It's absolute garbage-tier stuff. It's mostly quirky humour interrupted every couple of pages by some hyperactive out-of-place "profound" passage written in a style that is obviously borrowed from DFW with the long sentences and the "not-quite-nights" and the use of several adjectives in the same sentence (e.g. "I had never felt so sad and confused and really-not-that-good and weird at the same time....").

But the idea that we are supposed to pity or identify with the protagonist is just repulsive. He mocks everyone around him for being dull, or popular, or athletic etc, often in a faux-Holden voice. Lara, his Romanian gf, barely says anything and just exists as this shy childlike girl who crushes hard on him despite barely ever talking to him. Alaska also falls for him somehow and when she dies he wonders whether she an hero'd because she liked him too much and felt bad for her bf.

Also the humour is sometimes clever or witty but sometimes it's so jarring and pathetic that it really is offputting. In the week after Alaska dies betafag and poorchad go between dry heaving in the showers and lying on the floor crying and making meatloaf-related puns and cracking "your mom"-tier jokes as if nothing had happened. It's such a formulate book populated by 2D characters who all have their own "thing" (Asian guy raps, Alaska drinks and reads, betafag quotes last words, Lara talks like zees about her being so foreign, etc). It's a bad book. Absolutely disgusting.

>>>/sci/fiandfantasygeneral

>>8019816
This is why kids take depression meds nowadays. Hell, after reading your synopsis I want some

>>8019816
Sounds terrible.

I think it would be fascinating to see all those instructions given in the book on how not to write.

From beginning to end it basically says: "Don't do this."

>>8019835
OP here. It's probably worth pointing out that Alaska herself is portrayed as being depressive. She drinks red wine which she buys illegally and buries in the forest. At one point she says "what you have to know about me Pudge (protagonist) is that I'm a drastically unhappy person". When they're out camping in the bar she starts a game she invents called "best day / worst day" in which each person much tell others about their best and worst days. She then pretty much ruins the game and kills the mood by talking about how her mom died when she was young and how guilty she has felt since and even though people say "it wasn't your fault dude" she goes on about how it is etc.

>>8019837
I mean before reading it I at least expected half-decent plot or something. The basic plot appealed to me (i.e. shy kid goes to boarding school and comes out of his shell) but it's just so lame. I think one way to tell a writer is bad at writing plot is that he'll write about pretty much nothing with 50 pages with there being this big Thing that readers know is going to happen on the 51st page, which in each case is this overblown, dramatic and quite frankly out-of-place event that reminds me of something that would happen in a cartoon or an early 00s American Pie-tier movie.

>>8019865
Exactly, it completely excludes anything interesting, so if it's also poorly written and executed, what is it's merit? Absolutely no reason to read this shit other than just seeing how bad it is.

Though somehow many people like it which is beyond me. Why read a poorly written story we all have heard thousands of times before, adding nothing new other than different names given to the characters? Weird. I can understand how explosions and generic plot in action films can appeal to audiences, but this? Even more difficult for me to understand, especially since reading requires a lot more effort.

>>8019880
It appeals to beta white guys (i.e. young pre-/lit/izens) because it portrays a quiet, awkward, unfunny, unassertive creep (all he ever does in the company of girls is describe at length their physical appearance, especially their curves etc) as somehow romantically appealing. They "get the girl".

It appeals to special snowflake female teens because it portrays them as mysterious, deep, interesting and beautiful beings who are like the only girls on earth worthy of attention and who should also be treated super nicely because they're like so depressed and weighed down by the burden of their existence. It turns teen angst into the most tragic emotion a person can feel. Notice the consistent anti-adult sentiments in Green's writing, how all they do is sneer at young people etc?

>>8019887
The fifty pages of non-happening are basically filled with brief "explanatory" (can't think of the word for this) passages, usually in the form of "witty" dialogue, which serves to provide background of something the reader doesn't know. It also provides John Green the opportunity to basically show off how hyperactive and totally empathic he is. But it just comes off to me as really over-the-top and pretty annoying in how assertive he suddenly becomes about the beauty of some minor thing that everyone overlooks despite spending the past twenty pages talking about how beta and pathetic he is. He revels in his betaness.

>>8019914
Yes, like being forced to eat breakfast at breakfast. Profound shit. Wish someone told me that sooner.

>>8019816
That's about the size of it, in a nutshell.

I still like it though, primarily because I'm a sucker for coming-of-age stories and John Green's an indyfag so reppin' that shit.

>>8019816
>>soon after Lara asks betafag if she can give him a blowie joey
>>she doesn't know what to do and asks if she should bite
>>betafag says they should ask Alaska, who shows them using a tube of toothpaste
>>they get drunk again soon after in Alaska's room
>>they play truth and dare
>>Alaska dares betafag to make out with her
>>she goes insane and cries and crashes her car while drunk
>>poorchad and betafag try and discover the "mystery" of how and why she died

This can't be real...

>>8020481
No, that's about exactly what happens.