The 2010s were some of the peak years for young adult literature. Rick Riorden was wrapping up the Heroes of Olympus series, the Twilight books were the most popular they had ever been, and Cassandra Clare was only beginning to build her empire with The Mortal Instruments series. Even amongst all of these award winning authors, one is typically associated with this decade. That author is John Green. 

   Even if you haven’t read his books, almost every teenager in America has heard of John Green. His 2012 novel The Fault In Our Stars has sold over ten million copies world wide, and his book Looking for Alaska won a Printz award in 2006. Green has written five novels by himself and collaborated on two other books with three other authors. John Green is considered to have some of the best realistic fiction novels for young adults, and it is considered a coming of age accomplishment to own and read one of his books. 

   Green’s books can be categorized under realistic fiction; however, they’re not realistic at all. They are not a good representation of the genre and all that it has to offer. Additionally, every John Green novel follows a similar pattern that does not accurately describe the experiences a typical teenager goes through. 

   Each of his novels starts off with a “quirky” and “different” protagonist, typically a boy, who has a nickname, extremely laid back parents and is set on finding a deeper meaning in his boring suburban life. In Looking For AlaskaI, the protagonist is a boy named Miles whom everyone calls “Pudge” because he is extremely skinny. Miles moves to a boarding school in order to search for the “great perhaps” and finds it in the people he meets there and the relationships he forms. Another example of the ridiculous nicknames Green comes up with can be found in Let it Snow, where Angie has the nickname of “The Duke.” The protagonist often has a hyper, loud mouthed, often sexist best friend who is meant to be the comedic relief in the novel. A prime example of this is Ben from Paper Towns, who refers to all females as “honey-bunnies,” and his main storyline in the novel is to date the most popular girl in school. In the first or second chapter of the book, the protagonist will meet his love interest who also happens to be quirky and different, and the two form an instant connection. They then rush in to a courtship where they are blissfully happy for a few short chapters until tragedy strikes. One of them usually dies, and the reader is brought to tears by the protagonist’s struggle with grief and accepting that their soulmate is gone. Alaska is the love interest in Looking For Alaska and she dies midway through the book. In The Fault in Our Stars Augustus dies leaving Hazle heartbroken, and in Paper Towns Margot mysteriously disappears leaving Q to search tirelessly for her. 

   If you haven’t read a John Green novel, you no longer have to, as that is the plot of every single one. 

   Besides being predictable, Green also installs the value of living life to its fullest in his characters, which often results in them doing stupid things and never thinking of the consequences, because due to the protagonist’s laid back parents, there are no consequences. This makes all of his books extremely unrealistic. 

   In Paper Towns, Q and his friends skip out on their high school graduation to take an impromptu road trip to New York despite having little to no money, food, or other basic resources. In the same book, Q and Margot break into Sea World, and when confronted by the night guard, he just lets them go. In Looking For Alaska, Pudge and his friends pull off an “epic” prank at their boarding school that would have gotten them all expelled, but instead, the supposedly strict headmaster just lets them off with a warning. In The Fault In Our Stars, Hazel’s mother lets her go over to Gus’ house and watch a movie in his basement without ever meeting him. None of this would ever happen. 

   Another thing that makes Green’s novels better suited for the genre of unrealistic fiction is the language his characters use. Most of Green’s characters are seventeen to eighteen, but they talk like they’re old English men. Gus typically speaks in metaphors, Paper Towns is one giant metaphor, and as a result, Q and Margot often speak in metaphors. The language isn’t necessarily confusing, it just doesn’t properly represent how modern day teenagers talk. 

   Despite everything, John Green doesn’t write bad books. While they are not realistic and should not be classified as such, he is a fantastic writer with good ideas and a great voice for storytelling. Looking For Alaska was one of my top books of the year and it was well deserving of every award that it won. The problem is that it wasn’t realistic, and it definitely did not describe a typical teenager’s experiences when it comes to love and friendship. While Green writes good books, none of these books were revolutionary in the genre of realistic fiction.