I found another John Green book! π This one was perhaps worse than The Fault in Our Stars!
Just to give a quick breakdown -- boy goes to a boarding school in Alabama, he starts falling in love with a girl (who has a BOYFRIEND, at that), she drives drunk and is killed while doing so, and the rest of the novel is figuring out why she did it.
Welp, I think we have a new record for this book π 20 WTFs and 8 uggghs written in the page margins π Some of my personal favorites were "culinary orgasm (eww), "porn hunting," and the dreaded "freestyle battle."
Green... He tries WAY too hard to appear cultured and sophisticated, trying so hard to ensure that nobody can touch him/make fun of him, and in turn it ends up having the exact OPPOSITE effect! π©
For one, he is absolutely TERRIBLE at writing teenage characters because of the fact that his arrogant intelligence is passed down to ALL of them π€¦ββοΈ Not every teenager is eloquent with words/speaking, and they sure as heck don't all read literature and poetry! π
For another thing, it is obvious that Green had such a sheltered upbringing, that he can't write the edgy teenage scene for crap! π©
He also cannot write female characters. I can see the type of character he was trying to achieve with Alaska: the broken, traumatized, depressed 16-year-old -- but he just made her come off as a moody, annoying schizo mess. He was trying to make "I can fix her," but what he really made was one of those screeching "the patriarchy!" leftist banshees -- and that's NOT fun to read... We get enough of that in real life -- I read to ESCAPE from all of that! π
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qo6Psg-RzNw (Apparently the book was a mini series on Hulu several years ago!)
I don't like the way Green used Alaska as a suicidal catalyst. He basically wrote her up to kill her off; there is no emotional connection between Alaska and the reader because we don't get to know her. Even after she dies, Green just continues to sexualize her! π© Literally not even a day after her death, the protagonist thinks about how they made out:
"She was dead. She was warm and soft against my skin, my tongue in her mouth, and she was laughing ... And now."
There is a VERY disturbing part where said protagonist dreams of her, naked! π¬:
"Alaska flies into the room. She is naked, and intact. Her breasts ... are luminously full as they hang down from her body. ... 'I'm so naked,' she says, and laughs. 'How did I get so NAKED?'"
There are even moments when Alaska's "friends" talk about how they are RELIEVED that she has died -- and not for good reasons! π¬:
"'I was so tired of her getting upset for no reason. ... but then never said what was wrong, never have any goddamned REASON to be sad. ... I was just so tired of putting up with her drama. And I just let her go.'"
"... staring down the cop car and aiming for it and not giving a shit about anyone else, not thinking of her promise to me ... and that bitch, that bitch, she killed herself."
"'Sometimes I liked it,' I said. 'Sometimes I liked it that she was dead. ... I don't know. It felt... pure.' ... 'Me, too. It's natural. I mean, it must be natural.'"
The catharsis after her death was, perhaps, the only worthwhile part of the book. Green is an atheist, I know that much, but I can really appreciate that he wasn't condescending about religion the entire time (like how he was with The Fault in Our Stars). In fact, I can even appreciate that Green tried to answer religious questions.
"What is the most important question human beings must answer?"
"How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?"
Green's answer was forgiveness, and to an extent, this is true. We should try to let go of hostile, resentful emotions that are a detriment to ourselves, because we are told to forgive others so that we in turn may also be forgiven of our mistakes.
As a Christian, the answer is simple... Suffering was promised to us while we are present on this earth. We were promised disease, pain, and death, and that no one would be exempt from it. To defeat it, the answer is faith, IN SPITE of suffering. We were never promised anything for being good people, but if we continue to have faith in God in spite of these hardships, we are displaying the ultimate form of faith: the heartfelt belief that something better is coming! ππ
(Source: https://dianemarkey920.medium.com/forgive-me-lord-for-i-have-sinned-058550478671)
