SPOILER ALERT. Sort of.
After finishing Paper Towns, I immediately made a connection between another book written by John Green, the one and only The Fault in Our Stars. Both were beautifully written and very enjoyable books that starred romantic teens. What else did they both have? Heart breaking endings that did not satisfy the need for fairy tale endings that Disney movies have been spoon feeding me since I watched my first VHS tapes. I won't go too far into what the ending of The Fault in the Stars in case you haven't read it, but it made me cry on the plane ride I was on. I had to stop reading and finish it when I got home I was so upset. When I did finish it I threw it on the floor in frustration and went to find comfort in sugary foods. Little did I know I would have the exact same reaction when I finished my second John Green novel. I chucked the paperback across my bedroom, and then stormed out and slammed the door behind me. There were no tears this time, but I was furious with John Green. I also drew a correlation between John Green and unsatisfactory endings.
John Green writes incredible love stories that make readers believe that love will always find away. Usually in the form of some sort of great adventure that makes the reader wish they had a life that was nearly that cool. Then, at the very last moment, he snatches it away. His beautiful tales of young adults is just too good to be true, and has the reader floating along, hanging on every word. When the reader is in love with the love he has depicted, he cuts the cord and the reader falls onto the cement. Even though I am incredibly upset with him, I want to read another one of his books to see if he will do something similar. Ugh.
Do you think he could possibly be writing these stories to have tragic endings on purpose to make them somewhat more realistic? Because some things are just too good to be true and a great adventure is not how the average person finds love. They probably stumble into it ungracefully through awkward dates over coffee and watching movies. He could be making it a point to end these love stories badly because that's just not how it all works outside of fiction, maybe in the anomalies of the world, but not for the average person.
ReplyDeleteIt could be something he does with intent but I think that's the way a lot of heartwarming books end. Even if the narrator and whoever their 'sidekick' is don't die by the end of the book they might not even have a full resolution. In the book I finished though the two narrators ended up together their ending was pretty uneventful in terms of a resolve. Each of them still had their struggles to work through and there was no sign that either of them would actually reach their personal goals, despite how hard they were trying. Maybe Green realizes that happy resolves usually don't happen the way they do in most Y/A books and the best resolve is death? Because otherwise their goals might not be met and you're filled with a hollow character who has yet to reach their full potential. In death then you've seen the highest points that they could have reached before dying, he could be doing this completely with the characters in mind.
I totally share your frustration with John Green. Luckily, all of his stories do not end the same way so...yay! However, I don't like his version of 'realism' either. I feel like the way he wrote TFiOS (The Fault in Our Stars), was a little too good to be true from the start. They're two lonely teenagers (with terminal cancer, mind you) who become totally infatuated with each other from, like, day one. Maybe that's why the ending is so disappointing, because it feels like a fairy tale for almost the entirety of the book. However, the sad and abrupt endings are a bit like a speed bump to remind you that the story is in fact supposed to be real life. Therefore my second complaint is, if it's real life, why does he have to remind us in such an intense fashion? It seems so harsh to me. Especially because they didn't seem to have any personal goals except to devote themselves to each other, which truly seems like a fairy tale to me.
ReplyDeleteOkay, enough ranting. I have to say John Green's style of writing is one of my favorites. His voice is so matter-of-fact yet relatable that it draws you in. He's also very simplistic, and straight to the point which allows teh reader to follow without being bogged down by unnecessary details. This I truly admire him for, his approach to writing is so academic yet fascinating. I really need to read more of his work, I got frustrated after TFiOS. It would be really cool to try and replicate his style and maybe not write about angst-y teenagers.
I would suggest you read An Abundance of Katherines next, it's a bit of a switch from TFiOS that I think you might like.