The Anthropocene Reviewed
by John Green · 2021
John Green reviews Diet Dr Pepper, Canada geese, and the QWERTY keyboard on a five-star scale, and somehow ends up writing the most honest thing he's published about his own anxiety.
Worth reading? The Anthropocene Reviewed isn't a memoir in the traditional sense -- it's a collection of essays, each one reviewing something ordinary (sunsets, hot dog eating contests, the Penguins of Madagascar) on a five-star scale, that adds up to a portrait of Green's mind more than a chronological life story. Some entries are funny and light, others (the ones on his OCD and panic disorder especially) are as raw as anything in a straight memoir. Compare it to David Sedaris for the essay-collection format, but Green is more sincere and less interested in the joke landing first.
| Full Title | The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet |
|---|---|
| Author | John Green |
| Published | 2021 |
| Category | Biographies & Memoirs |
The Verdict
Green’s gimmick, rating ordinary things like Diet Dr Pepper and Canada geese on a five-star scale, sounds like it could get cute fast. It mostly doesn’t, because he uses the review format as a trapdoor: you start reading about the QWERTY keyboard and end up somewhere much more personal, usually his anxiety, his kids, or his own mortality, before the essay’s done.
It’s not a memoir in the usual linear sense, so don’t read it expecting one continuous story. Read it as a collection you can pick up in short bursts – some essays are light, a few (especially the ones on his OCD and panic disorder) are genuinely raw, and the range is the point.
you want short, personal essays that use odd everyday objects as a way into bigger questions about meaning, fatherhood, and mental health -- read a few at a time, not straight through
you're expecting a linear memoir with a beginning, middle, and end -- this is an essay collection, each piece stands alone and revisits Green's life from a different angle rather than building one continuous story
Book Summary
The book's structure -- reviewing everyday things on a five-star scale, from Diet Dr Pepper to the QWERTY keyboard to Canada geese -- started as a podcast segment before becoming this collection. Each short essay uses the review format as a way in, then pivots into something more personal: grief, fatherhood, faith, or fear.
Green writes candidly about living with obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic attacks, including a period where his intrusive thoughts became severe enough to require intensive treatment. Several essays return to this territory from different angles rather than resolving it once and moving on.
Running underneath the humor is a genuine argument about the Anthropocene -- the current geological era shaped by human activity -- and what it means to find wonder and responsibility in a world humans have irreversibly changed. The five-star rating gimmick is ultimately Green's way of asking whether meaning can be assigned at all, and deciding that trying to assign it is worthwhile anyway.
Top 8 Lessons from The Anthropocene Reviewed
- The book's format began as a podcast segment (The Anthropocene Reviewed, with his brother Hank Green) before becoming this essay collection.
- Each essay reviews something ordinary -- Diet Dr Pepper, sunsets, the QWERTY keyboard, Canada geese -- on a five-star scale as a way into a bigger personal or philosophical point.
- Green writes directly about living with OCD and panic disorder, including a period of intensive treatment for intrusive thoughts.
- The essays are not chronological or connected by a single throughline -- each one stands alone and can be read out of order.
- Fatherhood and the fear of the world his children will inherit recur across multiple essays.
- The title references the Anthropocene, the proposed geological era defined by human impact on the planet.
- Green uses humor as an entry point in most essays before pivoting to something more vulnerable partway through.
- The book argues that assigning meaning to ordinary things (via the five-star conceit) is worthwhile even though the ratings are obviously subjective and a little absurd.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Anthropocene Reviewed a memoir or an essay collection?
It's an essay collection, not a linear memoir. Each chapter reviews an everyday thing on a five-star scale and uses that as a lens into a piece of Green's life, so the essays don't build one continuous narrative the way a traditional memoir does.
Do you need to read The Anthropocene Reviewed in order?
No. The essays are self-contained, so you can read them in any order or dip in and out. That said, several essays on his OCD and panic disorder gain some context from being read closer together.
Is The Anthropocene Reviewed based on a podcast?
Yes. It grew out of a podcast of the same name that Green did with his brother, Hank Green, before he expanded and rewrote the material into this book.
Is The Anthropocene Reviewed appropriate for fans of John Green's fiction, like The Fault in Our Stars?
Yes, though it's nonfiction and more personal. Readers who liked the reflective, slightly melancholic voice in his novels will recognize it here, applied to his own life instead of invented characters.
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