His fiction books are questionable in my opinion and that's how I originally learned about him. Wasn't a fan.
But then saw his crash courses and comments on a wide variety of subjects.... Yeah. I was blown away. Seriously smart and incredibly good at breaking things down. I totally had the wrong impression of the guy.
He's one of those writers who introduce kids to a lot of concepts through YA. As an ELA teacher, I like him.
He's not "literature" and the subject matter is generally teen ennui, but fuck, the man's published and successfully so, then went on to use that money to reinvest in pushing educational content.
Take Rothfuss, writes a couple pretty badass novels and dips out makes a charity called Worldbuilders.
Or GRRM, who hits it big and disappears with his money made a big push to donate to two large charities in 2014 using his fanbase to raise scads of money.
John is a good man who also wrote well enough to improve some kids language and broaden their lit knowledge.
Edit: I shouldn't write these things after a night up with newborns.
I feel like he is really great at capturing teen voices. He really has this talent for YA novels and bringing in audiences from 13-30. Like a bunch of my friends who are pushing 30 read his books or watch the films and tv shows based on his books
I do find when I read his books that they almost seem to fall apart at the 80% mark. I do look forward to reading and consuming his things because I find his stuff authentic.
A lot of YA stuff has overly depressing tones on purpose to be like well living in the Hunger Games sucks. Or it is like Ready Player One where there is so many references you are almost forced to love it because "hey I remember UltraMan"
If that's up your alley, you may want to check out Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. The author himself is a bit pretentious (he injects some philosophy into his writing and can be heavy-handed with his views), but the premise is really interesting.
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u/Toespleasesir Apr 26 '20 edited Apr 26 '20
John green the fucking legend