I've read Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars and enjoyed them, although I admit I think the praise was a bit over the top for both. 
 Maybe this is just an earlier John Green work that was less polished and more...catered to an immature audience. I don't know, it was just a dud for me. It was obvious from the beginning where the story was going to go and that Colin would discover the real things that matter in life and so on, but man, the journey there was painful and - I'm sorry - boring. I liked the friendship between Colin and Hassan, and I liked the Gutshot setting and story, but by the end of the book I did not want to hear another word about any Katherine ever. Colin's quirkiness did not end up making him more endearing than annoying, so while he's memorable as a character, it's not in a good way. 
 I guess I'll try out Paper Towns while I still have it checked out from the library, but I'm really hoping it's more like Looking for Alaska than this book.