“The cigarette metaphor and the two characters’ pseudo-deepness turned me off…It serves as a metaphor for Augustus’ freedom and autonomy, but other symbols like the swingset and Amsterdam are more effective,” she explains. Contrary to Dondapati’s view, I was given this book to read for my English class a few months ago, and finished it in less than a week. A few Pinterest boards, playlists, & days of violent sobbing later, I had begun the next book in my John Green Journey: “Turtles All The Way Down. “The book is told from the perspective of teenage girl Aza, who struggles with mental health and her OCD.
John Green’s first (and my favourite) novel, published in 2005, is titled “Looking for Alaska.” It is a semi-autobiographical account of his junior year at an Alabama boarding school. When Florida-native, last words-obsessed Miles “Pudge” Halter arrives at Culver Creek, he is met with a new life away from home, difficult studies, and a fascinating archetype of people who launch him into a “Great Perhaps.” Even over two decades later, the book continues to find new readers like me and sells millions of copies. The book’s success has also led to many criticisms, causing it to rank as the most banned book in America, according to PEN America, and it has recently been taken off the shelves of every public school in Utah. In response, Green explained he wishes “that people would let librarians and teachers do the jobs they have been trained to do.”
After releasing so many young adult novels like “Paper Towns” and “An Abundance of Katherines,” Green published his first non-fiction book in 2021: “The Anthropocene Revealed: Essays On A Human-Centred Planet.” Another one of his non-fiction books, “Everything is Tuberculosis,” was released in 2025 and includes a history of tuberculosis: Earth’s most deadly infectious disease.
John Green plans to continue publishing more works, including “Hollywood Ending,” a story about young actors Juniper and Kai navigating their public lives while filming a biopic about Andy Warhol. It is set to come out on September 22 of this year.
