Review | ‘Hollywood, Ending’: John Green’s first-ever novel for adults

John Green is best known for his young-adult novel 'The Fault In Our Stars’ (2012), which is among the bestselling books of all time. | Photo Credit: Getty Images The voice of the storyteller can be so taken for granted, unregarded and forgotten in the pursuit of the story, that it might surprise you to have not one but two narrators make their presence felt. This is the case with every page of American author and YouTuber John Green’s new novel, Hollywood, Ending. You are forced to take in one’s presence, as the other leaves, in this detailed and revelatory story about filmmaking in Hollywood.An author known for his coming-of-age stories, most famously The Fault in Our Stars (2012), Green steps into the adult world with two very young protagonists. Juniper, 22, is the kind who works too hard and asks too many questions, and is obsessed with making it big in Hollywood. She could be Hermione Granger, all grown up, without the detour of having to save the world. Kai is 21, charming and more innocent as a debutant, lavish with his ‘I-love-yous’ but uncharacteristically guarded about his past.That is, until Juniper steps out of the narrator’s shoes and Kai takes over. The voice-over forces you to look at him closely, turn away from the page and imagine him standing there with his life story. If it is a carefully placed writing technique, it is a very strong one. It makes you realise you might overlook characters who are not given a voice, and you are not inside their head.Green, in fact, makes a point of it in the book: “One of the big problems with being human is that you spend the whole time you’re here inside of one body, looking at the world through one set of eyes, unable to really imagine with any clarity what it would be like to be someone else,” Juniper says. A still from the movie adaptation of John Green’s ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, starring Shailene Woodley (right) and Ansel Elgort. Words that flowBoth Juniper and Kai had troubled childhoods. She has been open about hers, about her alcoholic and abusive mother who planted in her the dream to be a star. Amid her very profound reflections, she doubts naively like a child if that is what she really wants too. Kai is more protective of his past, making him seem all the more vulnerable and in many ways, the easily-likeable one.In Kai’s pages, Juniper in turn becomes distant, perceived as the ambitious starlet she is made out to be, but lovable in his eyes. The question of romance is less interesting than their perception of each other. But what can keep surprising you is the maze of thoughts each of them goes through, how 20-somethings can look at something and see so much. Juniper thinks after reading a book: “I wondered if loneliness is an inevitable by-product of success, because nobody really knows what it’s like to be you, and anyway you can’t be sure whether people want to be near you because you’re you or because you’re a success, which is its own kind of aloneness.”Green’s prose is like his young narrators, unnoticeable as the story flows but catching you unawares amid passages that refuse to be glossed over. More than the beauty of it, it is the depth that arrests you. Although, some lines can look forced, placed there only for the character to impress you.The inside and outside worldsHollywood can today seem like a familiar place even for someone sitting oceans away, because of course, there’s social media. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo painted a descriptive picture of an actor’s journey to the top, amid relationships, recognition and redemption. But Hollywood, Ending details the disturbing reality of making a film, the price and work and lives behind a single film becoming a reality today. It starts from the day of the audition, and if you continue, to the day you retire.Instagram features like a very annoying cousin throughout the book, and the media is like an ever-thirsty vampire. Green can seem like an all-rounder rushing between setting the insides of a massive industry and the outside world it feeds. He pulls through, even as the ending may seem underwhelming and an unfittingly safe way out. Hollywood, Ending John GreenPenguin Random House₹899The reviewer is a constant reader and an aspiring writer from Kerala. Published - November 06, 2026 05:40 pm IST