Book-a-book of the Month Club discussion

CHARACTERS!?! Favorite, least favorite, one you can't get out of your head?

Maybe spoilers (some parts I did hide) . . . not sure if I got them all . . . so, be careful reading!

I didn't really care for Margo. I like all the rest okay.

John Green creates teenage caricatures. Now, it has been a long time since I have been a teenager, but I do tend to find Green's teenage characters a bit unbelievable. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is just that I cannot imagine actually meeting teenagers like this. I am thinking that perhaps he created these characters as people he wished he knew in high school or to personify specific ideals.

Another thing is that he starts the book off with the nerdy, outcast types being ostracized by the popular, jock types (which is to be expected). (view spoiler)[Then, suddenly, everyone is friends and a cool girl is dating a band geek. The only explanation being that a couple of the things Margo and Quentin did probably influenced this change. I found that very hard to believe and I was expecting it to suddenly blow up in everyone’s face, but it never does. (hide spoiler)]

I couldn't believe the apathy of the parents. I know that they were trying to be cool parents and perhaps there are some out there who are like these parents, but I just could not imagine parents taking so little of an actual interest in their kids and replacing it with words of encouragement (without actually knowing if there is anything worth encouraging them about). I felt like Quentin could have gone to his parents and said that he failed a bunch of classes and they would have said "good job, it’s a learning experience".

In the end, I think you are supposed to kind of feel sorry for Margo as a tragic, misunderstood character. (view spoiler)[ At one point, Quentin is mad at her for being selfish, and I feel like it would have been better if he would have just left the story there and gone home with his true friends in the van. Instead, there was a reconciliation scene which just weakened Quentin's character for me. (hide spoiler)]

I have to agree with the Margo thing. She bugged me, very self centered and attention seeking. There weren't any other characters i really disliked or loved they were all kind of ok. None that stood out to me though.

I feel like John Green always has an awkward yet endearing main character and that you are just waiting for the spunky, edgy, etc. main female character that is nothing like the girls that the main character is used to and manages to change his life in a variety of ways. The problem with this can be that the main character tends to seem weak in his ability to be manipulated by the edgy girl. Leaves me frustrated sometimes (like with Margo in this book - I wish that Quentin had manned up)!