Review
A new modern classic (Guardian)

A wrenching and revelatory novel (The New York Times)

Imaginative . . . affecting . . . unforgettable (Heat)

Written with a sure grasp of the thought processes of teenagers . . . Another winner (The Sunday Times)

Tender, wise, and hopeful (The Wall Street Journal)

Green's most authentic and most ambitious work to date (Bustle)

An existential teenage scream (Vox)

Turtles delivers a lesson that we so desperately need right now: Yes, it is okay not to be okay . . . John Green has crafted a dynamic novel that is deeply honest, sometimes painful, and always thoughtful, delivered with the characteristic charm the author is known for. John Green, welcome back. We missed you. (Mashable)

A thoughtful look at mental illness and a debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder that doesn't ask but makes you feel the constant struggles of its main character . . . Turtles explores the definition of happy endings, whether love is a tragedy or a failure, and a universal lesson for us all: 'You work with what you have'. (USA Today)

A full-on emotional bleed-out . . . John Green hasn't created a book as much as he's created a place - a place to have your most indefinable and grotesque thoughts articulated, to ponder the disconnected reality you experience . . . No matter where you are on the spiral - and we're all somewhere - Green's novel makes the trip, either up or down, a less solitary experience. (The Globe and Mail)

Green was born in Indianapolis to Mike and Sydney Green and his family moved three weeks after he was born to Orlando, Florida. He attended Lake Highland Preparatory School and Indian Springs School (which he later used as the main setting for Looking for Alaska), a boarding and day school outside of Birmingham, Alabama and graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and Religious Studies. He has spoken about being bullied as a teenager and how it made life miserable for him.
After graduating college, Green spent five months working as a student chaplain in a children's hospital while enrolled at the University of Chicago Divinity School (although he never actually attended the school).
He intended to become an Episcopal priest, but his experiences of working in a hospital with children suffering from life-threatening illnesses inspired him to become an author, and later to write The Fault in Our Stars.

Green lived for several years in Chicago, where he worked for the book review journal Booklist as a publishing assistant and production editor while writing Looking for Alaska.
While there, he reviewed hundreds of books, particularly literary fiction and books about Islam or conjoined twins.
He has also critiqued books for The New York Times Book Review and written for NPR's All Things Considered and WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station.
Green later lived in New York City for two years while his wife attended graduate school.