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I Want You to Know Nothing About This

2026-09-22 · letter vlog · John · 4:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, self promotion

On the day Hollywood, Ending is published, John argues that reviews can hardly avoid spoilers and criticism is still essential to art, wishes readers could meet the book cold, recalls readers keeping The Fault in Our Stars unspoiled, and thanks readers, Toronto and Hank.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hollywood, Ending is out today; thanks to Toronto; press junket with Elyse Marshall; a no-spoilers video and request

  • ★★★ John says Hollywood, Ending is officially out as of today. — 00:00:03 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Yesterday John did a long press junket with his friend and publicist Elyse Marshall Pfeiffer, to whom the book is dedicated; now he is in a New York City hotel room. — 00:00:03 · Hollywood, Ending, New York City
  • ★★ John wants day-one readers to read the book without spoilers: the video contains none, and he asks for no spoilers in the comments. — 00:00:03 · Hollywood, Ending

00:00:32 — Reviews so far all contain spoilers; criticism is essential to art; John's years as a reviewer; a writer's wish that readers go in cold

  • ★★ John says there have been many lovely reviews; The New York Times was kind, saying he writes with radiant empathy and devastatingly apt metaphors. — 00:00:32 · The New York Times, Hollywood, Ending, New York City
  • ★★ Laura Miller of Slate, John's all-time favorite book reviewer, called the book hilariously frank and profane in an exceptionally generous review. — 00:00:32 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Donna Seaman, another of John's all-time favorite reviewers, called the book spellbinding, tender, funny and compassionate. — 00:00:32 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ John says all those reviews contain what are, to him at least, spoilers; the only spoiler-free review he has seen is on Goodreads. — 00:01:02
  • ★ John reads the spoiler-free Goodreads review, which calls the book the reviewer's favorite John Green by far and asks how 'bro' levelled up, and says he appreciates it. (playful) — 00:01:02
  • ★★★ John says it is almost impossible to review a book without spoiling some facets of it, yet book and art criticism are absolutely essential to the creation of art. — 00:01:02
  • ★★★ John says the conversations around art matter more than the art, which hardly matters in a vacuum: it needs a reader or viewer to become real. — 00:01:02
  • ★★ Before writing novels John reviewed hundreds of books over six years at the American Library Association, trying to introduce and recommend them without spoiling the reading. — 00:01:02
  • ★★ John says a reviewer weighs a work's potential audience and whether it achieves its ambitions, which is almost impossible to analyze without discussing some of the plot. — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ As a writer John wants as many readers as possible to go in cold, knowing only the title, so the book is probably about Hollywood, endings or commas. (playful) — 00:02:15 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ John knows going in cold is unrealistic, since friends and critics must say something; he hopes day-one readers read reviews only after reading the book. — 00:02:15 · Hollywood, Ending

00:02:44 — No such thing as reading cold; TFIOS early copies kept unspoiled by readers; Hollywood, Ending stayed under wraps, so readers can meet it together

  • ★★ John says readers know him: that some of his books became movies, that he was on their sets, and that he has long thought about private experience packaged for public consumption online. — 00:02:44
  • ★★★ John says there is no such thing as reading a book cold: readers are affected by the cover and by what they have heard, and even what they haven't. — 00:02:44
  • ★★★ John recalls that when The Fault in Our Stars came out 14 years ago, a few hundred people got it a month early, and he was devastated, expecting the plot to leak online. — 00:03:14 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★★ Instead those early readers chose not to share the book, many waited until release day (2012) to read it, and it stayed unspoiled: one of the most generous acts of collective reading John has seen. — 00:03:43 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ Hollywood, Ending has stayed mostly under wraps until today, so tens of thousands can read it together, alone or in community at the Discord linked in the doobly-doo. — 00:03:43 · Hollywood, Ending, doobly-doo

00:04:12 — Thanks to readers, pre-orderers, Toronto, tour audiences and Hank; excitement tinged with dread; sign-off

  • ★★ John hopes readers bring their deepest selves, their memories, hopes and fears, to the story, just as he tried to bring his deepest self to it. — 00:04:12
  • ★★ John thanks everyone who will read the book and who pre-ordered it, Toronto for its generous welcome, and everyone who will see him on tour over the next month. — 00:04:12 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ John thanks Hank for reading the book with kindness and generosity and for input that transformed it. — 00:04:12 · Hank Green, Hollywood, Ending
  • ★ John says his excitement is tinged with dread, and wonders whether excitement always is, or whether that is just him. — 00:04:41

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: criticism · Hollywood, Ending · spoiler

Also: People: Donna Seaman · Elyse Marshall · Laura Miller

Works: The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: American Library Association · Discord · Goodreads · Slate · The New York Times

Terms: doobly-doo

Places: New York City · Toronto

Also centred on criticism: Her Finger and Her Thumb in the Shape of an 'L' on Her Forehead

Also centred on spoiler: Eating the Unicorn · Ranting about Books

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