John Green has the capacity to tear my soul open and leave me crying for the characters he creates. Looking for Alaska was a wonderful YA story that I could not put down until I finished it, breathless and tired.
The characters are always complex. Witty and humorous, but self-destructive and anxiety ridden. Cheerful but depressed. Quiet but filled with adventure. John Green knows how to create a character that relates to your humanity.
This is actually one of the last John Green books I read before Turtles All the Way Down was released. I think, if I am not mistaken, it was second to last (An Abundance of Katherines was the official last book I read). And of course it has its faults, most books (esp. YA) have a feeling of needing to be better than they are, of showing that the world is better than we think it to be.
But John Green does an excellent job of showing that though it can be better than we think it is now, there is pain and growth and love and hurt and all those messy things everywhere.
And he doesn't let us forget.