John is an unashamed Romantic in the classical sense of the word; he would much rather write about how the world should be rather than simply describe how it is. This, along with a stark and sometimes surprising level of humor, can make his rattle the somewhat mundane audience that he seeks. He likes to surprise, to startle, to shake his readers with a variety of characters and situations which seem normal enough on the surface, but are seldom as simple as they look. His view of life is often more optimistic than his work would led you to believe; he is never after darkness for its own sake. It is not that there always has to be a "happy ending", but that the ending should have taught both the protagonist and the reader a lesson about life and the world they were not expecting; you may not find joy at the end of sorrow, but at least you will know that sorrow does end.