Wednesday 24 June 2015

Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Originally Read: December 2013          Verdict: 4 Stars
Reread: June 22


When Quentin describes personal miracles, he concludes his own as being lucky enough to be Margo Roth Spiegelman's next door neighbour. As long as he can remember knowing her, Q has been in love with Margo. Wild, uncontrollable and flighty, nothing that makes up Margo would fit into Quentin's planned life of stability - graduation, college, marriage, kids...peaceful death at old age. 

One night, Q is invited by Margo to take part in one wild night of adventures and then the next day she disappears leaving a paper trail of clues. Q believes Margo left the clues for him and he is determined to find her.

No matter what anyone says, I love all of the character created by John Green, the steady, capable Q, cool and clever Radar, embarrassingly awkward yet lovable Ben, Queen Bee Margo and Lacey, the popular girl with a secret heart of gold.

The plot of this book involving the hidden words underneath the poems of Walt Whitman, the paper stuffed in a door-frame, the comment that was never meant to be discovered about a certain Paper Town, it was all so incredibly laid-out, intense and clever.

What i love about this book is Q's realisation that sometimes unrequited love is a little bit different up close. While he always knew he loved Margo, he does come to realise he only ever really loved the idea of her. He never really knew her. The Margo in his head was very different to the Margo in her own. She needed something bigger than Q, something away from the 'paper town' that had captured her for most of her life. She's definitely someone who would find her own in New York. Anything she had with Q would definitely end up suffocating her....he's just far too normal and safe.

I did feel like there was a major component of Margo that was selfish and mean. She didn't really seem to care about the people she left behind and what they might have thought she was doing to herself. Lacey really did care about Margo, and I loved that she redeemed herself with her relationship with Ben, and proved she wasn't a shallow popular girl like the reader originally thought.

Underneath it all, Paper Towns is far from paper. It's a solid block of teenage angst, discovery and adventure.

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